Florida Panthers
Brad Marchand Joining the Florida Panthers at Perfect Time
FORT LAUDERDALE — Brad Marchand is on track to join the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
With 11 games left in the regular season, this looks like the perfect time to get Marchand into the Florida lineup.
Not that they think there is much he needs to figure out.
At 36, and with almost 1,100 NHL regular-season games under his belt, Marchand should fit right in with the Panthers.
“The challenges would be that once you get a guy who is past 30, they have a very ingrained game and you’re not changing it,” Paul Maurice said Wednesday.
“But they are usually smart enough to adapt to it. The huge advantage is, there are big chunks of the game that we’re not teaching Brad. He’s already learned all of those things. … What I think I am most impressed about what Bill [Zito] and his staff do is, they bring in players who can play our game. That’s part of the process in finding players.’’
Marchand has been skating with the Panthers since joining them for the morning skate March 11 in Boston — four days after the former Bruins captain was acquired at the NHL Trade Deadline.
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The Bruins said Marchand would miss up to a month after he sustained an upper-body injury against Pittsburgh on March 1.
Maurice said the plan is for Marchand to make his debut with a team other than the Bruins on Friday when the Panthers play host to Utah.
“We’ll get him through a full practice [Thursday] and make an assessment,’’ Maurice said. “But we are shooting for Friday against Utah right now.”
The Panthers plan to play Marchand on the right side of their second line with Sam Bennett and Mackie Samoskevich.
Bennett had Wednesday off with Tomas Nosek filling in on that second line.
With the Panthers being without Matthew Tkachuk at least until the playoffs, Marchand gives the team a similar look to what they had before the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
Tkachuk had scored a goal in six straight games going into that tournament where he got hurt and ended on LTIR — which allowed the Panthers to go after Marchand in the first place.
Bennett did play with Marchand for Team Canada at the 4 Nations which gives the Panthers a certain comfort level right off the hop.
“With Matthew out of our lineup,” Maurice said, “there’s a place for him, for sure.
“Of all the games he has played with our guys, the most have been with Sam Bennett. He has some conversation there. That’s the idea of putting him there.’’
ON DECK: GAME No. 72
UTAH HOCKEY CLUB at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Friday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- National TV: NHL Network
- Local Streaming Only: Panthers+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
- Season Series (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Utah: Panthers 4, Utahs 1 (Jan. 8). At Florida: Friday.
- Last Season vs. Arizona Coyotes: Florida Won 2-0
- All-time Regular Season Series vs. Coyotes/Utahs: Florida leads 22-20-0, 3 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Sunday vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1 p.m.
