Brandon Montour Honored by NHL before Panthers visit Rangers

The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers are two of the best, and hottest, teams in the NHL going into their game tonight at Madison Square Garden.

And Brandon Montour is on quite a roll as well.

Montour has been a big part of Florida’s success of late as the defenseman scored two goals with six points in three wins last week.

On Monday, he was named the NHL Second Star of the Week behind Nashville’s Roman Josi. Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey was named Third Star.

Both of Montour’s goals were game-winners.

He goes into tonight’s game against the Rangers with six goals and 25 points in 45 games after missing the start of the season following shoulder surgery.

After scoring a goal with six points going into 2024, Montour has caught fire lately.

“He wasn’t playing poorly before he started scoring,’’ coach Paul Maurice said after Monday’s morning skate. “Where does a guy get his confidence? It just was not going to for him. We were joking that he just needed a knuckler because he had hit a bunch of cross-bars and missed a bunch of chances. He was really struggling for offense … but then he hit someone in the butt from 5-feet, it went in, and he has been scoring ever since.’’

The Panthers are fully healthy going into Monday’s game with Jonah Gadjovich returning after missing the previous two games.

With New York antagonist Matt Rempe ready to drop at any time, expect these two to get tangled up at some point tonight.

The starting goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky vs. Igor Shesterkin.

— Give Sasha Barkov his 16th goal as the NHL awarded him Florida’s fourth from Saturday in Detroit.

That was originally credited to Carter Verhaeghe, but Barkov deflected it past Alex Lyon and it was changed on Monday.

ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ NEW YORK RANGERS

• When: Monday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-125); Puck line (-1.5, +190); Over/Under 5.5 (-130/+110)
• Last Season: Rangers won 3-0
• This Season (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Florida: Panthers 4 Rangers 3 (Dec. 29). At MSG: Monday; March 24 (ABC).
• All-time Regular Season Series: Rangers lead 60-33-8, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday at New Jersey Devils, 7

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (41-16-4) LINES

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

21 Nick Cousins // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues

12 Jonah Gadjovich // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 94 Ryan Lomberg

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson// 7 Dmitry Kulikov

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Josh Mahura, Steven Lorentz, Will Lockwood

Injured: None

PROJECTED NEW YORK RANGERS (40-17-4) LINES

20 Chris Kreider // 93 Mika Zibanejad // 24 Kaapo Kakko

10 Artemi Panarin // 16 Vincent Trocheck // 13 Alexis Lafreniere

50 Will Cuylle // 21 Barclay Goodrow // 26 Jimmy Vesey

84 Adam Edstrom // 22 Jonny Brodzinski // 73 Matt Rempe

55 Ryan Lindgren // 23 Adam Fox

79 K’Andre Miller // 8 Jacob Trouba

56 Erik Gustafsson // 4 Braden Schneider

31 Igor Shesterkin

32 Jonathan Quick

Scratched: Zac Jones, Alex Belzile

Injured: none

New York Rangers lines courtesy NHL.com