Blue Jackets at Panthers: How to Watch, Lines, Betting Odds

SUNRISE — It has been a minute since the Florida Panthers and Blue Jackets met up back on Oct. 15.

Spencer Knight led the Panthers to a 4-3 win on an emotional night in Columbus.

It was Opening Night for the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, and both teams honored the memory of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau before and during the game.

Since then, the Blue Jackets have been the best story in hockey. A team predicted to again finish at or near the bottom of the league standings got off to a solid start and has not let up. Columbus is now a betting favorite to earn a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The ESPN bet promo code is available with the latest odds.

The Blue Jackets come into tonight’s game fourth in the Metropolitan Division and hold the top wild-card spot by 2 points over the Senators.

Columbus recently took a two-game set from wild-card challenger Detroit — including Saturday’s win in front of 94,000 at Ohio Stadium on Saturday — before getting rolled by the Lightning 5-2 on Tuesday.

Florida coach Paul Maurice said Dean Evason should be a favorite for the Jack Adams Award for what the Blue Jackets have gone through — and are doing.

“Credit to their players, but clearly a coach of the year candidate for what they’ve been through,’’ Maurice said. “Any one of those events they suffered, just the injuries that they have gone through, would be enough to sewer a season. These guys are an interesting team, they’re not like other teams.

“They will make plays off the rush to speed, they won’t necessarily slow their game down. … In the last 20 games, they’re as good as we are, and we’re pretty happy with our record. You got Winnipeg and Washington have been the best, then it’s us, Dallas, Tampa Bay, and then the Columbus Blue Jackets. And it’s real.’’

The Panthers have won their past four games and nine of the past 11 coming in.

Against the Blue Jackets, the Panthers have been pretty good lately.

Florida is 9-1 against the Jackets over the past 10 in Sunrise, outscoring them 46-18.

NOTES: BLUE JACKETS @ PANTHERS

• The Panthers returned Chris Driedger to AHL Charlotte after trading for Vitek Vanecek on Wednesday.
• They then traded Driedger to the Winnipeg Jets for Kaapo Kahkonen.
• Florida added center Nico Sturm in another trade with the Sharks on Thursday.
• How to Watch: Today’s game is on local TV. The game can also be streamed on Panthers+ locally and ESPN+ nationally. The good folks in central Ohio can tune in on FanDuel Ohio.
• Starting Goalies: The Panthers will have Sergei Bobrovsky (11-2-1 against CBJ) back in net against his former organization; Elvis Merzlikins goes for the Blue Jackets.
• NHL Betting Odds: The Panthers are heavy favorites on the money line (-325) at the local book. To win with the Panthers, a $325 bet pays $100.

ON DECK: GAME No. 63

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS at FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SW Fla)
• Streaming: Panthers+; 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
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-325); Puck line (-1.5, -130); Over/Under 6.5 (+105/-130)
• This Season (Panthers lead 1-0) — At Florida: Thursday. At Columbus: Panthers 4, Blues Jackets 3 (Oct. 15); March 20.
• Last Season: Panthers Won 3-0
• All-time Regular Season Series: Columbus leads 26-21-4
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Buffalo Sabres, 6 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (38-21-3) LINES

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

25 Mackie Samoskevich // 9 Sam Bennett // 17 Evan Rodrigues

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 70 Jesper Boqvist

10 A.J. Greer // 94 Tomas Nosek // 12 Jonah Gadjovich

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 3 Seth Jones

88 Nate Schmidt // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Uvis Balinskis, Nico Sturm

Returned to Charlotte/Traded to Winnipeg: Chris Driedger

Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (lower body/LTIR)

PROJECTED COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS (30-23-8) LINES

10 Dmitri Voronkov // 19 Adam Fantilli // 86 Kirill Marchenko

21 James van Riemsdyk // 38 Boone Jenner // 91 Kent Johnson

27 Zach Aston-Reese // 17 Justin Danforth // 24 Mathieu Olivier

14 Joseph LaBate // 7 Sean Kuraly // 59 Yegor Chinakhov

8 Zach Werenski // 15 Dante Fabbro

5 Denton Mateychuk // 9 Ivan Provorov

2 Jake Christiansen // 78 Damon Severson

90 Elvis Merzlikins

40 Daniil Tarasov

Scratched: Jack Johnson, Jordan Harris, Mikael Pyythia

Injured: Cole Sillinger (upper body), Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Sean Monahan (wrist)

Columbus Blue Jackets Lines Courtesy of NHL.com