Desperate Detroit Red Wings Visit Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers were able to clinch a spot in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday night thanks to the Detroit Red Wings.

Even though the Panthers lost 3-2 to the Islanders, Detroit’s 4-0 loss in Raleigh to the Hurricanes was enough for Florida to punch its ticket.

Now, the Red Wings visit Sunrise this afternoon — and both teams are trying to right their ship.

Florida has nine games left in order to get ready for the postseason but it has lost six of the past seven (1-5-1).

Detroit sits two points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Lately, the Red Wings have not done much scoring. They also have not done a good job of keeping the puck out of their net.

Alex Lyon will start against his former teammates today, a year after his outstanding play helped the Panthers get into the 2023 playoffs.

Lyon got the win in his first trip back to Sunrise as the Red Wings snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Panthers.

He would like to find some of that magic today.

Lyon has gone winless in his past nine games (0-8-1) and has not won a game in over a month.

Florida will counter with Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Panthers bounced back from their 3-2 overtime loss to the Red Wings on Jan. 19 by winning 4-0 in Detroit on March 2.

Florida has shut out the Red Wings in two of the past three games and have outscored them 8-3 in the three games.

Bobrovsky started all three games, posting a combined .958/1.00 with the two shutouts.

The Panthers have earned at least a point in each of their past 12 games against the Red Wings (11-0-1) since March 30, 2021; Florida is 9-1-1 record against Detroit since March 10, 2019.

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ON DECK

DETROIT RED WINGS @ (X) FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, NHLN/ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5 FM-2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL/Panthers App
• Local NHL Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-225); Puck line (-1.5, +105); Over/Under 6.5 (+110/-140)
• Last Season: Florida won 3-0
• This Season (Panthers Lead 2-1) — At Detroit: Panthers 2, Wings 0 (Nov. 2); Panthers 4, Wings 0 (March 2). At Florida: Wings 3, Panthers 2 OT (Jan. 18); Saturday.
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 38-19-7, 5 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Monday at Toronto, 7 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (46-22-5) LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 10 Vladimir Tarasenko

17 Evan Rodrigues // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen //15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

21 Nick Cousins // 18 Steven Lorentz // 82 Kevin Stenlund

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: Jonah Gadjovich, Tobias Bjornfot, Kyle Okposo, Ryan Lomberg, Josh Mahura

Injured: None

PROJECTED DETROIT RED WINGS (36-30-7) LINEUP

57 David Perron // 71 Dylan Larkin // 23 Lucas Raymond

93 Alex DeBrincat // 37 J.T. Compher // 14 Robby Fabbri

27 Michael Rasmussen // 18 Andrew Copp // 36 Christian Fischer

90 Joe Veleno // 21 Alex Czarnik // 11 Zach Aston-Reese

8 Ben Chiarot // 53 Moritz Seider

77 Simon Edvinsson // 46 Jeff Petry

2 Olli Maatta // 41 Shayne Gostisbehere

34 Alex Lyon

47 James Reimer

Scratched: Justin Holl, Jonatan Berggren, Daniel Sprong

Injured: Ville Husso (lower body), Jake Walman (lower body), Patrick Kane (illness)

Detroit Red Wings Lines Courtesy NHL.com