GameDay 73: Lineups, Betting Odds for Ducks at Panthers

The Florida Panthers have lost a grand total of six games on home ice this season.

The list of teams who have won in Sunrise this season, save for Edmonton and Nashville, is a little befuddling.

The expansion Seattle Kraken were the first to beat the Panthers at FLA Live Arena, then came Ottawa and Los Angeles. Write the first one off to one of those things, the other two to Covid.

Then came a three-game home losing streak to Nashville, Columbus and Edmonton.

Seems like a faint memory.

Long-story short, the Panthers don’t want the Anaheim Ducks to sneak in and become No. 7.

The Ducks fit the mold of four of the first six teams to win in South Florida, right? A young team, struggling to find its way, going about things with nothing really to lose.

George Richards has written over 1,000 Panthers stories at FHN since July 2020

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Anaheim will also come into Sunrise as heavy, heavy underdogs to beat the Panthers.

The early money-line from DraftKings had Florida as a whopping -450 favorite. For those of you not into gambling, it means to bet the Panthers, you would have to lay out $450 just to win back $100. If you want to bet on the underdog Ducks, a $100 bet will win you $450.

The Panthers and Ducks, expansion cousins from 1993, are currently heading in opposite directions.

While one team is aiming for the top spot in its conference, the other is a mile out of the playoff race.

Florida was a big-time buyer at the NHL Trade Deadline while the Ducks decided to sell as their new general manager is ready to build this thing back up.

The Panthers have won seven consecutive games — and also have won seven straight at home since that Feb. 26 loss to the Oilers — while the Ducks just recently ended an 11-game skid.

Florida coach Andrew Brunette talked Monday about how this time of year is tough on players as the end of the season, and the start of a new one, is in sight.

“It’s a grind,” Brunette said. “Either you’re looking forward to the playoffs or you’re trying to end the season on the right note individually and statistically.

“There are so many different distractions at play. It’s hard to bottle it up and make sure the focus remains on the opponent and on the little details. We did a good job of that in Nashville and we need to continue doing that.”

— Ryan Lomberg was missing from Tuesday’s morning skate with what Brunette called a maintenance day. He will miss tonight’s game.

Jonathan Huberdeau missed Monday’s practice but was back on Tuesday.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

ANAHEIM DUCKS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM, SiriusXM
• Draft Kings odds — Florida favored: Money Line (-450); Puck line (-1.5, -165); Over/Under 6.5 (-130/+110)
• Last season: Did not play
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 19-14-2, 3 ties
• Season Series — Florida leads 1-0: Florida 3, @Anaheim 0 (March 19)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 10 Anthony Duclair

11 Jonathan Huberdeau // 8 Sam Bennett // 28 Claude Giroux

17 Mason Marchment // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

98 Maxim Mamin // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 70 Patric Hornqvist

8 Ben Chiarot // 52 MacKenzie Weegar

42 Gus Forsling  // 62 Brandon Montour

7 Radko Gudas // 18 Robert Hagg

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Joe Thornton, Petteri Lindbohm, Lucas Carlsson, Ryan Lomberg

Injured: Markus Nutivaara (LTIR), Jonas Johansson (IR), Aaron Ekblad (LTIR), Noel Acciari (UBI)

PROJECTED ANAHEIM DUCKS LINEUP

38 Derek Grant // 46 Trevor Zegras // 15 Troy Terry

14 Adam Henrique // 15 Ryan Getzlaf // 26 Gerald Mayhew

12 Sonny Milano // 21 Isac Lundestrom // 51 Dominik Simon

16 Zach Aston-Reese // 23 Sam Steel // 39 Sam Carrick

4 Cam Fowler // 22 Kevin Shattenkirk

5 Urho Vaakanainen // 34 Jamie Drysdale

76 Josh Mahura // 92 Andrej Sustr

36 John Gibson

41 Anthony Stolarz

Anaheim Ducks lines courtesy DailyFaceoff.com