Matthew Tkachuk Out for Florida Panthers at Bruins — And More

The Florida Panthers will continue to be without star Matthew Tkachuk due to an illness meaning he will miss today’s game against the Boston Bruins.

According to coach Paul Maurice, Tkachuk will miss more than just that.

Tkachuk, who already missed Saturday’s game in Buffalo, will not play on Tuesday in Columbus and is expected to miss all of Florida’s games (Vancouver, Vegas) through the weekend.

Maurice said he hopes Tkachuk will return next Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

With Tkachuk and captain Sasha Barkov out, the Panthers will continue to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

Maurice said that defenseman Uvis Balinskis will play more up as a forward today.

— The starting goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky is back for Florida; Boston is expected to go with Jeremy Swayman.

— Boston coach Jim Montgomery said his team needs to settle down when it comes to the Panthers.

“We’ve got to get back to playing hockey,” Montgomery said per Boston Hockey Now on Sunday. “I love it that we have emotion. They’re our rivals. But at the same time, we’ve got to be disciplined.” 

ON DECK: GAME NO. 4

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT BOSTON BRUINS

• When: Monday, 1 p.m.
• Where: Boston Garden
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/Fort Lauderdale); WPTV 5/WHDT 9 (West Palm); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/Fort Myers)
• 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
• Local Odds — Bruins Favored: Money Line (-140); Puck line (-1.5, +165); Over/Under 5.5 (-115/-115)
• This Season (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Florida: Panthers 6, Bruins 4 (Oct. 8); Jan. 11. At Boston: Monday; March 11.
• Last Regular Season (Bruins Won 4-0) — At Boston: Bruins 3, Panthers 2 OT (Oct.30); Bruins 3, Panthers 2 OT (Ap. 6). At Florida: Bruins 3, Panthers 1 (Nov. 22); Bruins 4, Panthers 3 (March 26).
• All-time Regular Season Series: Boston leads 64-38-7, 6 ties
• All-time Postseason Series: Florida leads 3-0 (1996 1st, 2023 1st, 2024 2nd)
• Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday at Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. (Local TV)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (1-2-0) LINES

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

23 Carter Verhaeghe// 9 Sam Bennett // 17 Evan Rodrigues

10 A.J. Greer // 70 Jesper Boqvist // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

12 Jonah Gadjovich // 36 Patrick Giles // 26 Uvis Balinskis

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

34 Adam Boqvist // 88 Nate Schmidt

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: None

Injured: Sasha Barkov (LBI), Matthew Tkachuk (ill), Tomas Nosek (LTIR-UBI), Justin Sourdif (UBI)

PROJECTED BOSTON BRUINS (1-2-0) LINES

18 Pavel Zacha // 28 Elias Lindholm // 88 David Pastrnak

63 Brad Marchand // 13 Charlie Coyle // 39 Morgan Geekie

49 Max Jones // 11 Trent Frederic // 55 Justin Brazeau

19 Johnny Beecher // 47 Mark Kastelic // 45 Cole Koepke

27 Hampus Lindholm // 73 Charlie McAvoy

6 Mason Lohrei // 25 Brandon Carlo

91 Nikita Zadorov // 52 Andrew Peeke

1 Jeremy Swayman

70 Joonas Korpisalo

Scratched: Riley Tufte, Parker Wotherspoon

Injured: Matthew Poitras (upper body), Ian Mitchell (undisclosed), Alec Regula (knee)