GameDay No. 37: Lines, Betting Odds for Panthers at Hurricanes

No one has to tell the Florida Panthers that tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes will be much different than the one they just played.

On Thursday, the Panthers rolled through the Canadiens 7-2, handing Montreal its fourth consecutive loss.

Tonight’s game will be only be available through streaming either on ESPN+ or Hulu.

“Everyone feels good about this game,” Sasha Barkov said, “but everyone knows tomorrow is a new challenge. Carolina has been really good, nine-game winning streak. But with our mindset, we want to play the same way.”

The Panthers then quickly packed up and headed to the airport ready to play a back-to-back against the hottest team in the NHL.

Carolina is well rested — it eased its way to a 3-0 win over Chicago on Tuesday and has been off since — and has not lost in some time.

The Hurricanes come into the night riding a nine-game win streak with wins in 13 of their past 14 games.

During their nine-game winning streak, Carolina is outscoring its opponents 32-17 (3.6-1.89).

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”We want to play all three periods,’’ said coach Paul Maurice, whose first NHL head coaching job was with the Hartford Whalers in 1995 and moved with the team to Carolina. Maurice coached the Whalers/Canes from 1995-2004 and again from 2008-12.

”We are very aware of our situation and that leads to a very narrow focus on what you are doing. Leave this one here and move on to the next one. It is going to look very different when you play Carolina. How we play and our mindset has to stay the same.”

The Panthers are expected to bring back Spencer Knight and they have to hope the rust is not too apparent.

Due to illness (and the subsequent play of Sergei Bobrovsky), Knight has played in just one of Florida’s past 10 games since being pulled in the second period of Florida’s loss in Winnipeg on Dec. 6.

Knight struggled in his lone game back from his illness, giving up seven goals on 26 shots in a loss at Boston on Dec. 19.

When Florida beat the Hurricanes 3-2 on Nov. 9 in Sunrise, Knight made 40 saves as Brandon Montour and Sam Bennett had multi-point games.

Tonight will be the 12th time Eric, Marc and Jordan Staal have all skated in the same NHL game. The brothers have played a combined 3,504 NHL games.

Carolina will start Antti Raanta tonight after he shutout the Blackhawks and has won his past five games.

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT CAROLINA HURRICANES

• When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
• Streaming ONLY: ESPN+/Hulu
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Draft Kings odds — Hurricanes favored: MoneyLine (-170); Puck line (-1.5, +145); Over/Under 6 (-125/+105)
• Last season: Florida won 3-0
  
• This season (Florida leads 1-0): Florida 3, Carolina 2 (Nov. 9)
• All-time regular season series: Carolina leads 69-46-10, 11 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 6 Colin White

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

76 Anton Levtchi // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

94 Ryan Lomberg // 12 Eric Staal // 21 Nick Cousins

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

18 Marc Staal // 62 Brandon Montour

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

30 Spencer Knight

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles), Patric Hornqvist (LTIR-concussion), Chris Tierney (UBI)

Scratched: Zac Dalpe, Matt Kiersted

PROJECTED CAROLINA HURRICANES LINEUP

37 Andrei Svechnikov // 26 Paul Stastny // 88 Martin Necas

86 Teuvo Teravainen // 20 Sebastian Aho // 24 Seth Jarvis

48 Jordan Martinook // 11 Jordan Staal // 71 Jesper Fast

23 Stefan Noesen // 82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi // 18 Derek Stepan

74 Jaccob Slavin // 8 Brent Burns

76 Brady Skjei // 22 Brett Pesce

44 Calvin de Haan // 5 Jalen Chatfield

32 Antti Raanta

52 Pyotr Kochetkov