GameDay No. 76: Lines, Betting Odds for Panthers at Canadiens

The Florida Panthers finally put an end to the longest losing streak of the season on Wednesday night in Toronto and will try to stay on the winning path tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.

Florida has owned the Canadiens lately, winning seven of the past eight games.

This season, the Panthers are 3-0 against Montreal — outscoring the Canadiens 22-9 in the process.

The two teams played in Sunrise on March 16 with Florida winning 9-5 in a crazy game in which Montreal scored on three of the first shots it took.

Sergei Bobrovsky was in net that night and ended up getting the win, but he will miss his second consecutive game with an illness.

Alex Lyon, the star of Florida’s 3-2 overtime win in Toronto on Wednesday, will again be in net.

Sam Bennett will also miss his sixth consecutive game with a lower-body injury.

In Florida’s 9-5 win, Sam Montembeault started that game only to get pulled after giving up the first three goals.

He did return and shut the Panthers down in the third period. Montembeault will be the starting goalie against his former team again tonight.

Florida is also trying to improve on its record of 2-6-3 in the second game of a back-to-back this season.

Montreal comes into the night winners of two of its past three games but is coming off a loss in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT MONTREAL CANADIENS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Bell Center, Montreal
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Sun and BSF (joining after Marlins Opening Day), ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• DraftKings odds — Panthers favored: Money Line (-195); Puck line (-1.5, +125); Over/Under 6.5 (-115/-105)
• Last season: Florida won 3-1
• This season (Florida leads 3-0): Panthers 7, Canadiens 2 (Dec. 29); Panthers 6, Canadiens 2 (Jan. 19); Panthers 9, Canadiens 5 (March 16)
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 54-38-11, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Florida at Columbus Blue Jackets, Saturday, 7 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 16 Sasha Barkov // 10 Anthony Duclair

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 15 Anton Lundell // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

94 Ryan Lomberg // 12 Eric Staal // 13 Sam Reinhart

21 Nick Cousins // 6 Colin White // 54 Givani Smith

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

18 Marc Staal // 62 Brandon Montour

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

34 Alex Lyon

29 Mack Guzda

Scratched: Casey Fitzgerald

Injured: Patric Hornqvist (LTIR-concussion), Sam Bennett (LBI), Sergei Bobrovsky (illness)

PROJECTED MONTREAL CANADIENS LINEUP

49 Rafael Harvey-Pinard // 14 Nick Suzuki // 56 Jesse Ylonen

17 Josh Anderson // 27 Jonathan Drouin // 25 Denis Gurianov

68 Mike Hoffman // 60 Alex Belzile // 32 Rem Pitlick

55 Michael Pezzetta // 67 Chris Tierney // 90 Anthony Richard

8 Michael Matheson // 26 Jonathan Kovacevic

44 Joel Edmunson // 52 Justin Barron

21 Kaiden Guhle // 58 David Savard

35 Sam Montembeault

34 Jake Allen