GameDay No. 47: Lines, Betting Odds for Panthers at Canadiens

The Florida Panthers have a chance to finish off a road trip with points in every game for the first time all season when they visit the Montreal Canadiens.

But it will not be as easy as it looks on paper.

While the Canadiens currently sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Divison, they come into the night with wins in their previous two games and are 4-2-0 in their past six games.

Much of that has to do with the play of an old friend of the Panthers.

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Sam Montembeault, a 2015 third-round pick of Florida, is 3-2-0 with a league-leading .946 save percentage and a 2.02 goals-against-average since Montreal started its six-game run on Jan. 7.

Montembeault was 9-8-3 with an .892/3.20 slash line in two seasons with the Panthers.

He had a rough first season in Montreal, going 8-18-6 with a .891/3.77 en route to the team earning the worst record in the league, but this season has been quite the bounce back for him

He is 9-7-2 with a .912/3.05 in 18 starts and is continuing to develop into a reliable commodity for the Canadiens at age 26.

The Panthers will start Sergei Bobrovsky for the fifth-straight game since Spencer Knight was placed on Injured Reserve with an undisclosed injury.

He is 3-1-1 with a .904/3.19 in that span.

Knight remains on IR for the time being and Alex Lyon will back up Bobrovsky once again.

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT MONTREAL CANADIENS 

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Bell Center, Montreal
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, 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 — Florida favored: MoneyLine (-245); Puck line (-1.5, +100); Over/Under 6 (-110/-110)
• Last season: Florida won 3-1
• This season (Florida leads 1-0): Panthers 7, Canadiens 2 (Dec. 29)
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 52-38-11, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Minnesota, 6 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

15 Anton Lundell // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

14 Grigori Denisenko // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 21 Nick Cousins

94 Ryan Lomberg // 12 Eric Staal // 54 Givani Smith

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

18 Marc Staal // 62 Brandon Montour

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

34 Alex Lyon

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles), Patric Hornqvist (LTIR-concussion), Spencer Knight (IR-undisclosed)

Scratched: Casey Fitzgerald, Chris Tierney, Colin White

PROJECTED MONTREAL CANADIENS LINEUP

22 Cole Caufield // 14 Nick Suzuki // 56 Jesse Ylonen

68 Mike Hoffman // 77 Kirby Dach // 17 Josh Anderson

55 Michael Pezzetta // 28 Christian Dvorak // 63 Evgenii Dadonov

49 Rafael Harvey-Pinard // 32 Rem Pitlick // 54 Jordan Harris

8 Michael Matheson // 58 David Savard

44 Joel Edmunson // 52 Justin Barron

72 Arber Xhekaj // 26 Johnathan Kovacevic

35 Samuel Montembeault

30 Cayden Primeau