GameDay 76: Lineups, Betting Odds for Panthers at Islanders

With one point in a month and no goals since January, Maxim Mamin found it tough to stay in the Florida Panthers lineup.

He is making a strong case for himself lately.

Mamin has been in the past three games in place of the high-energy Ryan Lomberg and has made a strong impact.

In the past two games, Mamin has scored for the Panthers as he has seen his minutes rise.

Mamin is getting an opportunity — and making the most of it.

“He is a guy you can move up-and-down the lineup,” coach Andrew Brunette said Monday following practice at the Islanders’ new home at Belmont Park.

“He has played on the first line, the third, the fourth. He always handles it pretty well. He has had some unfortunate circumstances where he kind of got going, then got hurt.

“It kind of took him a while to get away from his injury and get going again. He has bounced around, but he has played really well the last couple of games. Again, as a coaching staff, we are really lucky to have five lines of very good NHL hockey players.”

For daily coverage of the Florida Panthers, subscribe to Florida Hockey Now today!

Mamin was originally drafted by the Panthers in the sixth round of the 2016 draft and spent parts of two seasons with Florida from 2017-18.

In 2018, the Panthers loaned him to their AHL team in Springfield; Mamin activated his contractual out and went home to Moscow to play for CSKA in the KHL.

Mamin returned to Florida this season and has been a valuable depth piece.

”He has been awesome,” Carter Verhaeghe said last month when Mamin was playing for the injured Anton Lundell.

“He has been working very hard.  He had not played in a couple of games, comes right in and contributes right away. He is a big body, plays hard and makes plays. We have really good chemistry together and it’s nice to see him jump in and make an impact.”

On Monday, Brunette said that Noel Acciari has been cleared and is ready to play after missing the past couple of weeks so he should draw into the lineup back into the lineup as soon as Tuesday.

That could mean Mamin being back out of the lineup.

“It is so hard right now with a lack of practice time and an afternoon game yesterday,’’ Brunette said. “We have a condensed scheduled here. He’ll be back in the lineup soon. He’s ready to go.”

— Lomberg stayed back in South Florida and will miss his fourth consecutive game on Tuesday.

— Brunette did not say who would start Tuesday; Spencer Knight is celebrating his 21st birthday today.

— This will be Florida’s first visit to the Islanders’ new billion-dollar home on the outskirts of Belmont Park.

The Panthers are 2-0 against the Islanders this season with both games played in Sunrise before UBS Arena officially opened.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT NEW YORK ISLANDERS

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: UBS Arena; Elmont, N.Y.
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM/SiriusXM
• Draft Kings odds — Florida favored: Money Line (-195); Puck line (-1.5, +120); Over/Under 6.5 (-115/-105)
• All-time regular season series: Panthers lead 74-48-17, 10 ties
• Last season: Did not play
• Season series — Florida leads 1-0: @Florida 5, Islanders 1 (Oct. 15); @Florida 6, Islanders 0 (Nov. 16)

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

18 Robert Hagg // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Joe Thornton, Petteri Lindbohm, Lucas Carlsson, Noel Acciari

Injured: Markus Nutivaara (LTIR), Jonas Johansson (IR), Aaron Ekblad (LTIR), Ryan Lomberg (LBI)

PROJECTED NEW YORK ISLANDERS LINEUP

27 Anders Lee // 29 Brock Nelson // 18 Anthony Beauvillier

11 Zach Parise // 13 Mathew Barzal // 20 Kieffer Bellows

12 Josh Bailey // 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau // 21 Kyle Palmieri

17 Matt Martin // 53 Casey Cizikas // 32 Ross Johnston

33 Zdeno Chara // 8 Noah Dobson

3 Adam Pelech // 6 Ryan Pulock

7 Grant Hutton // 4 Andy Greene

40 Semyon Varlamov

30 Ilya Sorokin

New York Islanders lines courtesy DailyFaceoff.com