Panthers GameDay at Senators: How to Watch, Lines, Goalies, Odds

The Ottawa Senators are back home tonight and spent more time talking about social media posts at Saturday’s morning skate than they did about that night’s game against the Florida Panthers.

Earlier this week, there were posts on social media which disparaged goalie Linus Ullmark and the circumstances to why he is on a personal leave of absence.

Ullmark left the Senators on Dec. 28 with, what the team says, is full support from the organization.

On Thursday night, Ottawa president of hockey operations Steve Staios put out a statement calling the Twitter post regarding Ullmark “completely fabricated and false.’’

Coach Travis Green said he appreciated Staios’ statement.

Brady Tkachuk had stronger words on Saturday morning.

Leaving out the expletives, Tkachuk basically said the reports are not true.

“I don’t think anybody’s pretty happy about a narrative being spread like that,’’ Tkachuk said. “I think it’s okay for people to critique our on ice performance, but when it gets into family, it’s pretty [yeah, guess].”

The Senators have been let down by the goaltending this season with James Reimer joining Ottawa’s AHL team on a professional tryout with the assumption he will join the NHL team after a few games.

NOTES: PANTHERS AT SENATORS

• Florida will again be without Brad Marchand tonight; he will miss his second straight game although he was on the ice for the morning skate. Marchand did not skate before Thursday’s loss in Montreal.
• Matthew Tkachuk continues to practice with the Panthers but he will not play tonight.
• Seth Jones went on IR today; Sandis Vilmanis is up from Charlotte and will make his NHL debut.
• Noah Gregor cleared waivers on Saturday.
• Donovan Sebrango is back home in Ottawa, facing his hometown Senators for the first time since they waived him after he coincidentally played the Panthers in October.
• Starting Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky makes his third start of the road trip for the Panthers; the Senators will go with Leevi Merilainen.
• How to Watch/Stream: The Panthers are back on local television tonight but also on NHL Network. To stream, use Panthers+ locally; ESPN+ will be unavailable because of the game being on NHLN.
• NHL Betting Odds: The Senators are a slight favorite (-125) on the money line at the local book. To win with Ottawa, a $125 bet wins $100. To cash with Florida (+105), a $100 wins $105.

ON DECK: GAME No. 44

FLORIDA PANTHERS at OTTAWA SENATORS 

• When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Canadian Tire Center, Ottawa
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• National TV: NHL Network
• Streaming: Panthers+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM/104.3 FM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Betting Odds — Senators Favored: MoneyLine (-125); Puck Line -1.5 (+180); O/U 6.5 (+105/-130)
• Last Season: Senators won 2-1
• This Season (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Ottawa: Saturday; Ap. 9.At Florida: Panthers 6, Senators 2 (Oct. 11); March 31
• All-time Regular Season Series: Ottawa leads 59-49-5, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Monday at Buffalo Sabres, 7

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (22-18-3) LINES

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

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 10 A.J. Greer

70 Jesper Boqvist // 17 Evan Rodrigues // 11 Mackie Samoskevich

95 Sandis Vilmanis // 71 Luke Kunin // 53 Jack Studnicka

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 26 Uvis Balinskis

6 Donovan Sebrango // 2 Jeff Petry

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

40 Daniil Tarasov

Scratched: Toby Bjornfot, Noah Gregor

Injured: Brad Marchand (lower body), Seth Jones (upper body), Sasha Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Cole Schwindt (broken arm)

PROJECTED OTTAWA SENATORS (20-18-5) LINES

7 Brady Tkachuk // 18 Tim Stutzle // 20 Fabian Zetterlund

57 David Perron // 24 Dylan Cozens // 19 Drake Batherson

22 Michael Amadio // 12 Shane Pinto // 28 Claude Giroux

89 Lars Eller // 71 Ridly Greig // 21 Nick Cousins

85 Jake Sanderson // 2 Artem Zub

72 Thomas Chabot // 3 Nick Jensen

43 Tyler Kleven // 10 Jordan Spence

1 Leevi Merilainen

31 Mads Sogaard

Scratched: Kurtis MacDermid, Nikolas Matinpalo, Stephen Halliday

Injured: None