Panthers Game 2, My Cousin Nicky: Lines, Odds, How to Watch vs. Senators

The Florida Panthers will play their first road game of the new season tonight when they take on the Ottawa Senators.

No, we’re not talking about Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk.

Nick Cousins is now a member of the Senators and will face his former Panthers teammates for the first time tonight.

Cousins is the first former member of the Panthers to receive his Stanley Cup championship ring as he met up with a number of his buddies last night for dinner and was presented with his spectacular piece of jewelry.

And, although Cousins has a lot of pals on the other side of the ice, he says he will not hold back tonight.

The Panthers expect nothing less.

“It should be fun,” Cousins said. “I told them last night that there are no deals out there. They know my game better than anyone and know I’ll be excited to play tonight. It is Game 1. … Really special, probably my favorite stop in my career. The coaches were great to me; medical, training, equipment staff were great to me. Just seeing them when I was walking through today brought back a lot of good memories. There are relationships you build in your career, but when you win, those relationships are a lot more special.”

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Said coach Paul Maurice: “His personality in our room, how he interacted with players in game and on the bench, certainly his play: I think he is underrated in how he thinks the game and certainly his hands. He can make plays. And he did. We had a pretty good run through the Eastern Conference and he played on the second line. Happy for him. It was great to see him, I think he can be impactful, enjoy his time in Canada and be a real good veteran guy for a young team.”

— The Panthers will be without defenseman Adam Boqvist after he took a puck off the face on a clearing shot during the first period of Tuesday’s opening night win against the Bruins.

Boqvist is wearing a full mask; Maurice said he may be able to go Saturday in Buffalo.

Nate Schmidt will make his debut with the Panthers in his place — and could get some power play time tonight.

— The starting goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky vs. Linus Ullmark.

Bobrovsky (1-0) makes his second straight start with Spencer Knight backing up after being recalled after being left off the opening night roster for salary cap reasons.

Ullmark will make his first start for the Senators after being acquired in a deal with the Bruins during the offseason.

— Tonight’s game will be televised locally on the new South Florida Scripps Network with the pregame kicking off at 6:30 p.m.

ON DECK: GAME 2

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT OTTAWA SENATORS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Canadian Tire Center, Ottawa
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/Fort Lauderdale); WHDT 9 (West Palm); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/Fort Myers)
• Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-140); Puck line (-1.5, +155); Over/Under 6.5 (+100/-120)
• This Season (Panthers Lead 2-0) — At Ottawa: Panthers 5, Senators 0 (Nov.27); Panthers 6, Senators 0 (April 4). At Florida: Panthers 3, Senators 2 OT (Feb. 20); Panthers 2, Senators 0 (April 9).
• All-time Regular Season Series: Ottawa leads 57-48-5, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday at Buffalo, 7 p.m. (Local TV)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (1-0-0) LINES

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

17 Evan Rodrigues// 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

12 Jonah Gadjovich // 70 Jesper Boqvist // 10 A.J. Greer

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

88 Nate Schmidt // 26 Uvis Balinskis

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: None

Injured: Tomas Nosek (UBI), Justin Sourdif (UBI), Adam Boqvist (UBI)

Waived/Sent to Charlotte: Chris Driedger, MacKenzie Entwistle

PROJECTED OTTAWA SENATORS (0-0-0) LINES

7 Brady Tkachuk // 18  Tim Stutzle // 28 Claude Giroux

71 Ridley Grieg // 9 Josh Norris // 19 Drake Batherson

57 David Perron // 12 Shane Pinto // 22 Michael Amadio

73 Noah Gregor // 81 Adam Gaudette // 21 Nick Cousins

85 Jake Sanderson // 2 Artem Zub

72 Thomas Chabot // 3 Nick Jensen

43 Tyler Klevin // 23 Travis Hamonic

35 Linus Ullmark

31 Anton Forsberg

Ottawa Senators Lines Courtesy NHL.com