How to Watch Panthers at Lightning, Game 1: Tkachuk Back?

TAMPA — The ongoing speculation whether Matthew Tkachuk will return to the Florida Panthers lineup for their Game 1 showdown with the Tampa Bay Lightning continued Tuesday afternoon.

As expected, coach Paul Maurice said Tkachuk would be a game-time decision.

Tkachuk has been out since February, and had been on LTIR since March.

So, no one thought Maurice would give a definitive answer in his post-morning skate press conference at Amalie Arena.

The Panthers did pull Tkachuk off IR on Tuesday.

So…

“With these long-term injuries, we just wait until the last [minute],” Maurice said Tuesday afternoon.

“He’ll get checked out one more time just before we get it cleared.”

Yet, for the third straight practice, Tkachuk was on Florida’s second line for rushes. He also was not part of the scratch skate — in fact, he was one of the first off.

If Tkachuk was not playing tonight, someone else would have been off the ice and not been part of the scratch skate.

Regardless, we’ll just wait and see what happens in warmups.

And when the game lineups are released.

PANTHERS @ LIGHTNING: GAME 1

• The NHL announced that Game 4 in Sunrise will start at 7 p.m. The game will be on the local Scripps broadcast as well as ESPN.
• How to Watch: Tonight’s game is on local TV and is also being broadcast nationally on ESPN. As usual, the game can be streamed locally on Panthers+.
• Starting Goalies: The Panthers are going with Sergei Bobrovsky; The Lightning will start Andrei Vasilevskiy.
• NHL Betting Odds: The local book has Tampa Bay as a slight favorite (-115) on the money line. If you think the Panthers will win, a $105 bet pays $100.
• Subscribe to the FHN YouTube channel to hear from the Florida Panthers throughout the postseason. Today’s pregame video: Maurice, Mackie Samoskevich, Seth Jones and Jon Cooper.

2025 NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND: GAME 1

FLORIDA PANTHERS at TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING 

• When: Tuesday, 8:30 p.m.
• Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• National TV: ESPN
• Streaming: Panthers+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Betting Odds — Lightning Favored: Money Line (-115); Puck line (-1.5, +180); Over/Under 5.5 (-110/-110)
• Series Schedule — Game 1 at Tampa: Tuesday, 8:30; Game 2 at Tampa: Thursday, 6:30 (TBS/Scripps); Game 3 at Florida: Saturday, 1 (TBS/Scripps); Game 4 at Florida: Monday, April 28, 7 (ESPN/Scripps); Game 5* at Tampa: Wednesday, April 30 (TBA); Game 6* at Florida: Friday, May 2 (TBA); Game 7* at Tampa: Sunday, May 4 (TBA).
• Season Series (Tied 2-2)
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 79-53-19, 10 ties
• All-Time Postgame Series: Tampa Bay Leads 2-1 (won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS); Florida d. Lightning 4-1 in 2024 first-round.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (0-0) LINES

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

25 Mackie Samoskevich // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 63 Brad Marchand

17 Evan Rodrigues // 8 Nico Sturm // 70 Jesper Boqvist

42 Gus Forsling // 3 Seth Jones

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

26 Uvis Balinskis // 88 Nate Schmidt

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Jonah Gadjovich, Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jaycob Megna

Injured: None

Suspended: Aaron Ekblad

PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (0-0) LINES

37 Yanni Gourde // 21 Brayden Point // 86 Nikita Kucherov

38 Brandon Hagel // 71 Anthony Cirelli // 59 Jake Guentzel

93 Gage Goncalves // 20 Nick Paul // 14 Conor Geekie

— // 28 Zemgus Girgensons // 11 Luke Glendening

77 Victor Hedman // 90 JJ Moser

27 Ryan McDonagh // 81 Erik Cernak

78 Emil Lilleberg // 48 Nick Perbix

— // 43 Darren Raddysh

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy

31 Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Mitchell Chaffee

Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body)

Tampa Bay Lightning Lines Courtesy NHL.com