SUNRISE — There will be more than the usual amount of pleasantries going around before the Florida Panthers play host to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.

First off, Thursday’s game will mark the first time Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour will face their former teammates since being traded to the Panthers in 2021.

While it will probably be more of a meaningful game when those two go back to Buffalo in March, this will have to do for now.

The Sabres also have a couple of former Panthers on their roster although Mark Pysyk did play against his former mates last season while with Dallas.

Subscribe to FloridaHockeyNow today and log in for an ad-free reading experience

This will be Vinnie Hinostroza’s first game since Florida traded him to Chicago at last season’s deadline.

Craig Anderson has been removed from the Panthers for sometime but the goalie still has his fans in South Florida.

Although Anderson is injured, he is on the trip and staying at his home in Parkland.

If you saw a fancy sports car flying down the Sawgrass Expressway lately, that just may well have been Andy.

Buffalo started off its season exceeding initial expectations by winning its first three and five of the opening seven games.

Things have come back to earth for the Sabres since.

The team has lost its past two games and six of seven.

The Panthers, meanwhile, are coming off a thrilling come-from-behind 5-4 win against the Capitals in which Florida came into the third down 4-1 and rallied to win.

Reinhart got the game-winning goal with just over 14 seconds remaining.

— Florida is not expected to get Anthony Duclair back Thursday after he missed morning skate.

— Gus Forsling, put on the IR following Saturday’s game, skated with the team on Thursday.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

BUFFALO SABRES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• WHERE: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TICKETS: CLICK HERE
• TV/STREAMING: Bally Sports Florida
• RADIO: WQAM 560
• Last season: Did not play
• All-time regular season series: Buffalo leads 52-44-5, 4 ties
• Odds via BetMGM: Florida favored (PL -1.5 -115) — (ML -300) — U/O 6
• Up next: St. Louis at Florida, Saturday, 1; Buffalo at Carolina, Saturday, 7:30

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

11 Jonathan Huberdeau // 9 Sam Bennett // 23 Carter Verhaeghe

98 Maxim Mamin // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

77 Frank Vatrano // 19 Joe Thornton // 74 Owen Tippett

94 Ryan Lomberg // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 70 Patric Hornqvist

52 MacKenzie Weegar // 5 Aaron Ekblad

62 Brandon Montour // 32 Lucas Carlsson

8 Matt Kiersted  // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Kevin Connauton, Aleksi Heponiemi

Injured: Noel Acciari (LTIR), Olli Juolevi (IR), Markus Nutivaara (LTIR), Mason Marchment (IR), Sasha Barkov (IR), Gus Forsling (IR), Anthony Duclair

PROJECTED BUFFALO SABRES LINEUP

53 Jeff Skinner // 72 Tage Thompson // 71 Victor Olofsson

57 Brett Murray // 24 Dylan Cozens // 21 Kyle Okposo

28 Zemgus Girgensons // 37 Casey Mittelstadt // 74 Rasmus Asplund

17 Mark Jankowski // 20 Cody Eakin // 29 Vinnie Hinostroza

26 Rasmus Dahlin // 13 Mark Pysyk

78 Jacob Bryson // 10 Henri Jokiharju

8 Robert Hagg // 33 Colin Miller

31 Justin Tokarski

80 Aaron Dell