Florida Panthers Make Lineup Change, Host Flyers Tonight

The Florida Panthers were not expected to make any lineup changes before playing host to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight.

After all, the Panthers have won six straight games and are outscoring their opponents 30-14 during that span.

But with Jonah Gadjovich healthy again — and coach Paul Maurice expecting a “heavy” game against the Flyers — change is what we are getting.

Gadjovich will be back in the lineup for the first time since his back tightened up and he had to leave Florida’s eventual overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 17.

With Gadjovich back in, rookie Mackie Samoskevich comes out.

“For me, Samo is trending in the right direction, trending up,” Maurice said. “The points are there, the hands are there, the speed is there. We know that. … The strength of our team is we have these different guys. … Jonah has worked really hard to get back, I liked where he was when he went down. I want him in the game tonight. It won’t always be Mackie who comes out.”

The Panthers will be playing a Philadelphia team with some changes of its own.

As far as starting goalies go, Florida will go with Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Flyers, who sit in last place in the Metro but is coming off an OT win in Tampa, had to start Ivan Fedotov on Thursday after Aleksei Kolosov sustained a lower-body injury during the morning skate.

Philadelphia was forced to use the Tampa Bay emergency goalie as its backup Thursday.

Kolosov did not practice Friday in Fort Lauderdale.

Sam Ersson, who did practice, is back after missing the past week.

Coach John Tortorella also scratched talented rookie Matvei Michkov on Thursday — and the Flyers are making no other lineup changes.

ON DECK: GAME 15

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Saturday, 6 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-275); Puck line (-1.5, -105); Over/Under 6 (-120/+100)
• Season Series — At Panthers: Saturday. At Flyers: Dec. 5, Jan. 13.
• Last Season: Flyers Won 2-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Philadelphia leads 58-38-6, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday vs. New Jersey Devils, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+/Hulu)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (10-3-1) LINES

17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe// 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

13 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 70 Jesper Boqvist

10 AJ Greer // 92 Tomas Nosek // 12 Jonah Gadjovich

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: Adam Boqvist, Mackie Samoskevich

PROJECTED PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (5-8-1) LINES

71 Tyson Foerster // 14 Sean Couturier // 11 Travis Konecny

74 Owen Tippett // 48 Morgan Frost // 10 Bobby Brink

86 Joel Farabee // 21 Scott Laughton // 19 Garnet Hathaway

44 Nicolas Deslauriers // 27 Noah Cates // 90 Anthony Richard

6 Travis Sanheim // 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

24 Nick Seeler // 9 Jamie Drysdale

36 Emil Andrae // 5 Egor Zamula

33 Sam Ersson

82 Ivan Fedotov

Scratched: Erik Johnson, Matvei Michkov

Injured: Cam York (upper body), Samuel Ersson (lower body), Ryan Poehling (undisclosed), Aleksi Kolosov (lower body)

Philadelphia Flyers Lines Courtesy NHL.com