Florida Panthers Missing Ekblad, Lundell vs. Oilers Tonight

The Florida Panthers will be without some key pieces when they visit the Edmonton Oilers tonight at 10 p.m. (BSF).

Aaron Ekblad, who left Thursday’s 4-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks after the second period with an undisclosed lower-body injury, will be held out as a precaution said coach Paul Maurice.

Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich will miss their second consecutive games due to illness.

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With Uvis Balinskis sent to Charlotte on Friday, Josh Mahura will return for the first time since sustaining a knee injury Nov. 16 in Los Angeles.

Ekblad and Brandon Montour coincidentally rejoined the Florida lineup the following night in Anaheim.

Florida also recalled Will Lockwood; he will replace Gadjovich on the fourth line.

The starting goalies will be Sergei Bobrovsky and Calvin Pickard.

Florida has lost its past two games — both by shutout — and Edmonton is coming off a 7-4 loss to Tampa Bay which ended its eight-game winning streak.

In those eight wins, Pickard only made one start and got the win against New Jersey.

ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ EDMONTON OILERS

• When: Saturday, 8 p.m.
• Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WAXY 790-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Odds — Oilers Favored: Money Line (-145); Puck line (-1.5, +155); Over/Under 6.5 (-160/+130)
• This Season (Florida Leads 1-0) — At Florida: Panthers 5, Oilers 3 (Nov. 20). At Edmonton: Saturday.
• Last Season: Edmonton won 2-0
  
• All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-15-0, 3 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-10-2) LINES

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

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

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 21 Nick Cousins

67 Will Lockwood // 18 Steven Lorentz // 94 Ryan Lomberg

42 Gus Forsling // 91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour

7 Dmitry Kulikov // 28 Josh Mahura

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Anthony Stolarz

Injured: Aaron Ekblad (LBI), Anton Lundell (illness), Jonah Gadjovich (illness)

Back to Charlotte: Uvis Balinskis

PROJECTED EDMONTON OILERS (13-13-1) LINES

93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins // 97 Connor McDavid // 18 Zach Hyman

13 Mattias Janmark // 29 Leon Draisaitl // 37 Warren Foegele

91 Evander Kane // 71 Ryan McLeod // 28 Connor Brown

89 Sam Gagner // 57 James Hamblin // 10 Derek Ryan

25 Darnell Nurse // 5 Cody Ceci

14 Mattias Ekholm // 2 Evan Bouchard

27 Brett Kulak // 73 Vincent Desharnais

30 Calvin Pickard

74 Stuart Skinner

Scratched: Adam Erne, Ben Gleason

Edmonton Oilers lines courtesy NHL.com