In his time as coach of the Panthers, Joel Quenneville has never been one to put too much weight on an upcoming game. This two game series with the Carolina Hurricanes is different.

Quenneville and the Panthers definitely know what is at stake here.

“Thursday,” Quenneville said, “is going to be our biggest game of the year.”

The Panthers and Hurricanes come into this series tied in points atop the NHL’s Central Division. Carolina, however, has played two fewer games than Florida has.

If the Panthers want to win the division, and thereby avoid Carolina and Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs next month, they need to figure out the Hurricanes and quick.

Carolina has won five of the six games between the two so far.

The Panthers have been in all the games but the wins have not come. They better if Florida is to have any shot at winning the division.

“We’re right with them, but they’ve got games in hand,” Quenneville said.

“We’ve got to take care of our end of it with these two games to have any chance. They’re huge games from our point of view, and I’m sure they are for them as well. It’s a huge measuring stick.”

Florida has nine games remaining in the regular season and making the playoffs is not a concern — and has not been for some time.

The Panthers are set as far as that goes.

Right now, they’re playing for seeding. If they don’t win the division, they will end up second or third, the difference being home ice in the opening round.

Carolina has 11 games left: After playing two against Florida to wrap up that season series, the Hurricanes go and play the red-hot Dallas Stars, which appear right now to be the team which will end up getting fourth in the Central for the final spot in the playoffs.

After that, Carolina has games remaining against Detroit, Columbus, Nashville and Chicago.

Florida has games remaining against Dallas (one), Nashville (two), Chicago (two) and Tampa Bay (two).

“These are going to be tougher games,” Jonathan Huberdeau said. “We obviously want to get first place and and it will be tough to the end.

“Carolina is a good defensive team and there is not a lot of room out there. We know it’s going to be tighter, a more defensive game. But we’re ready for any team. We focus on our team and that’s how we have to play.

“We have to find a way. I think we can do it. We haven’t played our best against them. They’re a good team, a checking team and they keep thing simple. We need to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net against them.”

EXTRA SPECIAL TEAMS

For the Panthers to have any success in this series, they need to stay out of the penalty box. And, if they do have to kill off some penalties, do so successfully.

Special teams in the first six games of this series has been the difference.

In the first six games, both teams have had 22 power play chances.

Florida has scored two goals; Carolina has eight.

The margin of victory in games won by Carolina (not counting shootout goals) has been nine — three coming into an empty net.

Vincent Trocheck has been the biggest thorn in Florida’s side this series, scoring four of his six goals on the power play.

Trocheck is scoring on 27.3 percent of his shots taken against the Panthers tied with Jordan Staal (three goals).

LINEUP MOVES

Both Florida and Carolina are coming off back-to-back games in which neither team played its starting goalie on Tuesday night.

Alex Nedeljkovic will start for Carolina tonight. He is 2-0-1 against the Panthers with a shutout the last time they played.

Florida is looking at this series as a playoff prelude so it would not be surprising to see Sergei Bobrovsky play both.

Bobrovsky is 0-1-1 against Carolina this season, giving up six goals off 67 shots faces (.910 save percentage).

Quenneville said Mason Marchment is expected to miss Thursday’s game after leaving Tuesday’s win against Columbus with an upper-body injury.

Jonathan Huberdeau or Frank Vatrano would be the prime candidates to move into the spot.

UPDATE: It is Patric Hornqvist; and Bob is in.

Although Carter Verhaeghe has been skating, Quenneville said he is not expected back until May.

Quenneville also said Chris Driedger is dealing with a lower body issue and is likely to miss the next couple of days. Spencer Knight is backing up Bobrovsky on Thursday.

Noel Acciari could be closing in on a return; he was skating with the taxi squad/scratches on Thursday as was defenseman Noah Juulsen.

Carolina Hurricanes at Florida Panthers

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES

FLORIDA FORWARDS

97 Nikita Gusev — 16 Sasha Barkov — 70 Patric Hornqvist

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 9 Sam Bennett — 91 Anthony Duclair

77 Frank Vatrano — 21 Alex Wennberg — 94 Ryan Lomberg

83 Juho Lammikko — 23 Eetu Luostarinen — 74 Owen Tippett

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

42 Gus Forsling — 52 MacKenzie Weegar

65 Markus Nutivaara — 62 Brandon Montour

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

FLORIDA GOALIES

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratches: F Lucas Wallmark, D Matt Kiersted, D Anton Stralman

Injured: F Carter Verhaeghe (upper body, week-to-week); G Chris Driedger (LBI, D2D); F Noel Acciari (UBI, D2D); F Mason Marchment (UBI, D2D); D Noah Juulsen (UBI, TBD); D Aaron Ekblad (leg, out for regular season)

Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Cole Schwindt, F Scott Wilson, G Philippe Desrosiers

Florida power play (32/150 21.3% — 11th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (110/138 79.7% — 15th in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Nikita Gusev, Keith Yandle

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Anthony Duclair, Frank Vatrano, Sam Bennett, Gus Forsling

PROJECTED CAROLINA HURRICANES LINES

CAROLINA FORWARDS

37 Andrei Svechnikov — 20 Sebastian Aho — 71 Jesper Fast

21 Nino Niederreiter — 16 Vincent Trocheck — 88 Martin Necas

48 Jordan Martinook — 11 Jordan Staal — 13 Warren Foegele

18 Cedric Paquette — 78 Steven Lorentz — 67 Morgan Geekie

CAROLINA DEFENSEMEN

74 Jaccob Slavin — 19 Dougie Hamilton

51 Jake Gardiner — 22 Brett Pesce

6 Ryan Joakim — 58 Jani Hakanpaa

CAROLINA GOALIES

39 Alex Nedeljkovic

34 Petr Mrazek

Carolina power play (37/135 27.4% — 2nd in NHL)

Carolina penalty kill (119/142 83.8% — 6th in NHL)

PP1: Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trocheck, Dougie Hamilton, Andrei Svechnikov

PP2: Jesper Fast, Warren Foegele, Nino Niederreiter, Brett Pesce, Martin Necas