Game 5: Panthers Expect Desperate Bruins; Marchand Out Again

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will face a desperate Boston Bruins team tonight that will, once again, be without captain Brad Marchand.

Despite joining the team on the trip from Boston and taking part in Tuesday’s morning skate, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters that Marchand would miss Game 5.

It is the second game Marchand will miss following a controversial hit from Sam Bennett in Game 3.

“Obviously we miss having him on the ice, but we feel his presence,’’ Boston forward Morgan Geekie said per NHL.com. “We have other guys [stepping] up, up-and-down the lineup, whether it’s vocally or just the way that we’ve been playing.We’re going to do our best. Obviously he’s a big piece of our team, but that’s definitely not putting us down and out.’’

This is a literal must-win game for Boston, which trails the series 3-1.

One more loss and Boston heads home for the summer; a win, and Florida visits Boston Garden on Thursday.

“Their advantage is the desperation. The finality of it,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said of the challenge of playing a Bruins team on the ropes.

“It clears your mind and lets you come to the rink with a really strong singular focus. So your job is to push them past expiration advantage into where everything would become a disadvantage where you start forcing plays and things like that. And we have this desire advantage where you’re excited about the opportunity to move on to the next round. It’s huge.”

The Panthers lived it on the other end last season.

They were the team which trailed Boston 3-1 and they turned it around to win the series in seven games.

Florida knows what to do to avoid being on the other end of it.

“We can’t get past that threshold,” Maurice said. “We saw it and we lived through it. And it’s happened probably three times with this core where you’re looking where you’re looking to make a killer play, the puck drops, you get it on your stick and you try to go coast to coast.

“That’s the mentality of the things we have to stay out of: That you want things so bad that you start doing things that are almost going to guarantee that you don’t get it.”

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

FLORIDA PANTHERS (ATL1) V. BOSTON BRUINS (ATL2)

FLORIDA LEADS BEST-OF-7 SERIES 3-1

GAME 5

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• National TV: ESPN
• Streaming: ESPN+/Hulu
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Local Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-210); Puck line (-1.5, +115); Over/Under 5.5 (-105/-115). Series Florida -3000
• Series Schedule — Game 1: Bruins 5, Panthers 1; Game 2: Panthers 6, Bruins 1;Game 3: Panthers 6, Bruins 2; Game 4: Panthers 3, Bruins 2; Game 5: Tuesday at Florida, 7 (ESPN); Game 6*:Friday May 17 at Boston, TBA; Game 7*: Sunday May 19 at Florida TBA. (*) – If Necessary 
• How They Got Here: Florida d. Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1; Boston d. Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3
• Last Season vs. Boston — Regular Season: Tied 2-2; Playoffs: Florida won 4-3 (first-round)
• This Season (Bruins 4-0) — At Boston: Bruins 3, Panthers 2 OT (Oct.30); Bruins 3, Panthers 2 OT (Ap. 6). At Florida: Bruins 3, Panthers 1 (Nov. 22); Bruins 4, Panthers 3 (March 26).
• All-time Regular Season Series: Boston leads 64-37-7, 6 ties
• All-time Postseason Series: Florida leads 2-0 (1996 1st, 2023 1st)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (3-1) LINES

10 Vladimir Tarasenko // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

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

23 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues 

18 Steven Lorentz // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 8 Kyle Okposo

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola //  62 Brandon Montour

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Nick Cousins, Ryan Lomberg, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, Will Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif, Patrick Giles

Injured: Sam Bennett (upper body)

PROJECTED BOSTON BRUINS (1-3) LINES

74 Jake DeBrusk // 39 Morgan Geekie // 88 David Pastrnak

43 Danton Heinen // 13 Charlie Coyle// 11 Trent Frederic

21 James van Riemsdyk // 18 Pavel Zacha // 55 Justin Brazeau

94 Jakub Lauko // 19 John Beecher // 61 Pat Maroon

6 Mason Lohrei // 73 Charlie McAvoy

27 Hampus Lindholm // 25 Brandon Carlo

28 Derek Forbort // 52 Andrew Peeke

1 Jeremy Swayman

35 Linus Ullmark

Scratched: Matt Grzelcyk, Parker Wotherspoon, Kevin Shattenkirk, Jesper Boqvist, Patrick Brown, Jayson Megna, Brandon Bussi

Injured: Brad Marchand (concussion)

Boston Bruins Lines Courtesy NHL.Com