The Florida Panthers will be home for a while as they kick off their final homestand of the 2021 season against the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

The Panthers, certainly, would like to stick around South Florida a little longer than just these final three games to wrap things up.

Florida, despite only having three games left, controls its own destiny when it comes to earning home ice advantage to start the playoffs.

The Panthers definitely need some help when it comes to catching Carolina (which has an additional two games to get points in) but Florida can still get second in the Central Division all on its own.

Because two of those final three games are against Tampa Bay, Florida winning its final three games — while limiting the Lightning to one point in the upcoming two-game set — would give the Panthers  home ice in the opening round without getting into any tiebreakers.

It seems like Florida playing Tampa Bay in the opening round of the NHL’s divisional playoffs is a foregone conclusion.

The Panthers certainly would like to have four of those seven games at BB&T Center — especially with the team planning to expand capacity to close to 50 percent for the first round.

It obviously won’t come easy.

Not only would the Panthers have to beat the Lightning twice (or not, depending what Tampa Bay does this week) but get a win Monday against Dallas as well.

The Stars, as was the case with Nashville last week, are fighting for their playoff lives.

Saturday night, Nashville beat Dallas 1-0 in overtime giving the Predators a three-point lead for the final spot in the Central.

Dallas has one game in hand on Nashville and that comes Monday in Florida.

It desperately needs two points against the Panthers.

Dallas could also do the Panthers a favor as the Stars head to Tampa for two games against the Lightning while the Panthers hang out at home this week.

A couple Dallas wins against the Lightning would certainly be welcomed in Sunrise.

The Panthers go into Monday with wins in their past three games.

Florida could also have some old friends back in the lineup as coach Joel Quenneville said Patric Hornqvist, Mason Marchment, Carter Verhaeghe and Chris Driedger would all return during this homestand.

Per Quenneville, Marchment is in with Sam Bennett out with a minor day-to-day deal.

Spencer Knight will start with Philippe Desrosiers — a second round pick of the Stars in 2013 — backing up.

DALLAS STARS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES

FLORIDA FORWARDS

14 Grigori Denisenko — 16 Sasha Barkov — 91 Anthony Duclair

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 9 Sam Bennett — 74 Owen Tippett

77 Frank Vatrano — 21 Alex Wennberg — 20 Aleksi Heponiemi

94 Ryan Lomberg — 55 Noel Acciari — 94 Nikita Gusev

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

42 Gus Forsling — 52 MacKenzie Weegar

65 Markus Nutivaara — 62 Brandon Montour

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

FLORIDA GOALIES

30 Spencer Knight

95 Philippe Desrosiers

Scratches: F Eetu Luostarinen, D Matt Kiersted, D Anton Stralman, F Juho Lammikko, F Lucas Wallmark, G Sergei Bobrovsky

Injured: F Carter Verhaeghe (upper body, return next week); G Chris Driedger (LBI, day-to-day); F Patric Hornqvist (URI, return next week); 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 Sam Montembeault, D Brady Keeper

Florida power play (37/175 21.1% — 13th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (123/156 78.8% — 20th in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Duclair, Keith Yandle, MacKenzie Weegar

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Owen Tippett, Frank Vatrano, Anthony Duclair, Brandon Montour

PROJECTED DALLAS STARS LINES

DALLAS STARS FORWARDS

21 Jason Robertson — 24 Roope Hintz — 16 Joe Pavelski

18 Jason Dickinson — 14 Jamie Benn — 64 Tanner Kero

11 Andrew Cogliano — 12 Radek Faksa — 15 Blake Comeau

25 Joel Kiviranta — 49 Rhett Gardner — 13 Mark Pysyk

DALLAS STARS DEFENSEMEN

23 Esa Lindell — 3 John Klingberg

2 Jamie Oleksiak — 4 Miro Heiskanen

39 Joel Hanley — 5 Andrej Sekera

DALLAS STARS GOALIES

35 Anton Khudobin

29 Jake Oettinger

Dallas power play (35/149, 21.1% — 7th in NHL)

Dallas penalty kill (107/135 79.3% — 17th in NHL)