Lundell Returns as Florida Panthers Face Vegas Before Break

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will welcome a new rival to town Saturday afternoon when the Vegas Golden Knights come to town in the first showdown between the teams since the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

Florida will have a familiar face back in the lineup as well.

Anton Lundell, who has missed the past four games with an undisclosed illness, is expected to return to centering Florida’s third line.

Jonah Gadjovich will miss his fifth consecutive game; Steven Lorentz will be the odd forward out.

Both teams come into today in a bit of a slump: Florida has lost four of five; Vegas has dropped three of four.

The Golden Knights are also without their top two goalies due to injuries and are expected to start Jiri Patera for a second consecutive game.

Sergei Bobrovsky gets the call for the Panthers.

This will be the final day before the NHL’s Christmas break.

The Panthers will return Wednesday morning for the quick flight to Tampa and a game against the Lightning.

ON DECK

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
  
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM, WPOW 96.5 FM2, WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-135); Puck line (-1.5, +175); Over/Under 6.5 (-120/+100)
• Season Series — At Florida: Saturday. At Vegas: Jan. 4.
• Last Regular Season: Even 1-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Golden Knights lead 6-3-1
• Postseason History — 2023 Stanley Cup Final: Vegas d. Florida 4-1
• Up Next for the Florida Panthers: Wednesday at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-11-2) LINES

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

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

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell  // 21 Nick Cousins

94 Ryan Lomberg //82 Kevin Stenlund // 67 Will Lockwood

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: Josh Mahura, Steven Lorentz

Injured: Jonah Gadjovich (illness)

PROJECTED VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS (21-8-5) LINES

49 Ivan Barbashev // 9 Jack Eichel // 61 Mark Stone

16 Pavel Dorofeyev // 20 Chandler Stephenson // 81 Jonathan Marchessault

43 Paul Cotter // 71 William Karlsson // 10 Nicolas Roy

21 Brett Howden // 28 William Carrier // 22 Michael Amadio

23 Alec Martinez // 7 Alex Pietrangelo

3 Brayden McNabb // 17 Ben Hutton

14 Nicolas Hague // 2 Zach Whitecloud

30 Jiri Patera

31 Isaiah Saville

Scratched: Brayden Pachal, Jonas Rondbjerg

Injured: Adin Hill (lower body), Kaedan Korczak (lower body), Shea Theodore (upper body), Keegan Kolesar (undisclosed), Logan Thompson (upper body)

Golden Knights lines courtesy NHL.com