Maple Leafs Get Stanley Cup Rings Before Facing the Panthers

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers had a reunion today with the Toronto Maple Leafs in town for the first time this season.

Before the Maple Leafs took the ice for their morning skate, there was a special ceremony at the IcePlex where Anthony Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Steven Lorentz got their Stanley Cup championship rings from their former Florida teammates.

“It was great to see everyone, shake their hands, get some hugs,’’ Lorentz said. “It was definitely special.

“But, we have a job to do tonight. We’re not going to come in and take it easy on [those] guys.”

The Panthers expect nothing less.

The Maple Leafs come into tonight’s game looking a little different than they did the last time they played the Panthers at the end of the last regular season aside from having three former teammates in blue-and-white.

Toronto has a new coach in Craig Berube, and things are going well in Toronto.

At 13-6-2, the Maple Leafs are atop the Atlantic Division standings.

Toronto has won four straight games and seven of its past eight.

The Panthers, meanwhile, are trying to get out of their worst slump of the season.

Florida has lost four straight and six of seven.

“We haven’t been able to get to our forecheck as much,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “We are playing a little too passive.

“When the emotion gets a little ramped up, we’re back to our game. When it’s a low-emotion game, we don’t play as well as we could. We just have to get back to our forecheck and be aggressive.”

Toronto will be without star center Auston Matthews for the ninth straight game due to an upper-body injury.

Although Matthews skated Wednesday, he is probably out until the Leafs visit Tampa Bay on Saturday.

— The Starting Goalies: It will be a reunion in net with Toronto going with Stolarz against Sergei Bobrovsky.

— Anton Lundell was wearing a full mask at the morning skate after needing stitches upon taking a puck to the face in Monday’s loss to the Capitals.

Paul Maurice said Lundell is questionable for tonight; if he does play, Jesper Boqvist will be scratched with Jonah Gadjovich getting back in.

— Maurice on seeing his three former players: “You see them in here, or see them on the ice, and you will lock eyes and there will be a flood of memories of what an incredible time that was.

“You get to keep that. You don’t walk around all day thinking about that stuff, but every once in a while you get a surprise reminder, a 30-second warm bath that you slip into in how nice that was last year and how amazing that was.’’

ON DECK: GAME 23

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-150); Puck line (-1.5, +155); Over/Under 5.5 (-115/-105)
• This Season — At Florida: Wednesday; Ap. 8. At Toronto: March 14, Ap. 2.
• Last Season: Tied 2-2
• All-time Regular Season Series: Toronto leads 50-38-7, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Friday at Carolina Hurricanes, 3 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (12-9-1) 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 // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

10 AJ Greer // 94 Tomas Nosek // 12 Jonah Gadjovich

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

88 Nate Schmidt // 26 Uvis Balinskis

72 Spencer Knight

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Jesper Boqvist

PROJECTED TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (13-6-2) LINES

89 Nicholas Robertson // 29 Pontus Holmberg // 92 William Nylander

74 Bobby McMann // 91 John Tavares // 16 Mitch Marner

71 Nikita Grebenkin // 39 Fraser Minten // 92 Alex Nylander

46 Alex Steeves // 24 Connor Dewar // 18 Steven Lorentz

44 Morgan Rielly // 95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson

22 Jake McCabe // 8 Chris Tanev

2 Simon Benoit 25 Conor Timmins

41 Anthony Stolarz

60 Joseph Woll

Scratched: Jani Hakanpaa

Injured: Auston Matthews (upper body), David Kampf (lower body), Max Pacioretty (lower body), Calle Jarnkrok (lower body), Max Domi (lower body), Matthew Knies (upper body), Dakota Mermis (upper body)

Suspended: Ryan Reaves