GameDay 66: Lineups, Betting Odds for Canadiens at Panthers

The Florida Panthers are back home on Tuesday night after 19 days away from FLA Live Arena although they are playing a familiar foe.

Just last Thursday, the Panthers were in Montreal. Tonight, the Canadiens are in Sunrise.

The Panthers are coming off a 5-2 loss to the host Toronto Maple Leafs — the final bow on a seven-game trip which started in Los Angeles, ended up back in South Florida for a few days of practice and ended in Canada.

Florida went 4-2-1 in those seven road games.

With 17 games remaining, the Panthers only have a handful of games left against teams holding a playoff position.

Tuesday’s game is not one of them.

The Canadiens were eliminated from playoff consideration last week and, the Panthers have quite a few very winnable games ahead of them.

Following tonight’s game, the Panthers play host to Chicago then head to Buffalo and New Jersey.

The Panthers’ next game against a team in playoff contention comes a week from today when the Leafs come to town.

Of the 17 remaining games, only ones against Tampa Bay, Boston, Toronto (twice), Nashville and Winnipeg are against teams fighting for a playoff spot or — in the case of the east teams — trying to enhance their postseason position.

That does not mean these games are going to come easy as last week’s game in Montreal showed. Even with nothing to play for, really, the Canadiens gave the Panthers all they could handle.

— Brunette said the center Anton Lundell had been cleared to play after missing most of this month with a lower-body injury sustained March 7 against Buffalo.

But, due to an illness, he did not travel on the Canadian road trip and has not practiced with the team in some time. He was on the ice for today’s morning skate — and could play as soon as Thursday.

UP NEXT FOR THE FLORIDA PANTHERS

MONTREAL CANADIENS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise  
• Tickets: CLICK HERE
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida
• Radio: WQAM 560, SiriusXM
• SiriusXM
• Draft Kings odds — Florida favored: Money Line (-400); Puck line (-1.5, -155); Over/Under 6.5 (-125/+105)
• Last season: Did not play
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 50-48, 6 ties
• Season series — Florida leads 2-0: @Florida 5, Montreal 2 (Jan. 1); Florida 4, @Montreal 3 (March 24)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 28 Claude Giroux

11 Jonathan Huberdeau // 9 Sam Bennett // 10 Anthony Duclair

17 Mason Marchment  // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 13 Sam Reinhart

94 Ryan Lomberg // 55 Noel Acciari // 19 Joe Thornton

8 Ben Chiarot // 52 MacKenzie Weegar

42 Gus Forsling // 7 Radko Gudas

18 Robert Hagg // 62 Brandon Montour

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Petteri Lindbohm, Maxim Mamin, Lucas Carlsson, Patric Hornqvist, Anton Lundell

Injured: Markus Nutivaara (LTIR), Jonas Johansson (IR), Aaron Ekblad (LTIR)

PROJECTED MONTREAL CANADIENS LINEUP

22 Cole Caufield // 14 Nick Suzuki // 17 Josh Anderson

68 Mike Hoffman // 32 Rem Pitlick // 45 Laurent Dauphin

92 Jonathan Drouin // 28 Christian Dvorak // 40 Joel Armia

55 Michael Pezzetta // 71 Jake Evans // 41 Paul Byron

44 Joel Edmundson // 26 Jeff Petry

27 Alexander Romanov // 58 David Savard

64 Corey Schueneman // 20 Chris Wideman

34 Jake Allen

35 Sam Montembeault

Montreal Canadiens lines courtesy DailyFaceoff.com