GameDay No. 38: Lines, Betting Odds for Rangers at Panthers

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers will ring in the New Year on Sunday evening with both teams needed a victory.

The Rangers, who come into the day tied with the Islanders for the final wild card spot in the East, have lost their first two games coming out of the Christmas break at 0-1-1.

Florida, well, we know what is going on with the Panthers.

Although the Panthers started their unofficial second half with a resounding 7-2 win against Montreal, they did not muster up much in Carolina Friday night in a 4-0 loss.

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Florida coach Paul Maurice see aid Sunday that  Sergei Bobrovsky will start.

This is the first meeting of the season between the Panthers and Rangers so it will be Florida’s first chance to see Vincent Trocheck in new colors.

Former Florida coach Gerard Gallant was reunited with Trocheck when New York signed him to a seven-year, $39.375 million deal over the summer.

In 37 games with the Rangers thus far this season, Trocheck has 12 goals and 28 points as he centers the second line with Artemi Panarin and Barclay Goodrow.

Today marks the start of two consecutive home games for the Panthers with Arizona coming to town on Tuesday night.

After that, the Panthers head out on a rough five-game road trip in which they fly to Detroit only to head southwest for games in Dallas, Colorado and Las Vegas.

Florida then comes back to play Vancouver before heading back on the road again.

This is a very crucial month for the Panthers if they want to get back into the playoff race — and it starts today against the Rangers.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

NEW YORK RANGERS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Sunday, 5 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Draft Kings odds — Panthers favored: MoneyLine (-115); Puck line (-1.5, +205); Over/Under 6 (-120/+100)
• Last season: Rangers won 2-1
• All-time regular season series: Rangers lead 57-32-8, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Vs. Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 9 Sam Bennett // 21 Nick Cousins

6 Colin White // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

94 Ryan Lomberg // 12 Eric Staal // 22 Zac Dalpe

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

18 Marc Staal // 62 Brandon Montour

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles), Patric Hornqvist (LTIR-concussion), Chris Tierney (UBI)

Scratched: Matt Kiersted

PROJECTED NEW YORK RANGERS LINEUP

20 Chris Kreider // 93 Mika Zibanejad // 24 Kaapo Kakko

10 Artemi Panarin // 16 Vincent Trocheck // 21 Barclay Goodrow

74 Vitali Kravtsov // 72 Filip Chytil // 15 Julien Gauthier

91 Sammy Blais // 76 Jonny Brodzinski // 26 Jimmy Vesey

55 Ryan Lindgren // 23 Adam Fox

79 K’Andre Miller // 8 Jacob Trouba

25 Libor Hajek // 45 Braden Schneider

31 Igor Shesterkin

41 Jaroslav Halak