Florida Panthers
Panthers @ Canadiens: Lines, Goalies, Odds, How 2 Watch
Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk has never started the season with as poor finishing luck as he has this season. Can he get things rolling tonight against the Canadiens?
After scoring 40 goals last year, Tkachuk has just three goals in the first 22 games thus far.
And that is with the 11th-most high-danger chances for in the league, per Natural Stat Trick.
His first game against the Canadiens may just be his best medicine.
For the Best Daily Coverage of the Florida Panthers
Get a Subscription to Florida Hockey Now!
Last year, Tkachuk scored a total of eight goals and 13 points against the Canadiens.
Tkachuk’s eight goals were almost twice the amount he scored against any other team while his point total of 13 was also his highest against a single team.
Suffice to say, he was pretty good against the Canadiens — as were the Panthers as a whole, winning all four meetings.
With the Panthers winning, Tkachuk is not concerned about his goal total.
He has polished up his defensive game and it has helped contribute to a 13-7-2 start for Florida which placed them in second place in the Atlantic Division despite starting the season without Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad.
The goals will come, and Tkachuk knows that with all of the scoring chances he’s had.
“We have a game right now that we’re playing that can not only win right now but in April, May and June,” Tkachuk said. “Thats what we’re building toward and that’s what we’ve been playing like in the last few. That’s really exciting for us.”
— The starting goalies tonight for Panthers at Canadiens: Sergei Bobrovsky vs. Cayden Primeau.
ON DECK
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ MONTREAL CANADIENS
- When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Centre Bell, Montreal
- TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
- Radio: WAXY 790-AM; 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 (-250); Puck line (-1.5, +100); Over/Under 6.5 (-110/-110)
- Last Season: Florida won 4-0
- This Season — At Montreal: Thursday; April 2. At Florida: Dec. 30; Feb. 29.
- All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 55-38-11, 6 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. New York Islanders, 6 p.m.
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (13-7-2) 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 // 12 Jonah Gadjovich
42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad
77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour
91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 26 Uvis Balinskis
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
41 Anthony Stolarz
Scratched: Dmitry Kulikov, Steven Lorentz
Injured: Josh Mahura (knee-IR)
PROJECTED MONTREAL CANADIENS (10-10-2) LINES
15 Alex Newhook // 14 Nick Suzuki // 11 Brendan Gallagher
22 Cole Caufield // 28 Christian Dvorak // 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
70 Tanner Pearson // 91 Sean Monahan // 17 Josh Anderson
40 Joel Armia // 71 Jake Evans // 56 Jesse Ylönen
8 Mike Matheson // 52 Justin Barron
21 Kaiden Guhle // 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
47 Jayden Struble // 27 Gustav Lindström
30 Cayden Primeau
34 Jake Allen
Scratched: Sam Montembeault, Mattias Norlinder, Michael Pezzetta