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.

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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

Montreal Canadiens lines courtesy NHL.com