GameDay No. 4: Lines, Betting Odds for Flyers at Panthers

The Florida Panthers are on home ice for the first time for the first time in this new NHL season with the Philadelphia Flyers coming in from Tampa for the nationally televised game.

The Panthers will be without the services of defenseman Aaron Ekblad at least for a couple of weeks although the team has not disclosed the severity of his lower body injury.

Ekblad was hurt midway through the second period of Monday night’s 5-3 loss in Boston when he was chasing down Jake DeBrusk.

He is not thought to be seriously injured and it is not related to the ankle and knee injuries he has sustained over the previous two seasons.

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Still, the Panthers will be making a roster move with Brandon Montour missing the entirety of Monday’s game which allows the cap-strapped team to make one emergency callup.

Both Montour and Ekblad will be out on Wednesday, per Florida coach Paul Maurice.

Ekblad was placed on long-term injured reserve and will be out until at least Nov. 12.

Montour is close to returning and will be a full-participant in practice on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Panthers sent Matt Kiersted back to AHL Charlotte after he started the season on IR.

This may just be a paper transaction allowing the Panthers to call him right back up and slide into the lineup.

Or, the Panthers could be returning Kiersted to Charlotte with the recall of Lucas Carlsson or Michael Del Zotto to come.

Kiersted has been practicing with the Panthers over the past week. He left the final preseason game in Tampa early in the second period with an undisclosed lower body injury.

— The Flyers may be a little beat up themselves but are off to a fantastic start under new coach John Tortorella.

Philadelphia won its third straight game to start the season on Tuesday as it got 36 saves from Carter Hart to spoil Tampa Bay’s home opener with a 3-2 win.

— Owen Tippett, the former Florida prospect traded to the Flyers in the Claude Giroux deal last season, is out with an injury.

NEWS & NOTES

The Panthers went 3-0 against the Flyers last season, outscoring them 12-6 in the process.

Florida has also won six of its past eight against the Flyers with six of the past seven wins in Sunrise.

Speaking of Sunrise, the Panthers have hung their 2021-22 NHL Presidents’ Trophy banner from the rafters at FLA Live Arena — a place where the team set numerous franchise records last season including goals (191), wins (34), points (68) and had not one but two 11-game winning streaks.

Sergei Bobrovsky’s 26 home wins led all NHL goalies last season and were most in franchise history.

PANTHERS ON DECK

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• Tickets: CLICK HERE
• TV: TNT
• Radio: WKIS 99.9-FM 2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• DraftKings odds — Florida favored: Money Line (-305); Puck line (-1.5, -120); Over/Under 6.5 (-130/+110)
• Last season: Florida won 3-0
  
• All-time regular season series: Philadelphia leads 55-36-6, 7 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

19 Matthew Tkachuk // 9 Sam Bennett // 38 Rudolfs Balcers

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 6 Colin White

94 Ryan Lomberg // 21 Nick Cousins // 70 Patric Hornqvist

42 Gus Forsling // 7 Radko Gudas

18 Marc Staal // 3 Matt Kiersted

28 Josh Mahura // 32 Lucas Carlsson

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: None

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles), Aaron Ekblad (LBI), Zac Dalpe (UBI), Justin Sourdif (UBI)

PROJECTED PHILADELPHIA FLYERS LINEUP

21 Scott Laughton // 13 Kevin Hayes // 11 Travis Konecny

86 Joel Farabee // 49 Noah Cates // 57 Wade Allison

25 James van Riemsdyk // 48 Morgan Frost // 58 Tanner Laczynski

44 Nicolas Deslauriers // 59 Jackson Cates // 17 Zach MacEwen

8 Ivan Provorov // 77 Tony DeAngelo

6 Travis Sanheim // 61 Justin Braun

24 Nick Seeler // 54 Igor Zamula

32 Felix Sandstrom

79 Carter Hart