It is not often that the Florida Panthers have the chance to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs but they will against the host Nashville Predators.

The Panthers ticket to the NHL’s big dance is all but assured, the team starting to sell tickets to its season ticket holders on Monday morning.

But, as usual, it will not come easy.

The Predators (26-21-2, 54 points) currently hold fourth in the Central Division which means they are fighting to keep a spot in the postseason.

There is definitely a difference in attitude when one is safe and secure in their position and the other team is in a dogfight to get where they want to be.

The Panthers (31-13-5, 67) know they will be facing a desperate team in Nashville.

The Predators currently lead Dallas by two points but the Stars have two games in hand; Nashville leads Chicago by five.

The first game of this back-to-back set comes Monday at 8 p.m. from Bridgestone Arena. Game 2 in Tuesday night.

With a win, the Panthers are officially going dancing.

Florida has won four of the first six between the two.

After beating Carolina 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night, the Panthers closed to within a point of the Hurricanes for the Central lead.

While the Panthers are “still in it” as coach Joel Quenneville said, by only allowing Carolina to get three of the available four points in that past series, Florida’s chances of winning the Central Division took a hit.

That does not mean the Panthers do not have anything to play for.

This team is still trying to find forward combinations that work (it does seem set defensively or, at least know what works and what does not) heading into the playoffs.

The Panthers are also flying to NashVegas riding the high a highlight goal from Sasha Barkov gave them as they finally beat the Hurricanes.

Yeah, it was in overtime and Carolina got that extra point but still.

“I felt a lot of passion, a lot of emotion on the bench. It was very intense,’’ Quenneville said after the victory Saturday night.

“You can tell that playoffs are just around the corner. … It was one of those situations where if we can’t beat that team in regulation, we’ll take the two points.”

Nashville kept Carolina from officially clinching a playoff spot by beating Chicago 3-1 on Friday night.

“We knew they were going to be big games,” Nashville coach John Hynes said.

“It was nice to see the response and we played a pretty solid game. There has been a lot of consistency to how we’ve played the last six weeks and an identity to the way we play.”

The Predators are expected to have Juuse Saros in net at least for the opener against the Panthers.

And, the way Saros has played against Florida, he probably gets the call for both.

Saros has started the past seven games for Nashville and has won four of them. Saros has also started 12 of the past 13 for the Predators.

Against the Panthers, Saros has gone 1-1 in three games. He has a 2.66 goals-against average and has made saves on close to 94 percent of the shots faced.

The Panthers will go with Chris Driedger in the opener as he does seem to have Nashville’s number.

In two games this season, he is 2-0 with a shutout and has given up just one goal on 46 shots faced.

That gives him a 0.50 GAA and .978 save percentage this season alone.

Driedger also shutout Nashville in his first career NHL start with the Panthers last season.

In his last game against Nashville, Driedger made 21 saves while Saros gave up one goal on 48 shots before the Panthers scored into an empty net for a 2-0 victory.

“Hats off to Saros, he played a heck of a game,’’ Driedger said.

“That’s a great win. Those games when the other goalie is putting on a show can get a little dicey. You have to make sure you’re sharp. One mistake can send you to overtime.”

Quenneville also said Monday that Noel Acciari would return to the lineup.

Florida Panthers at Nashville Predators

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES

FLORIDA FORWARDS

77 Frank Vatrano — 16 Sasha Barkov — 70 Patric Hornqvist

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 9 Sam Bennett — 91 Anthony Duclair

97 Nikita Gusev — 21 Alex Wennberg — 94 Ryan Lomberg

55 Noel Acciari — 71 Lucas Wallmark — 74 Owen Tippett

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

42 Gus Forsling — 52 MacKenzie Weegar

65 Markus Nutivaara — 62 Brandon Montour

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

FLORIDA GOALIES

60 Chris Driedger

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratches: F Eetu Luostarinen, F Juho Lammikko, D Matt Kiersted, D Anton Stralman, G Spencer Knight 

Injured: F Carter Verhaeghe (upper body, week-to-week); F Mason Marchment (UBI, D2D); D Noah Juulsen (UBI, TBD); D Aaron Ekblad (leg, out for regular season)

Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Cole Schwindt, F Scott Wilson, G Philippe Desrosiers

Florida power play (33/163 20.2% — 17th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (116/146 79.4% — 18th in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Sam Bennett, Keith Yandle

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Anthony Duclair, Frank Vatrano, Nikita Gusev, Brandon Montour

PROJECTED NASHVILLE PREDATORS LINES

NASHVILLE FORWARDS

19 Calle Jarnkrok — 92 Ryan Johansen — 33 Viktor Arvidsson

23 Rocco Grimaldi — 64 Mikael Granlund — 11 Luke Kunin

21 Nick Cousins — 56 Erik Haula — 95 Matt Duchene

13 Yakov Trenin — 10 Colton Sissons — 84 Tanner Jeannot

NASHVILLE DEFENSEMEN

59 Roman Josi —- 5 Matt Benning

14 Mattias Ekholm — 4 Ryan Ellis

17 Ben Harpur — 44 Erik Gudbranson

NASHVILLE GOALIES

74 Juuse Saros

35 Pekka Rinne

Nashville power play (25/141 17.7% — 25th in NHL)

Nashville penalty kill (116/153 75.8% — 28th in NHL)

PP1: Ryan Johansen, Mikael Granlund, Calle Jarnkrok, Luke Kunin, Mattias Ekholm

PP2: Nick Cousins, Erik Haula, Rocco Grimaldi, Matt Duchene, Ryan Ellis