George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers will wear their popular new ‘Reverse Retro’ jerseys for the first time Saturday night when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit BB&T Center.
This will be the first time since Game 6 against the Islanders in 2016 that the Panthers will wear their leaping cat logo in a game. The team changed its primary logo that summer.
Saturday will be the second game of this three-game home-and-home series with the Panthers dominating the opener Thursday with a 5-2 win.
The Panthers know they are going to get Tampa Bay’s best moving forward.
Florida is going to have to keep up its intensity, continue to use its speed and tenacity in the corners, battling for each puck.
“They played the same way every shift,’’ Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said afterward.
“They kept coming in waves. Their forwards are big, strong and fast. A good group over there. We’re anxious to get a crack at them in a few days.”
With Steven Stamkos leaving Tuesday’s game against Nashville and missing Thursday’s game as well as Anthony Cirelli sustaining an apparent shoulder injury, the lineup for the Lightning is not known.
Neither player practiced on Friday with Stamkos joining Anthony Duclair on the league’s Covid-19 protocol list.
With the Lightning having no cap space and no extra bodies, to call someone up from the four-man taxi squad would require a player being placed on the IR.
No such move was made public Friday.
The expectation is that Cirelli, at least, will go on IR allowing Gemel Smith to come up off the taxi squad.
Thursday, Tampa Bay went with seven defensemen with Stamkos being a late scratch and it appears it will have to do so once more.
As for the Panthers, Duclair remains on the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol list so he will likely miss a second consecutive game.
Brett Connolly replaced Duclair on the top line, played close to 16 minutes which was his most in exactly one year. He skated 17:26 last February 11 in New Jersey.
Connolly also got his first goal since March 9 in St. Louis when he scored an empty net goal with a minute remaining.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves in recording his second consecutive victory and appears to be starting Game 2.
Tampa Bay Lightning at Florida Panthers
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise
Tickets: ON SALE HERE
TV/Radio: FSF/560-AM
Records: Tampa Bay 9-2-1 (1st in Central); Florida 8-1-2 (2nd)
All-time series: Florida leads 67-46-16, 10 ties
Season series: Florida leads 1-0
Last season: Tampa Bay won three of four
Up next: Florida at Tampa Bay, Monday, 7
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES
FLORIDA FORWARDS
23 Carter Verhaeghe — 16 Sasha Barkov — 10 Brett Connolly
11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 21 Alex Wennberg — 70 Patric Hornqvist
77 Frank Vatrano —27 Eetu Luostarinen — 74 Owen Tippett
94 Ryan Lomberg — 83 Juho Lammikko — 55 Noel Acciari
FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN
52 MacKenzie Weegar — 5 Aaron Ekblad
65 Markus Nutivaara — 6 Anton Stralman
3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas
FLORIDA GOALIES
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
60 Chris Driedger
Scratches: D Noah Juulsen, F Vinnie Hinostroza
Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Scott Wilson, F Mason Marchment, G Philippe Desrosiers
IR: D Gustav Forsling (upper body), F Anthony Duclair (Covid-19 protocol)
Florida power play (11/30 36.7% — 2nd in NHL)
Florida penalty kill (24/32 75% — 24th in NHL)
PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle
PP2: Alex Wennberg, Frank Vatrano, Owen Tippett, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Stralman
PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING LINES
TAMPA BAY FORWARDS
18 Ondrej Palat — 21 Brayden Point — 9 Tyler Johnson
17 Alex Killorn — 71 Mathieu Joseph — 79 Alexander Volkov
20 Blake Coleman — 37 Yanni Gourde — 19 Barclay Goodrow
14 Patrick Maroon — 46 Gemel Smith
TAMPA BAY DEFENSEMEN
77 Victor Hedman — 44 Jan Rutta
27 Ryan McDonagh — 81 Erik Cernak
98 Mikhail Sergachev — 2 Luke Schenn
52 Cal Foote
TAMPA BAY GOALIES
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
35 Curtis McElhinney
Potential injuries: Steven Stamkos (Covid-19 protocol), Anthony Cirelli (shoulder)
Tampa Bay power play (12/43 27.9% — 8th in NHL)
Tampa Bay penalty kill (35/42 83.3% — 7th in NHL)
PP1: Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Victor Hedman
PP2: Patrick Maroon, Mathieu Joseph, Alexander Volkov, Mikhail Sergachev, Yanni Gourde