GameDay No. 54: Lines, Betting Odds for Sharks at Panthers

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers will be without captain Sasha Barkov when they take on the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Barkov left in the second period of Florida’s 7-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday after blocking a shot with his hand.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice called Barkov a “game-time decision” at practice on Wednesday but opted to sit him against the Sharks out of caution.

“He’s getting better every day,” Maurice said. “It was just kind of a decision where we’ve got to hold him for a night so that we have more confidence that we can get him on the next and we don’t have to worry about this for the next two or three weeks.”

Florida will be leaning on young two-way center Eetu Luostarinen to take Barkov’s place on the top line next to Anton Lundell and Sam Reinhart.

“He has improved dramatically this year and we have played him up in the lineup with Barkov and Lundell out earlier in the year,” Maurice said.

“He went in for us in wins against Vancouver and Seattle and I really liked our game so we have confidence in his ability to do that.”

The Panthers a chance to win three games in a row for the first time this season after riding a comeback win over the Bruins into the All-Star break and coming out of the break with a dominant win over the Lightning.

They are not focused on getting over that hump, though.

”We are just trying to win one game at a time,” Lundell said. “It’s a big game at home and we just have to try to get the energy from our fans and get that win.”

Florida comes into the day three points behind Pittsburgh and the Islanders for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

As far as the Atlantic goes, the Panthers are 24 points behind the Boston Bruins who are running away with the division. Make sure to look at Massachusetts Sports Betting to stay up to date on the legalization process of sports betting.

PANTHERS ON DECK

SAN JOSE SHARKS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• DraftKings odds — Panthers favored: Money Line (-210); Puck line (-1.5, +115); Over/Under 7 (+105/-125)
• Last season: Florida won 2-0
  
• This season — Florida leads 1-0: Panthers 4, Sharks 3 (Nov. 3)
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 20-13-1, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Colorado, 6 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

15 Anton Lundell // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

94 Ryan Lomberg // 6 Colin White // 21 Nick Cousins

71 Chris Tierney // 12 Eric Staal // 54 Givani Smith

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

62 Brandon Montour // 18 Marc Staal

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles), Patric Hornqvist (LTIR-concussion), Sasha Barkov (hand)

Scratched: Casey Fitzgerald

 PROJECTED SAN JOSE SHARKS LINEUP

28 Timo Meier // 48 Tomas Hertl // 73 Noah Gregor

21 Michael Eyssimont // 39 Logan Couture // 94 Alexander Barbanov

13 Nick Bonino // 7 Nico Sturm // 23 Oskar Lindblom

42 Jonah Gadjovich // 16 Steven Lorentz // 10 Evgeny Svechnikov

4 Scott Harrington // 65 Erik Karlsson

44 Mac-Edouard Vlasic // 5 Matt Benning

9 Jacob MacDonald // 38 Mario Ferraro

36 Kaapo Kahkonen

47 James Reimer