George Richards, FHN Publisher
In normal times, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning would have gotten to know each other real well by now.
The past few years, the two in-state rivals have had multiple preseason games against one another before squaring off and opening the season.
This, obviously, is not a normal year.
Here we are, a month into the season (let’s forget for a second that it is February) and the Panthers and Lightning are meeting for the first time.
Perhaps it is best the Panthers got in 10 games before seeing the defending Stanley Cup champions for the first time.
“Obviously with a new group, we have a lot of new faces here, it has been good to get games in before playing Tampa,” Florida defenseman Keith Yandle said.
”You never know until the game happens. For us, we have to be excited to see these guys, to see where we’re at. Obviously knowing that they’re the champs from last year, have a great lineup, for us we have to be excited to show what we’ve got.”
Said Aaron Ekblad: “It was kind of weird this year not playing them back-to-back and I guess the preseason. It is a little different. But both teams are in full force right now, both teams looking like true contenders. It’s a lot of fun, should be a lot of fun for fans. We’re excited.”
The two will get to know each other soon enough.
Thursday, the Panthers will play host to the Lightning for the first of three consecutive meetings.
The first two games will be played at BB&T Center (tonight and Saturday) with the third meeting Monday in Tampa.
The two teams will play each other eight times in 2021 — most ever. Florida and Tampa Bay, even though they have played each other the most since 1993, have never met in the postseason.
”It’s fun playing in big games,” Joel Quenneville said Thursday morning. “For us, this is that. I don’t know how they measure it, but for us this is a big game, an important game.”
Quenneville indicated he will roll out the same lineup that beat Detroit 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Sergei Bobrovsky will be back in net after his best start of the season.
Against the Red Wings, Bobrovsky made 31 saves and improved to 4-0-1.
Tampa Bay is coming off a 6-1 win in nashville on Tuesday night and has won its past six games.
The Lightning’s previous loss was 1-0 in overtime to Carolina on Jan. 28.
— Defenseman Gustav Forsling was back on the ice Thursday and Quenneville said he hoped he would be able to play next week when the Panthers hit the road.
Tampa Bay Lightning at Florida Panthers
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise
Tickets: ON SALE HERE
TV/Radio: FSF/560-AM
Records: Tampa Bay 9-1-1 (1st in Central); Florida 7-1-2 (2nd)
All-time series: Florida leads 66-46-16, 10 ties
Season series: First of eight meetings
Last season: Tampa Bay won three of four
Up next: Tampa Bay at Florida, Saturday, 7
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES
FLORIDA FORWARDS
23 Carter Verhaeghe — 16 Sasha Barkov — 91 Anthony Duclair
11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 21 Alex Wennberg — 70 Patric Hornqvist
77 Frank Vatrano —27 Eetu Luostarinen — 74 Owen Tippett
10 Brett Connolly — 55 Noel Acciari — 94 Ryan Lomberg
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 Juho Lammikko, F Vinnie Hinostroza
Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Scott Wilson, F Mason Marchment, G Philippe Desrosiers
IR: D Gustav Forsling (upper body)
Florida power play (10/27 37% — 1st in NHL)
Florida penalty kill (23/29 79.3% — 19th in NHL)
PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle
PP2: Alex Wennberg, Frank Vatrano, Anthony Duclair, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Stralman
PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING LINES
TAMPA BAY FORWARDS
18 Ondrej Palat — 21 Brayden Point — 91 Steven Stamkos
17 Alex Killorn — 71 Anthony Cirelli — 9 Tyler Johnson
20 Blake Coleman — 37 Yanni Gourde — 19 Barclay Goodrow
14 Patrick Maroon — 7 Mathieu Joseph — 79 Alexander Volkov
TAMPA BAY DEFENSEMEN
77 Victor Hedman — 44 Jan Rutta
27 Ryan McDonagh — 81 Erik Cernak
98 Mikhail Sergachev — 2 Luke Schenn
TAMPA BAY GOALIES
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
35 Curtis McElhinney
Tampa Bay power play (10/40 25% — 9th in NHL)
Tampa Bay penalty kill (33/39 84.6% — 8th in NHL)
PP1: Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman
PP2: Patrick Maroon, Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, Yanni Gourde