Panthers GameDay v Lightning: How to Watch, Lines, Goalies, Odds

The big question posed to players and coaches for the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning leading into Saturday’s showdown in Sunrise was simple.

Y’all going to do that again?

Answers were what you expected, although Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper played a little coy.

“I guess we’ll see,’’ he said.

The Panthers and Lightning, of course, do not like each other.

The last time they played each other back on Oct. 4, the two teams combined for 322 penalty minutes with 19 players leaving the exhibition game a little earlier than expected.

“It just got silly, got stupid,’’ Evan Rodrigues said afterward. “By the end of it, it wasn’t really hockey out there.”

A few days later, while the Panthers were getting their 2025 Stanley Cup championship rings, word broke that the NHL fined the Lightning $100,000 with Cooper getting a $25,000 hit for how the team handled the situation.

The Lightning brought up six players from the minors just for the game — and five of them played like they knew what they were there for.

Some of those players, such as Boris Katchouck and Scott Sabourin, will be on the ice tonight such is the state of the Tampa Bay lineup due to an injured list that rivals Florida.

Does that mean we’ll see a continuation of that last game?

Probably not.

That was, after all, the final exhibition game of a long preseason.

“The two preseason games obviously we all saw what was there,’’ Jeff Petry said. “I think our focus is to win the game, playing fast, and playing hard. That’s our mindset going into it.’’

The Panthers and Lightning both need wins.

Florida and Tampa Bay are both sitting outside of the playoff picture right now — the Panthers are three points out, the Lightning four.

“If you win the parade to the penalty box, you’re probably not giving yourself much chance to win,’’ Cooper said on Friday. “I don’t think Tampa nor Florida loves where they are in the standings. Winning the game will be top of the list for everyone.’’

NOTEBOOK: LIGHTNING AT PANTHERS

• Aaron Ekblad plays in his 750th game tonight. He is Florida’s all-time leader by a defenseman in games played, goals, assists, points, just about everything. After tonight, he will be 54 games back of tying Sasha Barkov for most games played in franchise history.
• Brandon Hagel, Victor Hedman, and Anthony Cirelli are among Tampa Bay’s long list of injured players. “No one in the NHL feels badly for either of the two teams playing tonight,’’ Cooper quipped.
• Starting Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky will be back in net for the Panthers after sustaining Daniil Tasrasov got his first win in Florida on Thursday. We expect Andrei Vasilevskiy to be in net for the Lightning.
• How to Watch/Stream: The Panthers are back on local television tonight. The game can also be streamed on ESPN+ and Panthers+.
• NHL Betting Odds: The Panthers are slight favorites (-135) on the money line at the local book. To win with the Panthers, a $135 bet pays $100.

ON DECK: GAME 18

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING at FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 5 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: MoneyLine (-135); Puck Line -1.5 (+175); O/U 5.5 (-120/+100)
• Season Series — At Florida: Saturday; Dec. 27. At Tampa Bay: Dec. 15; Feb. 5
• Last Regular Season: Tied 2-2
• Last Postseason: Florida won 4-1 (Round 1)
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 79-53-19, 10 ties
• All-Time Postgame Series — Tied 2-2: Lightning won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS; Panthers won 2024, 2025 first-round series

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (9-7-1) LINES

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 17 Evan Rodrigues // 13 Sam Reinhart

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 63 Brad Marchand

70 Jesper Boqvist // 9 Sam Bennett // 11 Mackie Samoskevich

10 A.J. Greer // 79 Cole Schwindt // 71 Luke Kunin

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 3 Seth Jones

6 Donovan Sebrango // 2 Jeff Petry

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

40 Daniil Tarasov

Scratched: Uvis Balinskis, Noah Gregor

Injured: Sasha Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body)

PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (8-6-2) LINES

59 Jake Guentzel // 21 Brayden Point // 86 Nikita Kucherov

11 Jakob Pelletier // 37 Yanni Gourde // 93 Gage Goncalves

28 Zemgus Girgensons // 62 Jack Finley // 22 Oliver Bjorkstrand

61 Boris Katchouck // 42 Curtis Douglas // 46 Scott Sabourin

90 J.J. Moser // 24 Max Crozier

51 Charle-Edouard D’Astous // 81 Erik Cernak

78 Emil Lilleberg // 43 Darren Raddysh

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy

31 Jonas Johansson

Scratched: None

Injured: Brandon Hagel (upper body), Anthony Cirelli (upper body), Nick Paul (upper body), Ryan McDonagh (undisclosed), Pontus Holmberg (undisclosed), Dominic James (undisclosed), Victor Hedman (undisclosed)