GameDay No. 16: Lines, Betting Odds for Capitals at Panthers

SUNRISE — Sergei Bobrovsky will be back in net for the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night when they play host to the Washington Capitals in the third game of a five-game homestand.

This will be Bobrovsky’s first game action since he lost 5-4 in Los Angeles on Nov. 5.

Spencer Knight had started Florida’s previous three games.

Bobrovsky will be wearing a special lavender version of his usual Panthers’ mask to support Hockey Fights Cancer. Bobrovsky plans to wear the mask throughout the month of November with the team auctioning it off for charity next month.

The Panthers, who are still at 20 players on the roster, are expected to roll out the same lines and defensive pairings as they did Saturday against Edmonton.

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This will be the first time the Panthers have faced the Capitals since knocking them out of the first round of the playoffs.

Florida got a six goals and 12 points from Carter Verhaeghe in that six-game series.

The Panthers will be trying to get back in the win column tonight after losing to Edmonton on Saturday.

“We know them, played against them a lot in the playoffs,” Sasha Barkov said. “They are a highly-skilled team, they can score from anywhere. We need to be ready all the time and stay out of the box because they have a really good power play.”

The Capitals come into the night 7-8-2 after splitting a home-and-home with the Lightning as the team has made Fort Lauderdale beach their home since Sunday night.

While Washington does not look as potent as in past seasons, there is one constant and that is one Alex Ovechkin.

Ovechkin again leads the team in scoring with eight goals and 14 points in his first 17 games and the Panthers will, perhaps, be keying on him even more than usual.

With the Capitals missing some players and not scoring at the rate they are used to, Florida will be looking at No. 8 a lot.

Still, overlook this Washington team at your peril. The Capitals have beaten a number of teams Florida has not, including Tampa Bay, Los Angeles and Edmonton.

“No one has an answer for (Ovechkin) because we’re all pretty smart guys and he has put up too many points,’’ Paul Maurice said. “You have to keep him from a volume of shots because he doesn’t need many. If he gets four shots tonight, he could score four. You want to keep that number to four because if he gets seven, even on an off night, he could get one or two.”

PANTHERS ON DECK

WASHINGTON CAPITALS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Tuesday, 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 — Florida favored: Money Line (-195); Puck line (-1.5, +130); Over/Under 6 (-125/+105)
• Last season: Panthers won 2-1 (d. Capitals 4-2 in first round)
  
• All-time regular season series: Washington leads 67-43-12, 9 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

94 Ryan Lomberg // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 9 Sam Bennett // 6 Colin White

21 Nick Cousins // 12 Eric Staal // 70 Patric Hornqvist

42 Gus Forsling // 62 Brandon Montour

5 Aaron Ekblad // 18 Marc Staal

28 Josh Mahura // 7 Radko Gudas

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: None

Injured: Anthony Duclair (LTIR-Achilles)

PROJECTED WASHINGTON CAPITALS LINEUP

8 Alex Ovechkin // 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov // 15 Sonny Milano

72 Conor Sheary // 17 Dylan Strome // 90 Marcus Johansson

24 Connor McMichael // 20 Lars Eller // 39 Anthony Mantha

59 Aliaksei Protas // 26 Nic Dowd // 21 Garnet Hathaway

56 Erik Gustafsson // 74 John Carlson

42 Martin Fehervary // 3 Nick Jensen

52 Matt Irwin // 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk

35 Darcy Kuemper

79 Charlie Lindgren