It’s been a rough start to the season for the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers.
After taking down the Boston Bruins on Opening Night last week, Florida has dropped back-to-back road games while missing some key players.
Florida captain Sasha Barkov was hurt late in the Cats’ 2-1 loss to Ottawa on Thursday, then both he and Matthew Tkachuk, who is dealing with an illness, sat out Saturday’s 5-2 loss to Buffalo.
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Knowing Tkachuk, he will be back in the lineup as soon as humanly possible, but Barkov is going to be out for the next 2-3 weeks due to his lower-body injury.
Whether or not Tkachuk is back in the lineup on Monday, Florida will need to come up with a better effort than we saw on Saturday if they’re going to contend with the bruising Bruins on Monday afternoon.
Not only have the Panthers knocked Boston out of the playoffs in each of the past two postseasons, but Florida also put up a six-spot on the Bruins after raising their Stanley Cup banner six days ago.
Since then, the B’s have won a pair of home games, taking down the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 on Thursday and the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night, 2-1 in overtime.
One final note on the Panthers…forward Sam Reinhart is expected to skate in his 700th NHL game Monday.
He’s logged three points in Florida’s three games so far this season, including a shorthanded goal against Boston back on Opening Night.
Here are the Panthers projected lines for Monday’s matinee in Boston:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Jesper Boqvist – Mackie Samoskevich
Jonah Gadjovich – Patrick Giles – A.J. Greer
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinksis – Adam Boqvist
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