Jan 11, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart (13) moves the puck against the Boston Bruins during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)The Florida Panthers are about to begin their longest road trip of the season.
At least they get to start in a building they’ve seen some success in lately.
That’s right, Florida is back at TD Garden, the same place they’ve ended the Boston Bruins season in each of the past two playoffs, for a regular season showdown with the B’s on Tuesday night.
It’s the first of a six-game, 13-day road trip in which they’ll face only teams either currently holding a playoff spot or desperately fighting to obtain one.
The Panthers have been playing some excellent hockey of late, but this trip will test them for many reasons.
Florida will be without several key players, including Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad, who on Monday was suspended for 20 games by the NHL for violating the league’s Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
With Ekblad out of the lineup, newly acquired defenseman Seth Jones should see his ice time and situational opportunities grow.
They will also be without newly acquired forward Brad Marchand as he works his way back from an upper-body injury that he suffered in what turned out to be his final game as a Bruin.
Boston is fresh off an impressive 4-0 victory on Saturday night in Tampa Bay, a win that snapped a three-game losing streak.
Even with the dub, the Bruins have dropped eight of their past 10 games and currently sit three points back of the final Wild Card spot with less games remaining than every team in front of them.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Tuesday's battle in Boston:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Nico Sturm – Tomas Nosek
Gus Forsling – Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt – Uvis Balinskis
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Brad Marchand
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