The Panthers are finally back on home ice after a long road trip, but they won't be staying very long.
It’s been over two weeks since the Florida Panthers last played a hockey game on their home ice in Sunrise.
Fresh off a season-long six-game road trip, the Panthers will make a brief stop in South Florida to face the San Jose Sharks on Monday before heading north for three straight games in the cold next week.
Florida enters play on Monday four points back of Buffalo for the second Wild Card spot and eight points behind Montreal for third in the Atlantic Division, with two games in hand, for what it’s worth.
Things should be looking up for Florida, between their recent run of success and the pending return of two key forwards.
The Cats ended their road trip with wins in three of four games, despite missing a handful of players that included star forwards Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk.
Marchand has paced the team in scoring this season amid the absences of Tkachuk, team captain Sasha Barkov and many others, but he’s been out of Florida’s past five games with an undisclosed injury.
Tkachuk has yet to make his season debut, recovering from offseason surgery for a torn adductor and sports hernia.
Both have been practicing with the team of late. Marchand has been wearing a gold, non-contact jersey that Tkachuk had been wearing until about a week ago.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice provided some insight into the health status of both forwards before the team returned to South Florida.
“He’s close,” Maurice said of Tkachuk. “He’s getting pushed hard on the ice. The recovery has been good, he hasn’t felt at 100%, but the last two days he pushed hard, he came back and felt good, so I don’t think he’s very far away right now.”
Maurice was also asked about how close Marchand is to returning.
“I would say he’s fairly close, too,” Maurice said. “Neither one of those guys should be out very much longer.”
Remember, the start time for this game was moved up an hour and will begin at 6 p.m. ET. There is a rather large football game occurring a few miles south on Monday night, so the Cats moved up their start time to allow fans the chance to watch both.
Here are the *healthy Panthers projected lines and pairings for Monday’s matchup with the Sharks:
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist – Luke Kunin – A.J. Greer
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Uvis Balinskis
Tobias Bjornfot – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Jan 17, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) celebrates with teammates after their game against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)