Apr 13, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Eetu Luostarinen (27) controls the puck against Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1) during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)It’s been quite a week for the Florida Panthers.
After a busy few days leading up to Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline, the Panthers are loaded up and ready to bear down on another Stanley Cup run.
The Cats will get back to work on Saturday, when they host the Buffalo Sabres at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
Florida has won five straight games and 10 of 12 overall. They’ve also won nine of their past 10 on home ice.
The run of success has pushed the Cats to the top spot of the Atlantic Division.
Entering play Saturday, Florida is two points up on second place Toronto and three points past third place Tampa Bay.
Buffalo, meanwhile, sits in the cellar of the Eastern Conference.
They were actually playing some solid hockey before and right after the 4 Nations break, winning six of seven between Jan. 28 and Feb. 25.
Unfortunately for Sabres fans, it’s been back to the norm in the time since.
They arrive in South Florida with losses in each of their past five games, having allowed 25 goals during the run of futility.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with Buffalo:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Nico Sturm – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt – Dmitry Kulikov
Scratches: Uvis Balinskis, Tomas Nosek, Brad Marchand
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