Panthers aim to cap a strong road trip by clashing with a struggling Lightning squad that could potentially be welcoming back their star goalie.
The Florida Panthers have a chance to a very positive stamp on an extremely challenging road trip.
Florida wraps up their four-game trek on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning after reeling off wins over the Utah Mammoth and Dallas Stars during the roadie.
The Panthers have now won four of their past five, moving them to within three points of the second Wild Card spot, four points of third place in the Atnaltic Division and five points of first place in the division.
Now the Cats will meet their cross-state rivals for the second of four times this season.
Florida dropped the first meeting 3-1, a tight affair that was tied after two and saw the Cats come close to tying the game before Tampa scored into an empty net during the final minute.
It’s been a tough stretch for the Lighting of late as they tried to maneuver the loss of world class goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to an undisclosed injury.
After losing his last start on Dec. 2, Tampa has dropped four of six since.
The good news for the Lightning is that Vasilevskiy has been practicing and could potentially return against Florida.
As for the Panthers, there’s no reason to think they’ll make any lineup changes coming off Saturday’s 4-0 victory in Dallas.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Monday’s matchup with the Bolts:
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – A.J. Greer
Noah Gregor – Jack Studnicka – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis – Jeff Petry
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Dec 10, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; The Florida Panthers celebrate a goal by center Anton Lundell (15) during the third period of the game against the Utah Mammoth at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)