Cats aim for third consecutive victory against Metro-leading Carolina, with key forwards potentially returning to the lineup.
The Florida Panthers will continue their season-long road trip when they face one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference on Friday.
Florida has won two straight games on their trip, Saturday in Ottawa and Monday in Buffalo, and will now wrap up their roadie with a back-to-back set that kicks off on Friday night against the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
With three days between games, the Panthers took advantage of the break in their schedule and flew home for a couple days.
They held one formal practice at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale, one that saw an extremely large group fully participate.
Much of the focus this week has been on the health status of forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand.
Tkachuk is very close to making his regular season debut, having worked his way back from offseason adductor and sports hernia surgery.
Marchand wore a non-contact jersey during Wednesday’s skate, though he did work in the majority of the drills.
Either or both could end up playing in one or both of the games this weekend, but if Tkachuk is ready to crack the lineup, Florida will need to make a roster move in order to make room for the star forward.
Regardless of who suits up, Friday will be the third and final meeting this season between the Cats and Canes.
Florida has won each of the first two games, a 4-3 shootout victory on home ice on Dec. 19 that saw the Panthers come back from down 3-0 with less than 10 minutes to go, a franchise first, and four days later, a 5-2 win in Raleigh in which the Cats were down 2-0 entering the third period.
Carolina enters Friday’s matchup having lost two straight. They’ll be looking to avoid a third three-game losing streak in less than a month and maintain their separation from the rest of the Metropolitan Division.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Friday’s kerfuffle in Carolina:
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – A.J. Greer
Jesper Boqvist – Luke Kunin – Jack Studnicka
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Uvis Balinskis
Donovan Sebrango – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Jan 12, 2026; Buffalo, New York, USA; The Florida Panthers celebrate a win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images)