Panthers aim for fifth straight win, hosting a struggling Blues squad a night after Florida's thrilling comeback over Carolina.
The Florida Panthers will look to run their season-long winning streak to five games when they complete the second leg of a back-to-back set on Saturday in Sunrise.
Fresh off Friday night’s exhilarating comeback victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida will welcome the St. Louis Blues for their only visit to Amerant Bank Arena this season.
The Panthers have been playing some solid hockey over the past several weeks, and the results are showing in the standings.
Entering play Saturday, Florida had risen all the way to second place in the Atlantic Division, their 19-13-2 record good for 40 points.
There are actually three teams with 40 points in the division, but Florida has more regulation wins (16) than both Montreal (11) and Boston (14), and the Carts have also played one less game than the Bruins and the same amount as the Canadiens.
That’s what happens when you win four straight games and seven of eight in an extremely tightly packed Eastern Conference.
Now they’ll try to keep the good times rolling when they face former Bruins coach Jim Montgomery and the Blues.
To this point, the season has been a struggle for St. Louis.
The Blues have yet to recover from a 3-7-2 start, currently holding a 13-15-8 mark that has them three points back of San Jose for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
St. Louis arrives in South Florida with points in two straight (1-0-1) but only two wins over their past six games overall.
In goal, the expected matchup will be Joel Hofer for the Blues and Daniil Tarasov for Florida.
Hofer has received the bulk of the work for St. Louis of late, including each of their past two wins, while on the Florida side, starter Sergei Bobrovsky was in goal for the Cats’ epic comeback on Friday so it makes sense that Tarasov would get the nod on the second night of a back-to-back.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with the Blues:
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – A.J. Greer
Jesper Boqvist – Noah Gregor – Luke Kunin
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Dec 17, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Noah Gregor (18) celebrates with goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) after the game against the Los Angeles Kings at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)