Back on home ice, Panthers brace for rematch with hungry Coyotes

David Dwork

Jan 24, 2024, 13:00

David Dwork

Jan 24, 2024, 13:00

Florida will be looking to build off a strong win on Monday in Nashville

The Florida Panthers will take the ice at Amerant Bank Arena one final time before the NHL takes its annual all-star break.

On Wednesday, Florida will host the Arizona Coyotes looking to build off Monday’s encouraging victory in Nashville.

The last time the Panthers and Coyotes faced off, the game was mostly remembered for Jason Zucker going after Nick Cousins for a check on Coyotes’ defenseman Juuso Valimaki.

It happened back on Jan. 2 and Florida came out on top by a 4-1 final score. It was the fifth in a stretch of nine consecutive wins.

This time around, the Panthers are hoping to turn one win into two straight while earning just their second victory on home ice since the calendar flipped to 2024.

The wild card for the Panthers is the status of top line center Sasha Barkov.

It’s been over a week since Barkov last played in a game, sitting out each of Florida’s past three with a lower-body injury.

He stayed behind in South Florida this week to work on his own while the Panthers went up to Nashville and took down the Predators.

Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice has said multiple times that Barkov will not be brought back into the lineup until he is 100% healed.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Wednesday’s tilt with the Coyotes:

WITH BARKOV:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Mackie Samoskevich

Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg

WITHOUT BARKOV

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart