Each of Florida's first three opponents on this road trip are currently holding playoff spots

The Florida Panthers will kick off their final western swing of the season on Tuesday night when they take the ice at Mullett Arena to face the surprising Arizona Coyotes.

Entering play Tuesday, Arizona has sole possession of the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, holding a 19-14-2 record.

Not bad for a team that finished 12 games below .500 and 25 points out of a playoff spot last season.

Florida will likely have its hands full against the Yotes, as they have been playing some very good hockey of late.

Arizona has wins in six of its past seven games and has gone 11-5-0 since dropping three straight just before Thanksgiving.

Goaltender Karel Vejmelka has played well for the Yotes’ lately and is expected to start on Tuesday against Florida.

He’s logged four consecutive wins, stopping 93 of the 99 shots sent his way. 

As for the Panthers, they took part in a full team practice on Monday at the new Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale before taking off for Arizona.

The only player missing from practice was defenseman Niko Mikkola, though Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice said afterwards that he would likely be in the lineup against the Coyotes.

Also expected to be on the ice at Mullett Arena is Panthers starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

After getting the night off during Florida’s win over Montreal on Saturday, the second night of a back to back, Bobrovsky should be right back between the pipes to kick off Florida’s tough road trip.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Tuesday’s tilt in the desert:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins

Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Will Lockwood

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov 

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