Both Florida and Colorado enter Saturday's game with 32 wins and 68 points
A prime matchup of Stanley Cup contenders is set to take place Saturday night in Sunrise.
The defending Eastern Conference Champion Florida Panthers are hosting the Central Division leading Colorado Avalanche in what many believe could be a preview of this summer’s championship series.
Colorado enters Saturday’s game having dropped three straight on their ongoing six-game road trip, with losses coming Monday, Tuesday and Thursday against the Rangers, Devils and Hurricanes, respectively.
The Avalanche will be trying to avoid the team’s first four-game losing streak of the season, but they’ll have to do it against a Florida squad that has proven to be very difficult to beat when firing on all cylinders.
That’s exactly how the Panthers feel they’re operating after snapping back into place during Thursday’s 4-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.
Florida’s fourth line provided the spark that helped the Cats get back to the hard-working, aggressive forecheck game they’ve shown to execute so well over the past year.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice also made some changes to his top three forward lines during the win, moves that he said Friday he may stick with when the puck drops against the Avalanche.
Aside from the lineup swaps, Maurice said Sergei Bobrovsky would get the start again in goal for Florida.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s matchup with the Avs:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues
Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
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