Panthers host Minnesota looking to end homestand on high note

The Florida Panthers will look to avoid a fourth straight loss when they wrap up their first homestand of 2024 with a matchup against the Minnesota Wild.

Florida enters the game having dropped each of their past three contests, including a pair of overtime losses to Anaheim and Detroit in which the Panthers held multiple leads in both.

Now they’ll lock horns with a Minnesota squad trying desperately to get its season back on track.

The Wild have lost nine of their past 11 and are fresh off a 7-3 defeat in Tampa Bay on Thursday night.

Now they’ll have to play the second night of a back-to-back in Sunrise and face a Florida squad hungry to get back in the win column.

One big unknown with the Panthers is whether captain and top line center Sasha Barkov will be in the lineup.

Barkov missed Florida’s overtime loss to Detroit on Wednesday with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day, according to Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.

He skated on his own Thursday morning before the Cats full team practice and is expected to skate again on Friday morning.

“I don’t have an update for the game tomorrow until he skates tomorrow,” Maurice said.

One thing we do know is that Florida will be going back to Sergei Bobrovsky in goal.

Bob has dropped each of his past two starts after winning seven in a row.

He enters play Friday with 21 wins, the fourth most among goaltenders this season.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Friday’s tussle with the Wild:

With Barkov:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Ryan Lomberg

Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Will Lockwood

Without Barkov:

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Evan Rodrigues – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg

Jonah Gadjovich – Steven Lorentz – Will Lockwood

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov 

Previous meeting: 

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