Panthers road trip continues with tough back-to-back matchup in Toronto
Florida is four points up on the Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings, but Toronto has two games in hand
The Florida Panthers will hope to get a similar effort on the second night of their Ontario back-to-back as they did on Monday in Ottawa.
Florida was dominant from start to finish, earning a 5-0 victory at the hands of the Senators. They won’t have much time to savor the win, as the Panthers will be right back at it on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This will be the second meeting between the Panthers and Leafs this season. Florida took down Toronto 3-1 back on Oct. 19, making it five wins in six games if you include last season’s second-round playoff win by the Panthers.
If we’re just talking regular season, though, the Leafs have points in eight of their past nine against Florida, holding a 5-1-3 record during that span.
Toronto comes into Tuesday’s matchup with Florida having lost two straight games and boasting a mediocre 5-4-0 record on home ice.
Overall, the Leafs are 10-6-3 on the young season, holding the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and sitting four points behind the 13-7-1 Panthers, who are second in the Atlantic Division.
Florida’s lineup is expected to look the same against the Maple Leafs as it did on Monday in Ottawa.
The only question will be which goaltender gets the nod for the visitors.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice started Sergei Bobrovsky on Monday in Ottawa and he responded by earning a 20-save shutout.
Considering the fairly light workload, it’s possible Maurice turns right back to Bobrovsky, who would start every game if he could.
Monday’s win was Bobrovsky’s 10th this season, which puts him in a tie for second in the league.
With another tough road game looming on Thursday in Montreal, Maurice may elect to deploy backup tendy Anthony Stolarz against Toronto.
In four starts this season, Stolarz holds a 3-1-0 record along with a tidy 2.28 goals against average and .917 save percentage.
Fun fact: Tuesday’s game will be the 100th regular season meeting between Florida and Toronto. They first met on Oct. 21, 1993, a 4-3 overtime win by the Leafs at Miami Arena.
Here are Florida’s projected lines and pairings for Tuesday’s tilt in Toronto:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins
Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
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