Both the Cats and Canes have had to manage injuries to key players early in the season
The Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes are set to meet for the first time since last season’s Eastern Conference Final.
While the Panthers ended up winning the series in a four-game sweep, it was an incredibly even matched affair.,
Each game was decided by one goal, the first two games went into overtime and Game 4 was decided quite literally in the final seconds.
Take a moment and watch the video below for a quick trip down memory lane.
It was a different story during the regular season, with Carolina winning two of the three games.
This year, both the Panthers and Hurricanes have been playing well of late.
Florida comes in with a solid 7-2-1 record over its past 10 games while the Canes are winners of five of their past six.
The Hurricanes have yet to lose on home ice this season, but they’re a pedestrian 4-5-0 when away from PNC Arena.
Entering Friday, Florida has won three straight games at home and is 4-1-0 overall this year.
Both teams have had to lean on their respective roster depth, as each has managed injuries to key players early in the season.
Florida has been without defenseman Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, as well as center Sam Bennett.
Carolina has been without defenseman Brett Pesce and goaltender Frederick Andersen, and they missed star Andrei Svechnikov for the first eight games of the season.
Pesce could be back for Friday's game in Sunrise.
Panthers captain Sasha Barkov and Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho will be two players to watch, as both have averaged about a point per game in their careers against one another.
Here are the projected Panthers lines and pairings for Friday’s tilt with Carolina:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg – Steven Lorentz – William Lockwood
Gus Forsling – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Niko Mikkola – Dmirty Kulikov
Josh Mahura – Uvis Balinskis
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