The Florida Panthers will have a slightly different look when they resume their second round playoff series on Wednesday night.
Florida is making a couple lineup changes ahead Game 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
One we knew was coming, and one wasn’t terribly surprising.
First off, Panthers top pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad will rejoin his teammates after serving a two-game suspension.
Ekblad was disciplined for a hit to the head of Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel during Game 4 of Florida’s opening round victory over the Lightning.
Up front, rookie forward Mackie Samoskevich will slot back into the lineup, skating on the Panthers’ fourth line with Nico Sturm and Jesper Boqvist.
Samoskevich had been a regular in the lineup for much of the season, racking up eight goals and 15 points of the final 25 games before the playoffs.
His first postseason games saw Samoskevich moved from the second line to the fourth, and then after Florida’s 5-1 loss in Game 3, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice opted to bring in Greer, who plays a veteran, gritty game, and allow the rookie a chance to step back, relax and prepare for his eventual return.
It’s not the first time Maurice has done this.
Samoskevich also was a healthy scratch for the first three games in February, after he’d gone 14 games in January without a goal.
When he returned, he racked up four goals and seven points in seven games before finishing the season on that aforementioned 15-point-in-25-game run.
We’ll see if has a similar experience this time, as the playoffs are a bit of a different beast.
The puck drops on Game 2 at Scotiabank Arena at 7 p.m.
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