The Carolina Hurricanes (22-9-2) are visiting the Sunshine State as they prepare for a game against the Stanley Cup Champion, Florida Panthers (18-13-2) on Friday night. Game time is 7 P.M. and the television broadcast will be on the Fanduel Sports Network.
Don’t look now but the Canes are one of the hottest teams in the league. They are winners of five straight games and have an 8-2-0 record over their last 10.
The team is currently in first place in the Eastern Conference by four points.
After a slow start, the Panthers have now won three straight and have a 6-3-1 record over their last 10.
While Jaccob Slavin’s minutes have been closely watched since his return to action, (limited to about 15 minutes a game), his presence has been noteworthy. Look for the same Friday night.
Alexander Nikishin has a current team best four game point streak going, (1G 3A). Who would have possibly thought that putting him on a powerplay unit would increase scoring?
There was no word at the time of this article whether or not Jordan Martinook would be able to play in this game. Martinook left the game early against Nashville with an unknown ailment.
Also, as of 12:30 there is still no word on who will start in net for Carolina. It should be Brandon Bussi but could be Fred Andersen. We will see.
The rest of the lineup should be the same as from recent games.
((Update)) According to this Brind’Amour interview after the pregame skate, Kotkaniemi should be back in the lineup and Martinook is out.
Still nothing official about the starting goaltender.
The Panthers are still missing Barkov and Tkachuk but Bobrovsky will be in net, who is always a challenge for Carolina. Look for their lines to be something like this.
Luostarinen – Lundell – Reinhart
Verhaeghe – Bennett – Marchand
Samoskevich – Rodrigues – Greer
Gregor – Kunin – Boqvist
Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Jones
Balinskis – Petry
Paul Maurice had a press conference prior to the game.
