The Florida Panthers battle the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 2 of their first round matchup at Amerant Bank Arena this evening. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others
PANTHERS (3A) at LIGHTNING (2A)
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 2
6:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, TVAS2, SN360
Florida leads best-of-7 series 1-0
Panthers Projected Lineup
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Evan Rodrigues — Nico Sturm — Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis — Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna
Injured: None
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Status report:
Ekblad will serve the final game of his 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program; the defenseman will be eligible to return for Game 3 on Saturday.
Latest from THW:
- Panthers Find a Way to Get an Important Win in Tampa
- Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1
- NHL Head Coaches Are Having to Manage the Game More in the Playoffs
Lightning Projected Lineup
Gage Goncalves — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel — Nick Paul — Brandon Hagel
Conor Geekie — Yanni Gourde — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening
Victor Hedman — JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Cam Atkinson
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower-body injury), Anthony Cirelli (undisclosed)
Status Report:
Cirelli, a forward, did not participate in the morning skate and is questionable.
Latest from THW:
- 3 Takeaways From Lightning’s Brutal Game 1 Loss
- Lightning & Crunch Partnership Creates Best NHL/AHL Postseason Run
- Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1
