The Florida Panthers battle the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 3 of their first round matchup at Amerant Bank Arena this afternoon. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.
LIGHTNING (2A) at PANTHERS (3A)
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 3
1 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, SN, TVAS
Florida leads best-of-7 series 2-0
Lightning projected lineup
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Nick Paul — Anthony Cirelli — Gage Goncalves
Conor Geekie — Yanni Gourde — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening — Cam Atkinson
Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Nick Perbix — Emil Lilleberg
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Darren Raddysh
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body)
Suspended: Brandon Hagel
Status report:
Gourde and Cirelli did not participate in practice Friday (maintenance) but each is expected to play.
Latest for THW:
- Lightning’s Brandon Hagel Suspended One Game For Barkov Hit
- Panthers Out Muscle Lightning to Go Up 2-0 in Series
- Projected Lineups for the Lightning vs. Panthers – 04/24/25
Panthers projected lineup
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe — Evan Rodrigues — Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer — Nico Sturm — Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Nate Schmidt — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna, Uvis Balinskis
Injured: Aleksander Barkov (undisclosed)
Status report
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Friday that Barkov, a center, had not been ruled out for Game 3 but also had not yet been cleared to play.
Latest for THW:
- Panthers Out Muscle Lightning to Go Up 2-0 in Series
- Panthers Find a Way to Get an Important Win in Tampa
- Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1
