The New York Rangers take on the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden tonight for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final. Here are the projected/expected lineups, sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.
(1A) PANTHERS at (1M) RANGERS
Eastern Conference Final, Game 5
8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC
Best-of-7 series tied 2-2
Panthers projected lineup
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Matthew Tkachuk — Sam Bennett — Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Vladimir Tarasenko
Steven Lorentz — Kevin Stenlund — Kyle Okposo
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
Scratched: Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, William Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif
Injured: None
Status report:
- Verhaeghe, a forward, left the Panthers morning skate and did not return after being hit in the mouth with a puck, but coach Paul Maurice said he will be OK to play Game 5
- “He tipped one off [Bobrovsky’s] head and he took it (in the mouth). He just took a couple stitches. He’s fine.”
More from THW:
- Panthers’ Games 3 & 4 Process Should Lead to Positive Outcome
- Reinhart’s Overtime Goal Leads Panthers to Game 4 Win
- Rangers vs. Panthers Game 4 – Pre-Game Stats, Facts & Notes
Rangers projected lineup
Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Filip Chytil
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Jack Roslovic — Alex Wennberg — Kaapo Kakko
Will Cuylle — Barclay Goodrow — Matt Rempe
Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller — Braden Schneider
Erik Gustafsson — Jacob Trouba
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Scratched: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Jonny Brodzinski, Adam Edstrom, Blake Wheeler, Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Ben Harpur, Dylan Garand, Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin, Adam Sykora
Injured: Jimmy Vesey (upper body)
Status report
- Chytil is expected to return after being a healthy scratch for a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4; Wheeler, a forward, is expected to be scratched.
- Judging from the Rangers morning skate, Schneider will start on the second defense pair with Miller and Trouba will drop down to the third pair to play with Gustafsson; New York used those pairs in the first nine games of the playoffs before switching in Game 6 of the second round to having Trouba with Miller and Schneider with Gustafsson.
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