FORT LAUDERDALE — A season of personal milestones continues for the Florida Panthers tonight with defenseman Gus Forsling playing in his 500th NHL game against the Flyers in Sunrise.
Forsling, 29, will have played 378 of those games with the Panthers and the rest with the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It’s cool, something I probably did not expect growing up,” Forsling said at Wednesday’s morning skate.
Forsling has become one of the NHL’s top defensive players in his time with the Panthers.
Florida acquired Forsling before the start of the 2021 season when the Carolina Hurricanes placed him on waivers. The Panthers, who were led by former Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville at the time, snapped him up.
Pretty shrewd move.
“I’m pretty sure, when we were in Winnipeg, we put a claim in on him too,” Paul Maurice said. “I think there were a bunch of teams who were onto the fact that he could do some good things.”
NOTEBOOK: FLYERS at PANTHERS
The Panthers are holding a toy drive starting at 5 tonight with fans asked to bring new and unwrapped toys to the Publix Plaza. The toys will benefit families in need this holiday season through two philanthropic organizations:Kids in Destress in Broward County and HomeSafe in Palm Beach County.
Starting Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky is back in net for the Panthers tonight. The Flyers will have Dan Vladar go against the Panthers for the third time this season.
How to Watch/Stream: The Panthers are on local television tonight. The game can be streamed locally on Panthers+ or nationally on ESPN+.
NHL Betting Odds: The Panthers are pretty solid favorites (-180) on the money line at the local book. To win with the Panthers, a $180 bet pays $100.
ON DECK: GAME 23
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (12-9-1) LINES
11 Mackie Samoskevich // 15 Anton Lundell // 63 Brad Marchand
10 A.J. Greer // 17 Evan Rodrigues // 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 70 Jesper Boqvist
18 Noah Gregor// 71 Luke Kunin // 38 Jack Devine
42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad
77 Niko Mikkola // 3 Seth Jones
26 Uvis Balinskis // 2 Jeff Petry
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
40 Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Donovan Sebrango
Injured: Eetu Luostarinen (lower body), Sasha Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Cole Schwindt (broken arm)
PROJECTED PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (11-7-3) LINES
39 Matvei Michkov // 14 Sean Couturier // 10 Bobby Brink
46 Trevor Zegras // 22 Christian Dvorak // 74 Owen Tippett
71 Tyson Foerster // 27 Noah Cates // 11 Travis Konecny
29 Nikita Grebenkin // 18 Rodrigo Abols // 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York // 6 Travis Sanheim
36 Emil Andrae // 9 Jamie Drysdale
24 Nick Seeler // 47 Noah Juulsen
80 Dan Vladar
33 Samuel Ersson
Scratched: Nicolas Deslauriers, Egor Zamula
Injured: Rasmus Ristolainen (triceps)
