SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames will both be trying to put their last games behind them when they meet up this afternoon.
It’s Black Friday at Sawgrass Mills so, if you were planning on parking at the mall for today’s 4 p.m. start, hope you are already there.
The Panthers are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in which they dominated all facets of play yet gave up two weird goals in the second period — then the Flyers scored twice in the final minute.
The game-winning goal was set up when Tyson Foerster fired a shot off the shin or ankle of Aaron Ekblad.
When Ekblad hit the ice, the puck came right back to Foerster, he wound up and sent a shot through traffic that beat Sergei Bobrovsky.
Ekblad, coach Paul Maurice said Thursday, is fine and will play today.
Calgary was down 4-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning just 10 minutes into Wednesday’s game on the other coast, eventually losing 5-1.
The Flames, with three former Panthers who are off to very slow starts, should have some extra jump in their skates today.
The Panthers are hoping they do not have to make any lineup changes but Maurice said that there may be an illness or two the team is keeping an eye on.
Right now, the only spare skater they have is defenseman Donovan Sebrango.
We will be speaking with Maurice around 1:30 today and will update this post.
Stay tuned.
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS
The FHN Florida Panthers Mailbag is out now, lots of great questions from our readers from trade deadline possibilities to when Sasha Barkov could return. Check it out here.
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NOTEBOOK: FLAMES AT PANTHERS
Starting Goalies: Daniil Tarasov will be back in net for the Panthers after stopping 36 shots against the Predators on Monday night. The Flames may go back with Devin Cooley after he relieved Dustin Wolf in the first period of Werdnesday’s rout in Tampa.
How to Watch/Stream: The Panthers are on local television this afternoon. The game can be streamed locally on Panthers+ or nationally on ESPN+.
NHL Betting Odds: The Panthers are pretty solid favorites (-190) on the money line at the local book. To win with the Panthers, a $190 bet pays $100.
ON DECK: GAME No. 23
CALGARY FLAMES at FLORIDA PANTHERS
When: Friday, 4 p.m.
Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
Local Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: MoneyLine (-190); Puck Line -1.5 (+130); O/U 5.5 (-120/+100)
Last Season: Even 1-1
This Season — At Calgary: March 20. At Florida: Friday.
All-Time Regular Season Series: Calgary leads 27-12-3, 3 ties
Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (12-10-1) 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
40 Daniil Tarasov
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
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 CALGARY FLAMES (8-14-3) LINES
10 Jonathan Huberdeau // 16 Morgan Frost // 27 Matt Coronato
17 Yegor Sharangovich // 91 Nazem Kadri // 86 Joel Farabee
47 Connor Zary // 11 Mikael Backlund // 20 Blake Coleman
70 Ryan Lomberg // 18 John Beecher // 43 Adam Klapka
7 Kevin Bahl // 4 Rasmus Andersson
37 Yan Kuznetsov // 52 MacKenzie Weegar
44 Joel Hanley // 94 Brayden Pachal
1 Devin Cooley
32 Dustin Wolf
Scratched: Jake Bean, Dryden Hunt, Sam Morton
Injured: Martin Pospisil (undisclosed), Zayne Parekh (upper body), Samuel Honzek (upper body)
