The final homestand of the regular season continues on Saturday for the Florida Panthers.
So far, Florida has reeled off a pair of victories against two solid clubs, the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs and playoff hopeful (but not likely) Detroit Red Wings.
Now the Cats will prepare to face a Buffalo Sabres squad that, while already eliminated from playoff contention, has been playing their best hockey of the season.
Buffalo’s loss in Columbus on Thursday snapped a season-best five-game winning streak. The Sabres are 8-2-0 over their past 10, with both defeats coming on the road.
In fact, Buffalo’s last six losses have all come away from home. Their last loss on home ice was all the way back on March 4.
It was a hell of a run that pulled the Sabres out of the Eastern Conference basement and pulled them in with the teams on the outside of the playoff race.
The effort will end up being filed in the too little, too late department, but perhaps the young Sabres will be able to use their strong finish to show up in the fall with a more inspired start to next season.
Surely a win against the defending Stanley Cup Champions would help fuel that kind of mindset, but the Panthers are also playing well of late.
Despite only winning their past two, Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice has made it clear that he’s been pleased with how his team has been performing over the past several weeks.
That should be particularly pleasing for Panthers fans due to the amount of players in and out of the lineup lately.
Don’t be surprised to see that kind of roster management continue as Maurice has said he’s prioritizing getting his team healthy for the playoffs.
Additionally, Florida closes out the regular season with three games in four nights, so load management should be expected.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s dustup with Detroit:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Tomas Nosek – Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer – Nico Sturm – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Nate Schmidt
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Jaycob Megna – Uvis Balinskis
Scratches: Sam Bennett, Jonah Gadjovich, Jesse Puljujarvi, Dmitry Kulikov, Rasmus Asplund, Matt Kiersted
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