PANTHERS (29-24-3) at LIGHTNING (36-14-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SNP, SNW, SNO, TVAS
Panthers projected lineup
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
A.J. Greer — Evan Rodrigues — Brad Marchand
Sandis Vilmanis — Cole Schwindt — Mackie Samoskevich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Uvis Balinskis
Donovan Sebrango — Jeff Petry
Daniil Tarasov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Luke Kunin, Jesper Boqvist
Injured: Tobias Bjornfot (undisclosed), Brad Marchand (lower body), Seth Jones (upper body), Aleksander Barkov (knee), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder)
Lightning projected lineup
Brandon Hagel — Jake Guentzel — Nikita Kucherov
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Dominic James — Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons — Yanni Gourde — Pontus Holmberg
Curtis Douglas — Jack Finley — Scott Sabourin
J.J. Moser — Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Victor Hedman — Declan Carlile
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Max Crozier
Injured: Brayden Point (lower body), Emil Lilleberg (undisclosed), Charle-Edouard D’Astous (undisclosed), Anthony Cirelli (upper body), Nick Paul (undisclosed)
Status report
Marchand is questionable for the second leg of a back-to-back after playing and scoring the deciding shootout goal in a 5-4 win against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday; the forward has missed nine of the Panthers’ past 14 games. … Bjornfot will not play after the defenseman left in the second period Wednesday. … Vilmanis is expected to be available after missing the final two periods Wednesday. … Point, a center, was a full participant in the Lightning’s optional morning skate but will not be in the lineup and will not represent Canada in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. … Defensemen D’Astous and Lilleberg also took part in the skate; each is expected to return after the Olympic break.
