The Florida Panthers are getting set to play their final road game before the NHL breaks for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Fresh off a frustrating 6-3 defeat to the Washington Capitals, Florida has traveled from our nation’s capital to its heartland for a matchup with the St. Louis Blues.
Entering play Thursday, Florida remains atop the Atlantic Division, holding a one point edge over second place Toronto.
As for St. Louis, they currently sit six points behind the Calgary Flames for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
The Blues were actually two games above .500 and one point out of the Wild Card as recently as mid-January, when they won back-to-back games against Calgary.
In the eight games since, however, St. Louis has gone just 2-5-1, dropping back below .500 and much farther away from a coveted playoff spot.
Florida will be looking to salvage two points out of their road trip following Tuesday’s loss in DC.
Overall, the Cats have been playing more consistently of late, which led to three straight wins on home ice last week.
The Panthers could be getting exciting rookie Mackie Samoskevich back in the lineup, which would give a nice boost to their forward group.
Samoskevich has missed each of Florida’s past three games while battling an illness, but he’s been skating with the team and, barring any setbacks, should be good to go Thursday in St. Louis.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and for Thursday’s battle with the Blues:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett –Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich
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