The Florida Panthers (47-23-5) will be looking to complete the season series sweep, and breach the 100-point plateau for just the third time in franchise history, when they take on the Montreal Canadiens (28-33-12) tonight at Bell Centre. Fading Florida failed to build on its Saturday win over the Detroit Red Wings, falling behind 5-1 in Toronto before pulling within a goal when Sam Bennett scored with 1:50 left on the clock. Unfortunately, Auston Matthews empty-netter snuffed out the comeback attempt and dropped the Cats to 2-6-1 over their last nine games. Tonight’s likely starter, Anthony Stolarz stopped all six shots faced in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky, who didn’t return for the third period.
After hovering around NHL .500 for a sizeable portion of the season, a five-game losing streak in February effectively ended any hope the Canadiens had of making the postseason. Montreal has won a measly six games since then, including a three-game winning streak that was halted by a 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. This will be just the second time in the modern era that the Habs will miss the postseason three-straight times. Nick Suzuki is the club’s only 30-goal marksman and leads the team in scoring with a career-high 69 points.
- WHEN: 7:00 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Bell Centre – Montreal, PQ
- ON THE TUBE: Bally Sports Florida
- ON THE DIAL: Radio Libre 790 (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #GoHabsGo, #FLAvsMTL, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Eyes On The Prize
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 4 of 4 (3-0)
- LAST MEETING: @FLA 4, MTL 3 (SO) (Recap) – 2/29/2024
- NEXT MEETING: 2024-25 regular season
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Stolarz (14-6-2 .926 / 1.99 1SO) Montreal: Montembeault (14-14-7 .905 / 3.03 0SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / Montreal
Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- Washington (36-27-10 82P) at BUFFALO (35-35-5 75P) 7 p.m.
- OTTAWA (33-36-4 70P) at Minnesota (35-29-9 79P) 8 p.m.
- BOSTON (43-17-15 101P) at Nashville (43-27-4 90P) 8 p.m.
Idle: TOR (95P), TBL (89P), DET (82P)