The Florida Panthers (4-3-1) will open a three-game excursion through the Empire State when they take on the New York Rangers (5-0-1) tonight at the legendary Madison Square Garden.
Florida finally got back Matthew Tkachuk on Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the visiting Minnesota Wild, who handed the Panthers a 5-1 loss. Tkachuk drew the secondary helper on the Cats only goal, which was scored by Sam Bennett with the primary assist going to Carter Verhaeghe. Sergei Bobrovsky will be looking to bounce back for a rocky start that saw him give up five goals on 16 shots before he was replaced by Spencer Knight.
While the Panthers were getting handled by the Wild, the Rangers were busy pummeling the Montreal Canadiens 7-2 at Bell Centre. Filip Chytil (2G/1A) and Kaapo Kakko (1G/2A) each posted three points in the win. Artemi Panarin is off to a red-hot start with 13 points, one behind league leader Cale Makar.
- WHEN: 7 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
- ON THE TUBE: Scripps, MSG
- ON THE DIAL: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #NYR, #FLAvsNYR, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Blueshirt Banter
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 3
- LAST MEETING: @NYR 4, FLA 3 (SO) (Recap) – 3/23/2024
- NEXT MEETING: December 30, 2024
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Bobrovsky (3-2-1 .875 / 3.47 0SO) New York: Shesterkin (4-0-1 .932 / 1.98 1SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / New York
Thursday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- Dallas (5-2-0 10P) at BOSTON (3-3-1 7P) 7 p.m.
- St. Louis Blues (4-3-0 8P) at TORONTO (4-2-0 8P) 7 p.m.
- New Jersey (5-3-1 11P) at DETROIT (3-3-0 4P) 7 p.m.
- Minnesota (4-0-2 8P) at TAMPA BAY (4-2-0 8P) 7 p.m.
Idle: OTT (8P), BUF (7P), MON (5P)