Islanders (45-27-10 100P/4th MET) vs Panthers (47-26-9 103P/1st ATL)
- WHEN: 8:00 p.m. ET – LBC GameThread right here at 7:30ish
- WHERE: BB&T Center – Miami Ft Lauderdale Sunrise, FL/
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- ON THE TUBE: FOX Sports Florida, MSG+, CNBC, Sportsnet, TVAS2
- ON THE DIAL: English: 560 WQAM (Dade/Broward); 850 WFTL (Palm Beaches); 97.7 WAVK (Keys); 1370 WAXE (TCoast); 1240/1270/97.3 The Fan (SW Florida) Spanish: 1210 WNMA (Dade/Broward); 760 WEFL (Palm Beaches)
- SOCIALS: #FlaPanthers, #Isles, #NYIvsFLA, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook page
- ENEMY INTEL: Lighthouse Hockey
- SB NATION: Game Hub
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- FLA IN SERIES: Game 1 of Best-of-7 (0-0)
- LAST GAME vs NYI: NYI 3 at FLA 2 REG (Todd’s Recap) – 03/14/2016
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Luongo (0-0), Greiss (0-0)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / New York /
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Notes:
This is the first-ever playoff match-up between the Panthers and Islanders, completing the circle of postseason tilts against the three New York metro area teams for Florida…One of the two clubs will end a long playoff drought at the end of the series. The last time the Cats won in the postseason was when they vanquished the Penguins to take the Eastern Conference Championship in 1996. The Isles last playoff win was also against the Pens, in the second round, all the way back in 1993. So yeah, one of these franchises is long overdue…Ageless wonder Jaromir Jagr enters the game one point shy of 200 for his postseason career.
NHL.com Preview:
Coach Gerard Gallant confirmed Wednesday defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who missed the last three games of the regular season with an upper-body injury, would be in the lineup for Game 1. Gudbranson practiced all week and was paired with Brian Campbell, who finished the regular season with 2015 first-round pick and reigning Calder Trophy winner Aaron Ekblad. (More)
Yahoo.com Preview:
The series starts with a rare playoff back-to-back on Thursday and Friday, with the NHL saying it was necessary because of a ”combination of factors” with other events scheduled at both arenas. The Panthers’ BB&T Center couldn’t host a potential Game 1 on Wednesday because of a concert; the Islanders’ Barclays Center has conflicts on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. According to STATS, the Islanders were 9-3-3 on the second night of back-to-backs this season, the Panthers were 8-4-2. (More)
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Last game for the Cats: 5-2 home victory over Carolina on Saturday.
Last game for the Isles: 5-2 home loss to Philadelphia on Sunday.
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Last Night’s Final Scores:
- Game One: Tampa Bay 3, Detroit 2 – TBL lead series 1-0
- Game One: Pittsburgh 5, NY Rangers 2 – PIT leads series 1-0
- Game One: St. Louis 1, Chicago 0 (1OT) – STL leads series 1-0/
Today’s Action (Playoff Standings):
- Game One: Philadelphia (41-27-14) at Washington (56-18-8), 7 pm NBCSN
- Game One: Minnesota (38-33-11) at Dallas (50-23-9), 9:30 NBCSN
- Game One: San Jose (46-30-6) at Los Angeles (48-28-6), 10:30 CNBC/
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Panthers, SoFla Media & Brooklyn buds on the Tweets
Tweets from https://twitter.com/LitterBoxCats/lists/panthers-gameday-media
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