"I love battling these guys," Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg said. "They're one of the best in the league. The battle of Florida is heating up before the season. It should be a fun year."
Earlier this week, Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said he planned to ice close to an Opening Night lineup in the final game of the preseason. That means there's a good chance that we'll see a good amount of Florida's regulars tonight, including getting a couple back from injuries.
Full participants during Friday's practice, Carter Verhaeghe and Gustav Forsling both look like they're ready to get back on the ice. Verhaeghe was skating in his usual spot alongside Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov, while Forsling was paired with Radko Gudas on the blue line.
Verhaeghe, who scored a career-high 18 goals on the top line last season, has registered three points (one goal, two assists) in two games during the preseason, while Forsling, who broke out after joining the Panthers off waivers last season, has appeared in one exhibition game thus far.
Likely blessed with newfound "dad strength" after welcoming his first child into the world this week, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the nod in net for the Panthers. In his only taste of action in the preseason, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner turned aside 11 of 12 shots over two periods of play, with that only goal against coming by way of the power play.
In 31 games last season, Bobrovsky went 19-8-2 with a .906 save percentage.
"These are tune-up games, so you can play it accordingly," Quenneville said of the preseason. "But when you're playing a game you might as well play all-out to get our pace established and get some consistency with your linemates and a little bit of predictability in our team game."
Carrying a hot stick for the Panthers, Owen Tippett has scored three goals over his last two games, moving him into a tie with Barkov for the team's preseason scoring lead with six points.
"Tipp has always had that ability, but this year I think he knows what he's capable of," Lomberg said of Tippett, who had 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 2020-21. "It's awesome to see him get rewarded. … When he gets those chances, he's going to bury them more often than not."
According to the team's official website, the Lightning are expected to deploy most of their top players for the second straight game. On Tuesday, Steven Stamkos and Corey Perry each scored twice for Tampa Bay, which benefited from the Cats keeping their stars on the bench.
Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov are tied for first on the Lightning in preseason scoring with five points apiece, while Perry, Pat Maroon and Mikhail Sergachev have all chipped in three.
While they haven't announced their starting goaltender yet, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see Andrei Vasilevskiy man the crease for the Lightning. A finalist for the Vezina Trophy last season, he surrendered three goals on 28 shots against the Panthers while taking the loss on Tuesday.
After tonight's game, the Cats will open their regular season against the Penguins on Oct. 14.
"That's when it really starts," Panthers forward Joe Thornton said.
