Preview: Panthers visit TD Garden for Saturday Matinee

Just the Facts

Who: Florida Panthers (34-32-12, 80 Pts.) vs. Boston Bruins (47-21-9, 103 Pts.)

Where: TD Garden

When: 1 PM EST

How to Follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN Site: Litter Box Cats

Know your Enemy

For the Florida Panthers, it’s a little too late for “Lose for Hughes.” Sitting at 80 points with just four games remaining, the Panthers have already been eliminated from playoff contention, but have too many points for a last minute tank.

For the Bruins fans who will be watching this afternoon, the Panthers do have some star power to show up for. Sasha Barkov has 90 points this season. Not far behind is Jonathan Huberdeau with 86 points. The Panthers also brought up Brady Keeper after finishing his season at the University of Maine a couple of weeks ago.

Game Notes

• Matt Grzelcyk and Kevan Miller are seen as game-time decisions. It is likely we see Grzelcyk back today, and Miller tomorrow.
• With Miller back tomorrow, Connor Clifton is going to look to make that a hard decision for Bruce Cassidy and the coaching staff. He has quickly become a fan-favorite as a dependable, defensive-minded defenseman who can also jump into the rush from time to time.
• It is expected that Johansson will at least start the game with Marchand and Bergeron. At this point in the season, I think it would be fair to speculate that there may be an internal struggle as to whether or not the Bruins play Pastrnak on that line. The Heinen experiment seemed to be successful, but ended once Pastrnak was back. Will Johansson stick? Probably not, but only time will tell.
• Tuukka Rask is expected in net. He had an .865 Sv% in the over the last five games and will be looking to rebound.