Panthers visit the Hurricanes with 1-0 series lead
Florida Panthers (47-31-4, in the Atlantic Division) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (47-30-5, in the Metropolitan Division)
Raleigh, North Carolina; Thursday, 8 p.m. EDT
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Hurricanes -128, Panthers +108; over/under is 5.5
STANLEY CUP SEMIFINALS: Panthers lead series 1-0
BOTTOM LINE: The Florida Panthers visit the Carolina Hurricanes in the third round of the NHL Playoffs with a 1-0 lead in the series. The teams meet Tuesday for the fifth time this season. The Panthers won 5-2 in the last meeting.
Carolina has a 36-10-1 record in home games and a 47-30-5 record overall. The Hurricanes have scored 266 total goals (3.2 per game) to rank ninth in the league.
Florida has gone 26-21-2 on the road and 47-31-4 overall. The Panthers are 27-11-4 in games they convert at least one power play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jack Roslovic has scored 22 goals with 17 assists for the Hurricanes. Andrei Svechnikov has seven goals and two assists over the past 10 games.
Sam Reinhart has 39 goals and 42 assists for the Panthers. Carter Verhaeghe has scored five goals and added four assists over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Hurricanes: 7-2-1, averaging 3.2 goals, 4.9 assists, 3.7 penalties and 8.4 penalty minutes while giving up 2.1 goals per game.
Panthers: 7-3-0, averaging 4.1 goals, 7.1 assists, 4.8 penalties and 14.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.4 goals per game.
INJURIES: Hurricanes: None listed.
Panthers: None listed.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
39 minutes ago
- CBC
What do Oilers fans expect from Game 3?
After a double-overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Friday night, fans were down, but certainly not out. Sarah Reid caught up with some Oilers faithful outside Rogers Place to share their predictions on Game 3.
Globe and Mail
5 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Florida Panthers' Brad Marchand continues to set the tone for the NHL
A year ago, Sam Bennett caught then Boston Bruin Brad Marchand across the side of the head with a rabbit punch at speed. The blow was so sneaky that only one camera angle caught it. Marchand missed two games. Bennett got away with it. Florida won the series. Now the two men are like Frick and Frack. You can't separate them. They came out together after Marchand won Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and began pumping out Dairy Queen memes. As you're reading this, they'll be booking an off-season window to shoot the commercial. More than big goals or low blows, this is Marchand's magic – he creates a scene. I mean that in the Andy Warhol sense. Wherever he is, everyone around him suddenly becomes interesting. Marchand's 37 now, and at the height of his powers. As much as anyone, he's set the tone for the last 15 years in the NHL. It got smaller. He's small. It got faster. He's fast. It got mean again. He never stopped. If he can lead another team to a Stanley Cup, it's fair to ask – is Marchand the best player of his generation? Statistically, no. That's Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Accomplishment-wise, also no. That would be Crosby alone. But there's more to art than succeeding. You get points for style as well. Marchand has more than the next 10 guys combined. It's down to your point of view. How do you see the NHL? Is it a game of honour played by men who do things the correct way, or is it a gladiator pit and nobody cares how you kill the lions, as long as they get killed? Crosby emblemizes hockey as it wishes to be. Marchand represents hockey as it is. The native of Hammonds Plains, N.S. is the embodiment of America's guiding principle – if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'. Marchand was drafted 71st overall (so much for scouts). Initially, his level wasn't high enough for the NHL. The first half-dozen of his seasons were good, but not great. That's the reason Marchand has never represented Canada at an Olympics. He is the player teams like the Leafs kid themselves can be made, but are only born – those who will themselves to greatness. Initially, Marchand's role on the Bruins was disruption. Anywhere else, that tendency to lose the plot might have set the tone for the club. In Boston, Marchand was the exception that proved the rule. It was Zdeno Chara's and Patrice Bergeron's team – which is to say, a place for adults. Marchand played the toddler who sometimes had to be taken outside to cool down. He never chafed in the role, and they never tried to fix him. So, eventually, Marchand fixed himself. He's just as nasty, but in a more coherent way. Can you imagine Marchand licking someone in a playoff game today? Okay, yes, but only in a fun way. I'm still sure he would do just about anything to win, including some pretty awful things. That's the difference between him and a William Nylander. It's this duality in Marchand – a mean-spirited bully on the ice; an easygoing charmer off it – that attracts people. Most top NHLers are one thing or the other. Bennett is Marchand without the wit. Crosby is Marchand without the ugliness. Only Marchand has real depth of character. The other secret to Marchand? He wins. Nobody likes a cheap-shot artist who loses, and nobody rates a scorer who's never mattered in a big game. You like anybody who gets results. While Crosby and Ovechkin's teams have fallen off near the end, Marchand is still manufacturing success. He isn't the best player on an already great Florida team, but he is the most present. He gets off the best lines and draws the camera to him, regardless of what he's doing. He's the only real star on a team that's theoretically full of them. Contrast that to the other side. Would you rather have Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl on your team? Probably. Would you rather be stuck in an elevator with them? Probably not. Marchand is bursting with life whenever he speaks, while the Oilers big pair act like they're being told to bend over and cough. Two things matter in sports – win, and be entertaining while you do it. Has anyone in recent NHL memory fulfilled that brief better than Marchand? Is it even close? Let's imagine everything goes as well as it can in the final act of Marchand's career. He wins this Cup, re-signs with Florida, and maybe wins another. He gets a key role on Canada's team in Milan, and wins there, too. He has the sense to leave when he is still in fighting trim, so no one has to watch him fall apart. Then he moves into commentary, where he could be the new Don Cherry that Canadian media needs, but is too afraid to build. Even if all that happens, no one will ever say that Marchand was the best. That would be too injurious to hockey's self-image. Every generation needs a Crosby – a player beyond reproach, who upset no one and said nothing. McDavid is already being groomed for the role. His successor has yet to make himself obvious, but he's active now. That sort of player would have no purpose without a Marchand to be compared to. Not quite a bad guy, but definitely not the hero of the story. The joker, maybe, or an agent of chaos. Crosby et al may be the heart of hockey's mythos. They're the ones they write books about. But, for me, the Marchands are the soul of the game. They give it moral complexity. Which is the more valuable commodity is an aesthetic question, rather than a statistical one.
Calgary Herald
5 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Edmonton Oilers return to the scene of their greatest heartbreak
SUNRISE, FLA. — Is there a song you can't bear to listen to because it reminds you of someone from your past? Is there a restaurant that reminds you of a happier time with a person who later ripped your heart out and fed it to you? What about that one coach whom you never forgave for cutting you from the team back in junior high? Article content Imagine those scars, amplified. Article content We all watched the videos that came from the visitors' dressing room at Amerant Bank Arena after the Oilers' one-goal loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup final. There were tears. Anger. Promises that they'd be back to challenge for the Cup. It's telling that the videos of the Oilers in pain became the most-remembered images from Game 7, not of the Panthers skating around the ice with the Cup. Connor McDavid deciding to stay in the dressing room rather than skate back onto the ice to receive the Conn Smythe Trophy was a big deal, whether you sympathize with the player or not. Article content Article content Article content Defenceman Mattias Ekholm said it's fitting that the team is back in Florida in June. Article content 'It's obviously for the right reasons,' he said. 'It feels good.' Article content And he said players can't hide from the strong emotions that the Cup brings. 'That's what this is. That's what everybody feels. Everybody cares in there. This is what everybody wants, it's the ultimate.' Article content The Oilers played in Florida in late February, losing 4-3 as part of a four-game swoon that followed the Four Nations. But the trip to South Florida allowed the Oilers to exorcise a lot of the demons. They used that same dressing room. Article content It's no longer time to look back, said Ekholm. Article content 'And I think everybody is so focused, it doesn't matter what room we walk into,' said Ekholm. 'We just focus on the task at hand.' Article content Article content Coach Kris Knoblauch said that even if the Oilers win in 2025, it won't avenge the 2024 loss. While winning the Cup this season is the goal, it doesn't ease the pain of last year. So, you can't apply the famed Klingon proverb 'revenge is a dish best served cold' to this series, because it's not about that. Each year is taken in isolation, just as a successful team knows how to prepare for each game in isolation. As well, these aren't the exact same rosters from last year. Both teams added and subtracted. And, for some of the Oilers who left the team after 2024, they might never get back to the final. Article content Article content 'But I think everyone's focus is on this season. But, no matter what happens, I don't think that changes or helps anything. It's just that we're in a new stage of our season or path, and we're just focused on what we need to do.'
