We may only be three games into the new NHL season but we’re already getting a vastly different look to the Florida Panthers lineup.
We’ll get to that in a minute, but first, there is also going to be a change in Florida’s goal crease.
Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight, who hasn’t started a game in the NHL since February of last year, will be between the pipes when the Panthers face the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night at KeyBank Centre.
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Knight left the Panthers that February to join the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program as he was dealing with issues stemming from obsessive compulsive disorder.
He returned to the team last summer and spent the 2023-24 season with Florida’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, easing his way back into the grind of pro hockey and eventually getting back to the high-end goaltending level he’d been playing at for much of his young life.
Now he’s back with the Panthers feeling happy and healthy, and he’ll be in goal against Buffalo.
As for the non-goaltending section of the lineup…
Panthers captain Sasha Barkov sustained a lower-body injury during Florida’s loss in Ottawa on Thursday and won’t be playing for the next 2-3 weeks, and now we’re starting to see the fallout.
Florida called up forward Patrick Giles from AHL Charlotte on Friday, and he’ll slot into the Cats lineup against the Sabres.
Even with Giles addition, the Panthers will be playing a forward short on Saturday.
That’s because Matthew Tkachuk is under the weather and will not suit up against the Sabres.
Instead, Florida will run seven defensemen, as Adam Boqvist returns to the Cats lineup after taking a puck to the face on Opening Night and missing Thursday’s loss in Ottawa.
The depth of the Panthers has been one of the team’s major strengths in recent years and a reason they have been able to remain such a consistently good squad.
That depth is being tested early in their first Stanley Cup championship defense season.
Saturday in Buffalo should be a good test.
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