Graphic design: Francisco Oporta / Filter by Todd Little
This is it. The Florida Panthers (47-30-4) will do battle with the Tampa Bay Lighting (46-26-8) tonight at Amalie Arena in the season finale for the Cats and the penultimate game for the Bolts, who will face the New York Rangers on Thursday.
The Panthers opened its season-ending back-to-back with a disappointing 5-3 loss to the Rangers in its final home game of the regular season. Sam Reinhart scored twice, Carter Verhaeghe also lit the lamp and Aleksander Barkov had two assists. Last night’s defeat renders this game meaningless for the Cats, who are now locked into third place and will most likely open the playoffs at Amalie Arena. Toronto is the only other possible destination, but the odds of that happening are extremely slim.
Tampa Bay is coming off a 7-4 home ice victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov tallied twice and added an assist and Jake Guentzel also provided a brace to keep the Bolts’ long-shot quest for the division title alive. The Lightning needs to win tonight and see the Maple Leafs fall in regulation to Buffalo to make first place in the Atlantic come down to the final night of the campaign.
- WHEN: 7:30 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Amalie Arena – Tampa, FL
- ON THE TUBE: Scripps, ESPN
- ON THE DIAL: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #GoBolts, #FLAvsTBL, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Raw Charge
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 4 of 4 (2-1)
- LAST MEETING: @FLA 2, TBL 1 (Recap) – 3/8/2025
- NEXT MEETING: Playoffs or 2025-26 season
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Vanecek (5-13-4 .886 / 3.55 1SO) Tampa Bay: Vasilevskiy (37-20-5 .921 / 2.20 6SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / Tampa Bay
Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- New Jersey (41-32-7 89P) at BOSTON (33-39-9 75P) 7 p.m.
- TORONTO (50-26-4 104P) at BUFFALO (35-38-7 77P) 7 p.m.
- Chicago (24-46-11 59P) at OTTAWA (44-30-6 94P) 7 p.m.
Idle: MON (89P), DET (66P)
