The Tampa Bay Lightning face the Florida Panthers in their first meeting of the season on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. The in-state rivals split their four regular-season games last year, with Tampa Bay outscoring Florida 12-7 overall. This matchup renews a heated series where Tampa Bay holds a 72-66-23 all-time edge.
The Tampa Bay Lightning travel to South Florida for the season's first installment of their Battle of Florida rivalry against the Florida Panthers. The game is scheduled for Saturday evening at Amerant Bank Arena, with reports varying on the exact start time at either 5 p.m. ET or 6 p.m. ET. Broadcast options include The Spot - Tampa Bay 66 for TV and 102.5 MHz-FM for radio, with streaming available on TampaBayLightning.com.
Historically, Tampa Bay leads the all-time series 72-66-23, including a 30-38-11 record on the road against Florida. Last season, the teams each won two games, with the Lightning holding a 12-7 scoring advantage. Key performers for Tampa Bay include franchise leader Steven Stamkos with 41 goals and 40 assists for 81 points in 67 games against the Panthers. Among active Lightning players, Victor Hedman has 7 goals and 43 assists for 50 points in 68 games, while he and Brayden Point each tallied five points against Florida last year. Jake Guentzel and Darren Raddysh added four points apiece.
In net, Andrei Vasilevskiy went 1-2-0 with a .923 save percentage against the Panthers last season and holds a 17-15-1 career record with a .911 save percentage. Backup Jonas Johansson secured a 36-save shutout on Dec. 23 and is 1-1-0 with a .932 save percentage as a Bolt.
The Panthers enter off a 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday, improving to 9-7-1. That game featured milestones, including Evan Rodrigues' 100th career goal, Gustav Forsling's 200th point, Seth Jones' 100th goal, and Brad Marchand reaching 999 points with an assist on Eetu Luostarinen's empty-netter. Sam Reinhart has heated up with eight goals in his last nine games, including two against the Capitals. Daniil Tarasov earned his first win as a Panther, making 37 saves.
Practice lines for Florida included forwards Eetu Luostarinen–Anton Lundell–Brad Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe–Evan Rodrigues–Sam Reinhart, and others, with Sergei Bobrovsky and Tarasov in goal. Tampa Bay's lines from their previous game, subject to change, featured Jake Guentzel–Brayden Point–Nikita Kucherov on the top line and Andrei Vasilevskiy in net.
This is the first of four matchups this season, setting the tone for another competitive series.