Carolina Hurricanes @ Florida Panthers: Lineups, Game Preview and How to Watch

What - Game 38 (22-13-2)
When - 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 2
Where - Amerant Bank Arena; Sunrise, FL
How to Watch - FanDuel Sports Network South, SCRIPPS

The Carolina Hurricanes will kick off the new year with another matchup against the Florida Panthers (23-13-2) tonight in Sunrise.

The Canes are coming off of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. The team had some really bad bounces in that one, but they've also struggled to put out a consistently dominant performance for a while now.

The team has been fine, but not as potent as they were to start the season. Perhaps they can rediscover that identity in the new year.

The Panthers are coming off of a 5-3 win over the New York Rangers on Monday, but before that, they had been shutout twice in a row.

In fact, the last four Florida losses were all shutout losses with each pair coming in consecutive nights.

However, the defending champs remain a top-end team that can score in bursts and that make it really difficult to find open space in the offensive and neutral zones.

Streaks

• Jack Roslovic (4g, 3a) has points in five consecutive games.

• Jesperi Kotkaniemi (1g, 1a), Seth Jarvis (4a) and Sebastian Aho (1g, 3a) have points in back-to-back games.

Milestone Watch

• Martin Necas will play in his 400th career game tonight.

• Andrei Svechnikov is one assist shy of 200 career assists.

• Seth Jarvis is two assists shy of 100 career assists.

• Sebastian Aho is three points shy of 600 career points.

• Jack Roslovic is three goals shy of 100 career goals.

• Ty Smith registered his first Hurricanes goal/point on Dec. 31 against Columbus.

Game Notes

• Carolina is 0-2-0 against Florida this season having lost 6-3 on Nov. 29 at Lenovo Center and 6-0 on Nov. 30 at Amerant Bank Arena.

• Spencer Martin, now in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, started both games.

• Sebastian Aho (12g, 30pts in 31 games) and Brent Burns (8g, 25pts in 31 games) are both nearly point-per-game players against the Panthers.

Key Matchups

Starting Goalies

• Pyotr Kochetkov: 14-7-1; 0.899 Sv%; 2.52 GAA

• Sergei Bobrovsky: 17-7-1; 0.896 Sv%; 2.81 GAA

Leading Scorers

• Goals - Jack Roslovic (17) / Sam Reinhart (22)

• Points - Martin Necas (45) / Sam Reinhart (45)

Power Play

• Carolina - 25.6% (5th)

• Florida - 25.2% (6th)

Penalty Kill

• Carolina - 85.2% (1st)

• Florida - 80.9% (16th)

Hurricanes Projected Lineup

Jack Roslovic - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Andrei Svechnikov - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - William Carrier
Eric Robinson - Jackson Blake - Juha Jaaska

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burn
Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield
Ty Smith - Sean Walker

Pyotr Kochetkov
Dustin Tokarski

Injuries and Scratches: Riley Stillman, Tyson Jost (UBI), Shayne Gostisbehere (UBI), Jack Drury (hand), Frederik Andersen (LBI), Jesper Fast (neck)

Panthers Projected Lineup

Evan Rodrigues - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe - Anton Lundell - Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer - Tomas Nosek - Mackie Samoskevich

Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Uvis Balinskis - Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt - Adam Boqvist

Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight

Injuries and Scratches: x, Jonah Gadjovich (UBI), Niko Mikkola (UBI)