Panthers host Hurricanes looking for first victory of 2025

The Florida Panthers will face a formidable opponent when they play their first game of 2025 on Thursday night.

Florida will welcome the Carolina Hurricanes to Sunrise, a team full of firepower up front that the Panthers are very familiar with.

Over the past couple weeks, Carolina has lost four of six but still maintain one of the top three spots in the Metropolitan Division.

They will be looking their first win of the season against the Panthers, as Florida has earned a pair of victories in the two prior meetings between the former playoff opponents.

The Cats and Canes played and home and home back in late November, with the Panthers outscoring Carolina 12-3 while earning all four points.

Florida will roll out the same lineup against the Hurricanes that they deployed during their 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday.

Forward Jonah Gadjovich and defenseman Niko Mikkola, both dealing with upper-body injuries, will not play against Carolina.

They each skated on Wednesday separate from the rest of the team and are getting close to returning, according to Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.

Here are Florida’s projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s tilt with the Hurricanes:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist

A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Mackie Samoskevich

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Adam Boqvist – Dmitry Kulikov

Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt

Scratches: Niko Mikkola, Jonah Gadjovich

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