The first Stanley Cup Final rematch of the season will take place on Saturday night in Sunrise.
Despite both the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers currently sitting outside of the playoff picture, there is certainly a different feel surrounding each of these potential powerhouse clubs.
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For Florida, the team’s injury issues have been well known for a while now.
Entering the season without Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek, then losing Dmitry Kulikov, Jonah Gadjovich, Cole Schwindt and Eetu Luostarien, all of whom remain out of the lineup, is one heck of a burden to shoulder.
Not that it’s stopped the Panthers from keeping their heads above water and chugging along while searching for consistency with a roster consisting of many players who have not spent a ton of time together.
As it stands, Florida holds an 11-8-1 record and picked up wins in four of their past five outings.
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Edmonton, meanwhile, arrives in South Florida sitting at .500 with a record of 9-9-5.
The Oilers are wrapping up a monster 7-game road trip that started with an overtime win in Philadelphia and has seen Edmonton drop four of the five games since.
One thing that will be interesting to monitor is who the Oilers end up going with in goal against the Cats.
Starter Stuart Skinner allowed 15 goals over a three-game span before Calvin Pickard showed out well in their most recent outing, a 2-1 overtime loss in Tampa that saw Pickard come up with 33 saves.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s matchup with the Oilers:
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Mackie Samoskevich – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist – Evan Rodrigues – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – A.J. Greer
Noah Gregor – Luke Kunin – Jack Devine
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Nov 20, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) celebrates with center Sam Bennett (9) after the game against the New Jersey Devils at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
