Get ready, because the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning are squaring off tonight, almost a year to the day after one of the craziest preseason matchups anyone has ever seen. Remember that game? It was an absolute brawl, racking up 65 total penalties and a mind-blowing 322 combined penalty minutes. If that mess had gone down in the regular season, those 322 PIMs would have ranked ninth all time in NHL history, and the 65 penalties would have been tied for seventh. Seriously, by the end of the third period, there were just eight Lightning skaters on the ice, and the Panthers only had nine, because 19 players got ejected!
The Aftermath and the Warning
That insane night definitely came with consequences. The Tampa Bay Lightning got hit with a $100,000 fine, and their coach, Jon Cooper, got dinged for $25,000. Plus, four Tampa Bay players ended up with suspensions or fines. So, can we actually expect anything close to that tonight? Panthers coach Paul Maurice isn’t ruling it out. He said, “We wouldn’t be surprised by it. I don’t know if you expect it, but if it happened, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.” He even added, “If we got a two-hour game, that surprise us possibly.” That’s not exactly a “chill out” message, is it?
Who’s Suiting Up For Round Two?
Tonight’s lineup might calm things down just a tiny bit, but don’t count on it. The Panthers aren’t rolling out too many of their usual starters; only newcomers Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway, plus Uvis Balinskis and Sandis Vilmanis, are guaranteed spots on the Opening Night roster. On the flip side, when the Lightning hit the ice in Tampa, they’ll be bringing some serious firepower with regulars like Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Victor Hedman. Get ready to see some family action for the Panthers, though, as Kai and Cole Schwindt will suit up together for the first time. Cole, who was part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade and then re-claimed from Vegas, is back with his brother. In net, the Lightning are starting Andrei Vasilevskiy, while the Panthers will split time between Charlotte’s Cooper Black and Kirill Gerasimyuk.
The game kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Scripps/Panthers network or streamed free on Panthers+ if you have an account. The Panthers have already played a couple of preseason games, beating the Hurricanes 6-3, then losing 3-2 in a shootout. They’ll face the Lightning again on Saturday at 6 p.m. for their home preseason game. Then it’s on to the regular season opener on October 2 at Carolina, and their home opener on October 10 against the Minnesota Wild. This team is just getting started, and tonight is going to tell us a lot about the kind of fire they’re bringing this year!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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