Projected Lineups for Rangers vs Panthers — Game 5

The New York Rangers take on the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden tonight for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final. Here are the projected/expected lineups, sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

(1A) PANTHERS at (1M) RANGERS

Eastern Conference Final, Game 5

8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC

Best-of-7 series tied 2-2

Panthers projected lineup

Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart

Matthew Tkachuk — Sam Bennett — Evan Rodrigues

Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Vladimir Tarasenko

Steven Lorentz — Kevin Stenlund — Kyle Okposo

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola — Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky

Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, William Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif

Injured: None

Status report:

  • Verhaeghe, a forward, left the Panthers morning skate and did not return after being hit in the mouth with a puck, but coach Paul Maurice said he will be OK to play Game 5
  • “He tipped one off [Bobrovsky’s] head and he took it (in the mouth). He just took a couple stitches. He’s fine.”

More from THW:

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Filip Chytil

Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere

Jack Roslovic — Alex Wennberg — Kaapo Kakko

Will Cuylle — Barclay Goodrow — Matt Rempe

Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox

K’Andre Miller — Braden Schneider

Erik Gustafsson — Jacob Trouba

Igor Shesterkin

Jonathan Quick

Scratched: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Jonny Brodzinski, Adam Edstrom, Blake Wheeler, Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Ben Harpur, Dylan Garand, Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin, Adam Sykora

Injured: Jimmy Vesey (upper body)

Status report

  • Chytil is expected to return after being a healthy scratch for a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4; Wheeler, a forward, is expected to be scratched.
  • Judging from the Rangers morning skate, Schneider will start on the second defense pair with Miller and Trouba will drop down to the third pair to play with Gustafsson; New York used those pairs in the first nine games of the playoffs before switching in Game 6 of the second round to having Trouba with Miller and Schneider with Gustafsson.

More from THW:

Related: 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs Conference Finals Hub