Gameday 39: Florida Panthers vs Montreal Canadiens

The Florida Panthers (21-15-2) and Montreal Canadiens (20-12-6) will do battle for the first time this season tonight in the second half of a back-to-back at Amerant Bank Arena for the surging Cats, who are 9-3-1 over their last 12 games.

Florida is coming off a rousing 5-3 comeback win over the Washington Capitals. Down 3-2 in the third, the Panthers got goals from Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad and Sam Reinhart to maintain possession of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Reinhart (2G/1A), Marchand (1G/1A), Ekblad (1G/1A), Anton Lundell (1G/1A) and Seth Jones (2A) produced multi-point games and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 of 25 shots to post his 446th career win.

The rested Canadiens enter tonight’s tilt on a five-game (3-0-2) unbeaten streak and in third place in the Atlantic Division. Montreal, who are in the midst of a seven-game road trip, earned a point in its last outing by rallying in the third to tie the Tampa Bay Lightning before falling 5-4 in a shootout on Sunday. Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice and set up Ivan Deimdov’s goal and Noah Dobson also lit the lamp as the Habs beat former Panther Jonas Johansson four times in the final frame.

• WHEN: 7 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Amerant Bank Arena – Sunrise, FL
• ON THE TUBE: Scripps
• ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #GoHabsGo, #MONvsFLA, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
• ENEMY INTEL: Eyes On The Prize
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 3
• LAST MEETING: @MON 3, FLA 2 (OT) (Recap) – 4/1/2025
• NEXT MEETING: January 8, 2026
• PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Tarasov (4-6-1 .900 / 2.97 0SO) Montreal: Montembeault (5-6-1 .857 / 3.65 0SO)
• PLAYER STATS: Florida / Montreal

Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• New Jersey (20-16-2 24P) at TORONTO (9-9-3 21P) 7 p.m.

Idle: DET (49P), TBL (47P), BUF (44P), BOS (42P), OTT (41P)