The Florida Panthers will look to keep the good times rolling when they kick of a back-to-back set on Friday night in Sunrise.

Florida has now won six of their past seven games after defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Wednesday night at Amerant Bank Arena and will look to win four straight for the first time this season when they host the Carolina Hurricanes.

This will be the first of three regular season meetings between the Cats and Canes, two teams that have grown extremely familiar with each other over the past few years.

That’s because Carolina has hosted the Panthers in two of the past three Eastern Conference Finals, and both times it was Florida who came out on top.

In 2023, Florida swept the Hurricanes to make their first of three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances. Then last season, the Panthers again got the best of Carolina, though this time it took five games to advance to the Final.

While Florida has been battling through significant injury issues for much of the year, causing them to slide down in the Eastern Conference standings, the Hurricanes are once again looking like the toast of the Metropolitan Division.

Entering play Friday, Carolina holds a four point edge over the second-place Washington Capitals in the Metro.

They’ve won each of their past five games and are 8-2-0 since Thanksgiving.

One of the big sources of success for Carolina has been the play of goaltender Brandon Bussi.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because Bussi spent training camp and most of the preseason with the Panthers after Florida signed him during the summer.

The Hurricanes snagged Bussi off the waiver wire when the Panthers tried to move him to the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers, and boy has that move paid off for the Canes.

Bussi became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 11 of his first 12 starts, a streak he’s still riding to this day. The 27-year-old also has a tidy 2.05 goals against average and .911 save percentage to go with his impressive 11-1-0 record.

Carolina has rotated between Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov over their past four games, all wins, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see that rotation continue when they face Florida on Friday.

If that’s the case, Bussi would get the nod after Kochetkov picked up the win on Wednesday in Nashville.

As for the Panthers, they will likely go with starter Sergei Bobrovsky after giving him the night off when Florida defeated the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night in Sunrise.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Friday’s battle with the Hurricanes:

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Brad Marchand

Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – A.J. Greer

Jesper Boqvist – Noah Gregor – Luke Kunin

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones

Uvis Balinskis – Jeff Petry

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Photo caption: Nov 26, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

After spending Wednesday afternoon bringing joy to kids around the Montreal Children’s hospitals, the Montreal Canadiens were hoping to do the same for their fans at the Bell Centre. While the Canadiens’ home was like a fortress last season, this year the Sainte-Flanelle has really struggled at home, and it will need to address that if it wants any chance of making the playoffs.

The diminished Chicago Blackhawks were in town without the face of the franchise, Connor Bedard, and captain Nick Foligno, and while one might have thought it would have made the task easier, it wasn’t a walk in the park, and the Canadiens only managed to separate themselves in the third frame, on their way to a 4-1 win.

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Not A First Pairing

Granted, Mike Matheson’s absence hurts the Canadiens’ blueline, and so does Kaiden Guhle’s, but putting Jayden Struble on the first pairing with Noah Dobson seems like an unforced error to me. On the first goal of the game, Dobson gave the puck to Nazar, allowing the Hawks to counterattack while the Canadiens lost track of their defensive assignment. Struble struggled to defend effectively, as everything seemed to be moving a bit too fast for him.

Then, in the second period, Struble was easily beaten at the blueline, leaving Dobson to defend an odd-man rush, a play in which he took a tripping call after sliding down the middle, and his stick tripped Ryan Greene.

After 40 minutes of play, Struble had played 9:49 and committed two giveaways. Unlike Tuesday night, he wasn’t used on the penalty kill, even with Dobson in the box, as St-Louis preferred to use Arber Xhekaj.

In the end, Struble only spent another 35 seconds on the ice in the final frame, and as his presence alongside Dobson diminished, the veteran’s play improved.

About The Coaches Challenges

While the Canadiens had two goals waived off because of offside after a coach’s challenge, he’s still a fan of the possibility for the bench boss to appeal decisions:

I’m a big fan when it works for me. I believe that’s how it should be. We have rules, and we have the technology to apply them properly, so 95% of the time, the right call is made. They have the ability to check, of course, it’s annoying when you’re on the other side of it because you’re all happy, and then it’s deflating. It was a weird sequence on what would have been the third goal; there were two sequences. I only saw the first, and I thought we were fine, but when I looked back much further, the other play didn’t look fine.

- St-Louis on the coaches challenges

The fact that the Canadiens didn’t let the disappointment get to them tonight was a win in itself. For a young team, it can sometimes be hard to keep its emotions in check, but they did it admirably tonight, and they just kept on pushing even when they felt they should have had a bigger lead.

The Right Version Of Bolduc

It’s been almost a month since Zachary Bolduc was put on the first line alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, and while it’s taken some time for them to click, tonight, the best version of Bolduc turned up. Speaking about the winger, St-Louis said:

The way Boldy has evolved over the last month has allowed us to play inside that [Suzuki facing the tougher opponents].

- St-Louis on Bolduc

The two goals Bolduc scored tonight were his eighth and ninth on the season, but the first two he was able to put in at the Bell Centre. Given the Canadiens’ difficulties at home lately, getting better home performances from the youngster will certainly help. Named the first star of the game, the Trois-Rivieres native was beaming as he was interviewed on the ice at the end of the match.

All game long, he battled hard for space and came on the winning side of those battles as well. On the first goal, he had the right reflex to position himself in the high slot to receive the feed from Caufield, who was behind the goal line. Then, on the second one, he won the physical battle with Wyatt Kaiser. He got in front of him and, because of that, tipped the shot past Spencer Knight.

Il y prend goût

Tip drill ft. Boldy#GoHabsGopic.twitter.com/ao7rJ0Ei6B

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 19, 2025

If Bolduc can keep performing like this, the Canadiens will end up having a very dangerous top-six, especially since Juraj Slafkovsky is really shining alongside Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen.

In the end, Knight played a solid game, but he was tested so often by the Canadiens that something had to give. Montreal took 35 shots on net on Thursday night, something that’s almost unheard of from them this season, and it ended up being one of the keys to the game. Meanwhile, at the other end, Jakub Dobes was tested only 14 times, but he made the big saves when he needed to.

The Canadiens more than earned the day off announced after the game; they’ll get to recharge their batteries before taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins twice this weekend.

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