Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich will both miss their fourth consecutive game with an illness as the Florida Panthers play host to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
Coach Paul Maurice is “hopeful” that Lundell can return to the lineup Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Lundell and Gadjovich both joined the Panthers for morning skate on Thursday.
In the meantime, Will Lockwood will remain in the lineup on the fourth line and Kevin Stenlund continues in Lundell’s spot as the third line center.
“The big value Kevin brings is on the penalty kill,” Maurice said of the 6-foot-6 forward who has seven goals in 31 games this season.
“Our penalty kill has been very strong and he is a big, big part of that. So when you slide a player like that up, you shouldn’t lose anything defensively on that line. He has Eetu Luostarinen on his left wing, they are both a penalty killing pair, so they should be solid there.
“But you’d like to see some scoring off that line at some point.”
— The starting goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky against Joel Hofer.
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