During one of the biggest cold streaks of his career, Matthew Tkachuk finds himself returning to familiar territory.
The Florida Panthers star will play against the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome for the second time as an opponent at a time when he desperately needs a push.
Tkachuk has just one goal — an empty netter — in his past six games and two in the past 17.
The two-time 40-goal scorer finds himself with just five goals and 21 points in 30 games just a few months removed from scoring 41 goals and 109 points before leading the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final.
Florida has not stopped winning, starting the year 18-10-2 thanks to the efforts of Sam Reinhart (17-21-38) and Sasha Barkov (11-18-29), and those numbers are more important than anything else to Tkachuk.
“There’s so much belief in what we’re building here,” Tkachuk said to FloridaPanthers.com’s Jameson Olive.
“No one person is more important than the next. I’m not going to give up what we’re trying to build here to cheat for a little bit more offense. That’s not the way it works here. We’ve built an unbelievable culture.”
GAME NOTES
Anton Lundell was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 14. Justin Sourdif was called up from AHL Charlotte.
Lundell will be eligible to return for the team’s next game on Dec. 21 against the St. Louis Blues.
Sourdif, 21, has five goals and 12 points in 17 AHL games this season.
He did not record a point in three NHL games for the Panthers this year.
Anthony Stolarz and Jacob Markstrom will start between the pipes for their respective teams tonight.
ON DECK
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ CALGARY FLAMES
- When: Monday, 9:30 p.m.
- Where: The Saddledome; Calgary, Alberta
- TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-120); Puck line (-1.5, +195); Over/Under 6.5 (+100/-120)
- This Series — At Calgary: Monday. At Florida: March 9.
- Last Season: Calgary Won 2-0
- All-Time Regular Season Series: Calgary leads 24-11-3, 3 ties
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-10-2) LINES
17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk
27 Eetu Luostarinen // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 21 Nick Cousins
67 Will Lockwood // 18 Steven Lorentz // 94 Ryan Lomberg
42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad
77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour
91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov
41 Anthony Stolarz
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Josh Mahura, Justin Sourdif
Injured: Anton Lundell (IR-illness), Jonah Gadjovich (illness)
PROJECTED CALGARY FLAMES (12-14-5) LINES
88 Andrew Mangiapane // Elias Lindholm // 17 Yegor Sharangovich
47 Connor Zary // 91 Nazem Kadri // 76 Martin Pospisil
10 Jonathan Huberdeau // 11 Mikael Backlund // 20 Blake Coleman
18 A.J. Greer // 63 Adam Ruzicka // 29 Dillon Dube
52 MacKenzie Weegar // 4 Rasmus Andersson
55 Noah Hanifin // 8 Chris Tanev
48 Dennis Gilbert // 57 Nick DeSimone
25 Jacob Markstrom
80 Daniel Vladar
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