Panthers shake up roster with huge boost for Game 5!

The only game the Florida Panthers have lost in the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes was Game 4 on Monday when they were missing forwards Sam Reinhart and A.J. Greer and defenseman Niko Mikkola due to injuries.
Reinhart had already missed Game 3 after sustaining a lower-body injury during Game 2 due to a hard hit from Sebastian Aho. Mikkola suffered an injury after he hit his shoulder hard into the boards midway through the third period of Game 3 back on Saturday. He did not play for the rest of the game after that.

Greer’s injury has been less clear though he played the entirety of Game 3, but went on to miss the last contest.

On Wednesday, hours before Game 5 in which the Panthers could move on to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year, head coach Paul Maurice confirmed via Daily Face-Off that all three players will be re-inserted back into the lineup against the Hurricanes.

This is the projected lines for the Cats in Game 5 later tonight:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt – Dmitry Kulikov

The Hurricanes, who remained without Sean Walker and Jalen Chatfield, are expected to go with the following lineup in this do or die game:

Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis
Hall-Kotkaniemi-Blake
Martinook-Staal-Stankoven
Carrier-Jankowski-Robinson
Roslovic-Jost

Slavin-Burns
Nikishin-Orlov
Gostisbehere-Morrow
Smith

Andersen
Kochetkov
Martin

The series could come to an end tonight with the Panthers leading 3-1 heading into Carolina.