Paul Maurice confirms Panthers will be without top-six forward for Game 6

Heading to Florida down 3-2 in the series tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs enter must-win territory, but the Panthers have one thing in mind: reaching their third straight Eastern Conference Final.

To do so, head coach Paul Maurice confirmed after this morning’s skate that he is not making any changes to his lineup, the one that got the 6-1 blowout win over the Leafs in Toronto for Game 5 on Wednesday. That means that the Panthers are still without Evan Rodrigues, who was knocked out of Game 4 after Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson interfered with him in front of the benches, five minutes into the third period. Rodrigues headed down the tunnel and did not return.

He did not play for Game 5 in Toronto, was replaced by Jesper Boqvist, who keeps his spot in the lineup tonight in Miami.

Rodrigues has three assists in nine games for the Panthers in this year’s playoffs. He had 15 points during their Stanley Cup run last season.

This is the Panthers’ projected lineup for tonight’s matchup:

Boqvist-Barkov-Reinhart
Verhaeghe-Bennett-Tkachuk
Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand
Greer-Nosek-Gadjovich

Forsling-Ekblad
Mikkola-Jones
Schmidt-Kulikov

Bobrovsky

The Panthers can advance to their third straight Eastern Conference Final with a victory Friday night.