Coyotes at Panthers preview

COYOTES (25-38-11) at PANTHERS (37-28-7)
7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-A, NHL.TV

The Panthers, 11-3-1 in their past 15 games, are three points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second Eastern wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with two games in hand.
Florida is tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the third-most points in the NHL (35) since Feb. 1; the Nashville Predators have 41 and the Boston Bruins have 36.
Defenseman Trevor Murphy, 22, will make his NHL debut with the Coyotes after being recalled from Tuscon of the American Hockey League on Tuesday. He had 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 56 AHL games this season.
Arizona, eliminated from playoff contention, is 7-4-1 in its past 12 games and 13-6-2 in its past 20.

Players to watch

Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov has 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in his past 15 games and 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in his past 24 games.
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak.

They said it

"These last 10 games are so important. We have got to be ready to play." -- Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad
"Going on the road, it's been a pretty cool experience so far. This is just going to add to it." -- Coyotes defenseman Trevor Murphy on his NHL debut

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Clayton Keller
Max Domi -- Christian Dvorak -- Christian Fischer
Brendan Perlini -- Dylan Strome -- Josh Archibald
Jordan Martinook -- Brad Richardson -- Nick Cousins
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Luke Schenn
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Kevin Connauton -- Trevor Murphy
Darcy Kuemper
Antti Raanta
Scratched:Freddie Hamilton, Zac Rinaldo
Injured: Laurent Dauphin (lower body), Niklas Hjalmarsson (lower body), Jason Demers (upper body)

Panthers projected lineup

Evgenii Dadonov -- Aleksander Barkov -- Nick Bjugstad
Jonathan Huberdeau -- Vincent Trocheck -- Frank Vatrano
Maxim Mamin -- Jared McCann -- Denis Malgin
Jamie McGinn -- Derek MacKenzie -- Colton Sceviour
Keith Yandle -- Aaron Ekblad
Mike Matheson -- Mark Pysyk
MacKenzie Weegar -- Alexander Petrovic
James Reimer
Harri Sateri
Scratched: Connor Brickley, Radim Vrbata, Ian McCoshen, Micheal Haley
Injured: Roberto Luongo (upper body)

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Status report

Hjalmarsson returned to Arizona on Friday to be evaluated. He is day-to-day after being injured in the second period of a 6-5 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. … Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet was ill and did not attend the morning skate, but is expected to coach. … Luongo is day to day; Sateri was recalled from Springfield of the AHL.

Stat pack

Stepan has six points (one goal, five assists) in a three-game point streak. … Domi has five points (three goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak. … Bjugstad has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past 12 games. … Dadonov has 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in his past 20 games. … Ekblad will play in his 300th NHL game.