Panthers at Lightning, Eastern Conference 1st Round Game 1 preview

TAMPA, Fla. -- For each of the past five seasons, the Stanley Cup Final has run through Florida.

Will it again?

It all starts with the latest Battle of Florida, the fourth time in five years that the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have faced off in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Game 1 of the 2025 Eastern Conference First Round is at Amalie Arena on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, ESPN, TVAS2, SN360).

The Panthers are the defending Stanley Cup champions, winning their first title in their second consecutive run to the Final. The Lightning won the Cup in 2020 and 2021, and lost the 2022 Final in six games to the Colorado Avalanche.

This is not the same matchup all over again.

"Different not only in players but different in mentalities too," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Last year they weren't Cup champs. They were fighting to win the Cup and now they're the Cup champs, so the mentality is different in so many ways. On our side, we're one more year removed from being a Cup champ.

"You can look at this from different angles and different ways, but they're probably a more weathered team in the sense that they've been there and done it and know what to expect. We're a team that's already been through it as well, so I think the Battle of Florida never disappoints."

Teams that win Game 1 of a best-of-7 series are 525-247 (.680).

Here is a breakdown of Game 1:

Panthers: Forward Matthew Tkachuk, who has not played since the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, will be a game-time decision, though he skated on the second line during the morning skate. Tkachuk has 46 points over the past two postseasons, fourth-most behind Connor McDavid (66), Evan Bouchard (52) and Leon Draisaitl (51) of the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers have 14 players left from their Stanley Cup championship team and can be the first to reach the Final for a third straight year since the Lightning from 2020-22.

Lightning: Nikita Kucherov finished the regular season with the most points for the second consecutive season, again winning the Art Ross Trophy. He had 121 points (37 goals, 84 assists) in 78 games one season after he had 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) in 81 games. Kucherov has 167 points (53 goals, 114 assists) in 147 NHL playoff games, with one goal and 12 assists in his past 11. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy will make his 110th consecutive postseason start dating back to Game 2 of the 2016 Eastern Conference Final. He's two behind Ken Dryden (112 from 1971-79) for the fourth longest streak in NHL history. The goalies with a longer run are Martin Brodeur (194 from 1994 to 12), Patrick Roy (137 from 1994 to 2003) and Henrik Lundqvist (129 from 2006-20).

Number to know: 3.56. The Lightning led the NHL in goals per game during the regular season. The Panthers (3.00) were 15th.

What to look for: Will Tkachuk be in the lineup for Game 1? With the matchup featuring two of the top goalies in the NHL this season, each of whom have won the Stanley Cup, will it be a low-scoring series or can the Lightning's high-powered offense break out?

What they are saying

"When I came in, I had a pretty good understanding of this Tampa-Florida rivalry. We are almost identical systematically and we would be on opposite ends of the spectrum from a style point of view, so in my head, the systems are what you run when you don't have the puck and the style of game you play is when you do have the puck. So, there's so many similarities systematically between the two teams, but then the style is completely different and that will be the tell of the series. I think you can almost saw off the systems and then [it's] who can impose their will and style." -- Panthers coach Paul Maurice

"They're the reigning champs going into this one. They obviously have a winning pedigree on their team. So do we. We know what it takes to go all the way, but it's a fresh series, a lot of new guys, guys playing in their first-ever playoffs for us. … There's some extra excitement for those guys. Exciting times. We know the fans are ready and we're ready as well." -- Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman

Panthers projected lineup

Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart

Mackie Samoskevich -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand

Evan Rodrigues -- Nico Sturm -- Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling -- Seth Jones

Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov

Uvis Balinskis -- Nate Schmidt

Sergei Bobrovsky

Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna

Injured: None

Suspended: Aaron Ekblad

Lightning projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov

Brandon Hagel -- Anthony Cirelli -- Nick Paul

Conor Geekie -- Yanni Gourde -- Gage Goncalves

Zemgus Girgensons -- Luke Glendening

Victor Hedman -- JJ Moser

Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak

Emil Lilleberg -- Nick Perbix

Darren Raddysh

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Mitchell Chaffee

Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body)

Status report

Ekblad, a defenseman suspended 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program, will be eligible to return for Game 3 on Saturday. … Glendening returns to the lineup for the first time since April 9 because of an upper-body injury. … Bjorkstrand, a forward, is out for the series.