Panthers at Golden Knights preview

PANTHERS (28-25-9) at GOLDEN KNIGHTS (33-26-5)
10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, FS-F, NHL.TV
The Game
The Vegas Golden Knights will look to strengthen their hold on third place in the Pacific Division when they host the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena on Friday.

Vegas, which leads the Arizona Coyotes by six points, is 2-4-1 in its past seven games and 4-9-1 in its past 14.
Goalie Malcolm Subban will start for the Golden Knights; he's 3-6-0 with a 2.75 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 10 games (nine starts) this season.
The Panthers, who trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by nine points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, seek their sixth victory in eight games; they're 5-1-1 in their past seven games and 11-5-1 in their past 17.
Goalie Roberto Luongo is expected to start; he relieved James Reimer in the first period of a 4-3 shootout loss at the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday after Reimer sustained an upper-body injury.

Players to watch

Panthers center Aleksander Barkov has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak.
Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch has three assists in his past 12 games after having 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his previous 13 games.

They said it

"That's usually when we're at our best, when we're not over-complicating things. Trying not to find that extra pass or making that extra play. We're doing a much better job recognizing when the play is there." -- Panthers forward Troy Brouwer
"It was good. I'm starting to get the message that you've got to play fast to play on this team. It's pretty exciting." -- Golden Knights forward Mark Stone following his first practice with Vegas; he debuted in a 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday after being acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Monday

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Frank Vatrano
Dryden Hunt
-- Riley Sheahan -- Mike Hoffman
Jayce Hawryluk -- Vincent Trocheck -- Evgenii Dadonov
Jamie McGinn -- Henrik Borgstrom -- Troy Brouwer
Mark Pysyk -- Aaron Ekblad
Keith Yandle -- Mike Matheson
Ian McCoshen -- Josh Brown
Roberto Luongo
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Denis Malgin
Injured: Derek MacKenzie (shoulder), MacKenzie Weegar (lower body), Colton Sceviour (wrist), James Reimer (lower body)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty -- Paul Stastny -- Mark Stone
Ryan Carpenter -- Cody Eakin -- Alex Tuch
Tomas Nosek -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Ryan Reaves
Nate Schmidt -- Deryk Engelland
Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Malcolm Subban
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched: Valentin Zykov, Brandon Pirri, Nick Holden
Injured: Erik Haula (lower body), William Carrier (upper body)

Status report

Matheson is expected to return after missing four games with a lower-body injury. … Montembeault was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis on Wednesday.

Stat pack

Huberdeau has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past six games. … Hoffman has six points (two goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak. … Pacioretty had two goals against Dallas on Tuesday.