Chicago Blackhawks vs. Florida Panthers: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 3/10/2023

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise, FL

Where to watch: BSFL, NBCSCH, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS

DraftKings: Panthers -410, Blackhawks +330

BetMGM: Panthers -400, Blackhawks +330

Caesars: Panthers -435, Blackhawks +330

Blackhawks: 22-37-5

Panthers: 32-27-6

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You don’t want to get a desperate team to play well at the right time, and it would appear that the Chicago Blackhawks are in the crosshairs of the Florida Panthers. The two teams will meet on Friday in a two-game slate for the NHL with the Panthers trying to claw their way back to playoff positioning.

 

The Panthers have won three of four and are coming off a 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at home on Tuesday. It was a game that was more defensively centered than I think we would’ve anticipated. Sasha Barkov and Ryan Lomberg scored for the Panthers, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves in one of his more better outings of the season.

 

"It is huge to have a goalie like that, playing at a level like that," Barkov said. "It is amazing, and we are really confident playing in front of him."

 

By way of the Eastern Conference going up in smoke with this wild card situation, the Panthers are four points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the final wild card spot. They have played one more game than Pittsburgh, but two games behind the New York Islanders. Florida has won three of four but the under has cashed in the last five after the over went 3-0-1 in the previous four. Right now, the offense has dried up and Florida needs to get back to the bread and butter because they can’t be banking on Bobrovsky to bail them out.

 

The Blackhawks are coming into this game losers of five of their last six with the latest being a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Chicago had a 3-2 late in the third before the Red Wings rallied to win. Taylor Raddysh scored twice, but it was nothing more that the Blackhawks could’ve done other than continue to embrace the tank. Yes, the rebuild is in full effect and it’s starting to look glorious for Chicago.

 

"Whatever we did to prepare for this game, it wasn't good enough for the NHL," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. "I thought we were sloppy right from the start, and the only reason we were close was our goaltender."

 

Sloppy from the start and they had a two-goal lead at one point. That sounds like good coaching tanking if you ask me. The Blackhawks have seen the under in three of their last five games and that’s usually a byproduct of a lack of offense and bad goaltending. For the most part, that seems to be the case with this team even when Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were playing.

 

The Panthers are in a prime position to start making a playoff push with the way the schedule looks. Florida is 1-5 in their last six Friday games and are 1-4 in their last five against the Central. But this is the Blackhawks we’re talking about. Panthers 4, Blackhawks 1

Blackhawks:

Anders Bjork -- Lukas Reichel -- Philipp Kurashev

Cole Guttman -- Tyler Johnson -- Taylor Raddysh

Andreas Athanasiou -- Jason Dickinson -- Joey Anderson

Boris Katchouk -- Jujhar Khaira -- MacKenzie Entwistle

Caleb Jones -- Seth Jones

Jarred Tinordi -- Connor Murphy

Nikita Zaitsev -- Ian Mitchell

Petr Mrazek

Panthers:

Eetu Luostarinen -- Aleksander Barkov -- Anthony Duclair

Carter Verhaeghe -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Ryan Lomberg -- Anton Lundell -- Sam Reinhart

Nick Cousins -- Eric Staal -- Colin White

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Marc Staal -- Brandon Montour

Josh Mahura -- Radko Gudas

Sergei Bobrovsky