Florida Panthers left wing A.J. Greer (10) skates with the puck as Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy (5) defends in the third period of their NHL game at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner [email protected]
The Florida Panthers are making a lineup change.
Rookie Mackie Samoskevich will be a healthy scratch in Game 4 of the Panthers’ Stanley Cup playoffs opening-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night. A.J. Greer, who did not play in the first three games of the series, will take Samoskevich’s spot in the lineup. It will be Greer’s Stanley Cup playoffs debut.
“Super excited,” Greer said after the team’s morning skate on Monday. “Happy to join the group and be a part of it.”
Greer, who signed a two-year, $1.7 million deal with the Panthers this offseason, has been a steady presence on Florida’s fourth line and provides a blend of physicality and sneaky scoring potential. He led the Panthers in the regular season with 220 hits despite only averaging about nine-and-a-half minutes of ice time, while also setting or tying his career highs in goals (six), assists (11) and points (17) over 81 games.
“He’s earned it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He’s worked his butt off every single day, every game, all year. That’s important, that feeling that you’ve earned.”
In a series between in-state rivals that has seen the intensity heighten with each passing game, Greer’s physical style adds another dimension to the Panthers’ lineup to counteract the Lightning in that regard.
“We’ve got a task at hand here, being up 2-1, to really step on their necks and be able to put ourselves in a really good position,” Greer said. “We know it’s not going to be an easy one, and it’s going to be back and forth. We’ve got to limit the chances defensively and make sure that we play the game that we’re used to playing — forechecking and closing fast offensively.”
Samoskevich, meanwhile, saw his ice time dip in Game 3. Maurice dropped Samoskevich from the second line to the fourth line on Saturday. He played just 9:52 and was taken off Florida’s top power play unit by the end of the game.
“This is the natural progression of a young player,” Maurice said. “You just can’t explain to somebody the difference between playoff hockey and regular-season hockey. It’s so different. … Mackie will go back in [at some point], maybe the next game and maybe down the road, but he now has that first initiation under his belt.”
The full lineup, based on the team’s morning skate, should be as follows…
Forward lines
Carter Verhaeghe-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer-Nico Sturm-Jesper Boqvist
Defense pairs
Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola-Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt-Dmitry Kulikov
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
