Matthew Tkachuk Returns to Calgary on Major Cold Streak, Lundell to IR

During one of the biggest cold streaks of his career, Matthew Tkachuk finds himself returning to familiar territory.

The Florida Panthers star will play against the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome for the second time as an opponent at a time when he desperately needs a push.

Tkachuk has just one goal — an empty netter — in his past six games and two in the past 17.

The two-time 40-goal scorer finds himself with just five goals and 21 points in 30 games just a few months removed from scoring 41 goals and 109 points before leading the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final.

Florida has not stopped winning, starting the year 18-10-2 thanks to the efforts of Sam Reinhart (17-21-38) and Sasha Barkov (11-18-29), and those numbers are more important than anything else to Tkachuk.

“There’s so much belief in what we’re building here,” Tkachuk said to FloridaPanthers.com’s Jameson Olive.

“No one person is more important than the next. I’m not going to give up what we’re trying to build here to cheat for a little bit more offense. That’s not the way it works here. We’ve built an unbelievable culture.”

GAME NOTES

Anton Lundell was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 14. Justin Sourdif was called up from AHL Charlotte.

Lundell will be eligible to return for the team’s next game on Dec. 21 against the St. Louis Blues.

Sourdif, 21, has five goals and 12 points in 17 AHL games this season.

He did not record a point in three NHL games for the Panthers this year.

Anthony Stolarz and Jacob Markstrom will start between the pipes for their respective teams tonight.

ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ CALGARY FLAMES

• When: Monday, 9:30 p.m.
• Where: The Saddledome; Calgary, Alberta
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-120); Puck line (-1.5, +195); Over/Under 6.5 (+100/-120)
• This Series — At Calgary: Monday. At Florida: March 9.
• Last Season: Calgary Won 2-0
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Calgary leads 24-11-3, 3 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-10-2) LINES

17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 21 Nick Cousins

67 Will Lockwood // 18 Steven Lorentz // 94 Ryan Lomberg

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

41 Anthony Stolarz

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: Josh Mahura, Justin Sourdif

Injured: Anton Lundell (IR-illness), Jonah Gadjovich (illness)

PROJECTED CALGARY FLAMES (12-14-5) LINES

88 Andrew Mangiapane // Elias Lindholm // 17 Yegor Sharangovich

47 Connor Zary // 91 Nazem Kadri // 76 Martin Pospisil

10 Jonathan Huberdeau // 11 Mikael Backlund // 20 Blake Coleman

18 A.J. Greer // 63 Adam Ruzicka // 29 Dillon Dube

52 MacKenzie Weegar // 4 Rasmus Andersson

55 Noah Hanifin // 8 Chris Tanev

48 Dennis Gilbert // 57 Nick DeSimone

25 Jacob Markstrom

80 Daniel Vladar

Calgary Flames lines via DailyFaceoff.com