Getty Florida begins life without former head coach Joel Quenneville, who resigned on Thursday.
The Florida Panthers (7-0-0) look to put major off-ice distractions aside and make it eight-straight wins to open the season against the Detroit Red Wings (4-2-1) on Friday.
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The game (7 p.m. ET start time) won’t be televised anywhere, but anyone in the US (in or out of market) can watch the Panthers vs Red Wings live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ will have about 75 of these exclusive national NHL games (no blackouts for in-market viewers) this season. It also includes every out-of-market, non-nationally televised game (about 1,000 games in total), plus dozens of other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary in existence and additional original content (both video and written) all for $6.99 for a month or $69.99 for a year (or about seven cents per NHL game if you want to look at it that way). It’s a must-have option for NHL fans in the United States.
If you also want Disney+ and Hulu, you can get all three for $13.99 per month. Separately, the three streaming services would cost a total $20.97 per month, so you’re saving about 33 percent:
Get the ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu Bundle
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch the Panthers vs Red Wings live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Panthers vs Red Wings Preview
While the Florida Panthers have impressed early on with a franchise-record 7-0-0 start, the team just lost its head coach. Joe Quenneville resigned on Thursday because of ties to the Chicago Blackhawks sexual abuse scandal according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.
“I want to express my sorrow for the pain this young man, Kyle Beach, has suffered. My former team, the Blackhawks, failed Kyle and I own my share of that,” Quenneville said in a statement for TSN per Wyshynski. “I want to reflect on how all of this happened and take the time to educate myself on ensuring hockey spaces are safe for everyone.”
Panthers assistant coach Andrew Burnette will step in as the interim head coach for now according to The Athletic.
That’s right before the Panthers begin a two-game road trip on back-to-back nights with the Red Wings in Detroit on Friday. Then, the Panther played Boston on Saturday for the second time in four days.
With that said, road games haven’t looked much tougher for the Panthers thus far. In two previous road games, they beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Oct. 19 and downed the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Oct. 23.
Other than a 5-4 overtime win over Pittsburgh to open the season on Oct. 14, the Panthers have won all other games by two or more goals — mostly three-goal wins. Boston grabbed an early lead on Wednesday, but Mason Marchment tied things up for the Panthers four minutes later. The Panther never trailed again in a 4-1 win.
Detroit comes into Friday’s game on a two-game winning streak after beating the Washington Capitals 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday. The Red Wings also doubled up Chicago 6-3 on Sunday.
Left winger Tyler Bertuzzi leads the Red Wings in scoring with nine points on six goals and three assists. Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin have eight points apiece, and Moritz Seider has six.
Red Wings skaters will have a tough goalie to get past no matter which starts for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky dominated in his first five starts (5-0-0) with a 1.79 goals against average and a .946 save percentage. Spencer Knight (2-0-0) has 2.01 goals allowed per game and a .923 save percentage.
Florida spreads out its scoring well, which will challenge the Red Wings defensemen. Panthers left winger Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team in scoring with nine points on three goals and six assists. Florida also has five other skaters with seven points — Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Gustav Forsling.
Red Wings goalies Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic give up a combined average of 3.29 goals per game. Greiss (3-1-1) has a .917 save percentage, and Nedeljkovic (1-1-) has an .897 save percentage.