SUNRISE, Fla. – It’s time to exhale.
After enduring a knee-on-knee hit from Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe in Friday’s 2-1 win at Anaheim, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov shouldn't miss an extended period of time, head coach Paul Maurice announced after Sunday’s practice at Amerant Bank Arena.
“We’ll list him as day to day,” Maurice said. “We’re still looking at it. We didn’t IR him, but we can. That would take him into the weekend. He won’t play tomorrow. We’ll leave him at day to day.”
The collision with LaCombe occurred while Barkov was attempting to carry the puck through the neutral zone early in the third period. Down on the ice for some time, Barkov eventually skated to the locker room with a trainer. LaCombe was initially called for a five-minute penalty, but it was reduced to two minutes after a review by the officials.
Given the violent nature of knee-on-knee hits, the Panthers feel like they dodged a bullet.
“It was direct on the knee,” Maurice said of the incident. “It was soft tissue. It wasn’t a bone bruise. We got lucky. We just got lucky with it because those are dangerous, dangerous plays.”
A dominant two-way force as always, Barkov had been playing some great hockey prior to the injury. In 16 games, the 28-year-old has logged 17 points (six goals, 11 assists), seven blocks, 16 hits and 16 takeaways while playing an integral role on both the power play and penalty kill.
Already starting to build a strong campaign to claim his second Selke Trophy, the Panthers have led 16-3 in goals and 128-80 in scoring chances when Barkov has been deployed at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
In his absence, Anton Lundell centered the top line during this morning’s practice.
“The lines are sort of set, but what’s really going to happen is those left wingers are going to move around,” Maurice said. “You can always play [Eetu] Luostarinen with Lundell and [Sam] Reinhart. That was a line last year we actually checked with. Going into Edmonton, they’ve got the top-six loaded on two lines. That might be something we do. We’ll start with what we have.”
More updates on Barkov’s status are expected to come throughout this week.
“Every day he comes in, you check the swelling, you check the strength, you check the range of motion,” Maurice said. “It gets better fast or it plateaus. That’s what extends these things. If it got to a certain point, we could back-date the IR and bring somebody in. Right now, we won’t.”
Sitting at 11-5-1 in the standings, the Panthers will kick off a three-game homestand with a matchup against the Oilers on Monday.
MAHURA UPDATE
The Panthers also provided an update on Josh Mahura this morning.
After suffering an undisclosed injury during the first period of Thursday’s 2-1 loss at Los Angeles, the defenseman is expected to miss some time, but likely not more than two weeks.
Mahura was placed on IR on Friday.
“It’s clearly a seven-day event, but we don’t believe it’s a 14-day event,” Maurice said. “We think it’s somewhere between those two.”
Appearing in all 82 games for the Panthers after being claimed off waivers from Anaheim last season, Mahura has recorded five assists, 10 blocks and 11 hits in 16 games this season.
With both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour now back in the lineup, the Panthers will have potentially nine defenseman on their roster when Mahura is cleared to return to action.
“That’ll be something we’ll let you know after the fact,” Maurice said when asked about the team’s abundance of blueliners. “There are some moving parts. We won’t be able to carry nine.”
SUNDAY’S PRACTICE LINES
Forwards
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins
Jonah Gadjovich – Steven Lorentz – Ryan Lomberg
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola - Brandon Montour
Oliver-Ekman Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
Extras: Mike Reilly, Uvis Balinskis
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
