OTTAWA – Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (upper body) will miss both games of this weekend’s back-to-back, head coach Paul Maurice announced after Friday's practice at Bell Sensplex.
Sitting third in the Atlantic Division at 44-27-4, the Panthers will face the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
“It’s not serious, but he’s not playing this weekend,” Maurice said of the injury.
Barkov appeared to suffer the injury during Tuesday’s matchup in Montreal.
After exiting the game in the second period, he returned at the start of the third period and continued to play all the way through team’s 3-2 overtime loss.
The main man down the middle for the Panthers, Barkov ranks second on the team in scoring with 67 points (19 goals, 48 assists) while also winning 56.9% of his faceoffs.
Vying for this third Selke Trophy, he boasts a 57.83 expected goals for percentage.
In addition to Barkov, the Panthers remain without Nico Sturm and Matthew Tkachuk up front.
On the back end, Dmitry Kulikov and Aaron Ekblad are still out as well.
Trying to fill the void up front, the Panthers mixed up their lines during today’s practice.
Sam Bennett centered Jesper Boqvist and Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell centered Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand, Evan Rodrigues centered Carter Verhaeghe and Mackie Samoskevich, and Tomas Nosek was working between A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich.
“We’ve got an opportunity to experiment, which is forced on us,” Maurice said of the changes. “When Barkov goes out of your lineup, it changes your center ice men. We’re just looking at different guys.”
As for Sturm, who was also injured against the Canadiens on Tuesday, the team’s fourth line center could return as early as next week.
“He’ll get pushed here today, off ice today and tomorrow on ice,” Maurice said. “If all goes well, he’ll be available to us when we get back or the middle part of the week.”
Stay tuned to FloridaPanthers.com for future updates.
