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Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov was banged up in Tuesday night's 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, and the captain was unavailable for the second half of the back-to-back against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
After the Panthers lost 3-2 to the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, head coach Paul Maurice said he “[doesn't] think it's a long-term thing,” per The Athletic's Chris Johnston.
“Aleksander Barkov has an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day, according to Paul Maurice,” Johnston reported late Wednesday night.
Barkov briefly left Tuesday's loss to Montreal in the second period, but returned for the third period and played the remainder of the game. The Panthers have played 11 games without their captain in 2024-25, going 6-3-1 in that span.
Florida remains without Matthew Tkachuk and Dmitry Kulikov, as well as Aaron Ekblad, who continues to serve a 20-game suspension.
As well, fourth-line center Nico Sturm was injured after colliding with AJ Greer against Montreal on Tuesday. With both Barkov and Sturm unavailable, Jonah Gadjovich and Tomas Nosek re-entered the lineup on Wednesday.
The injuries continue to pile up at an inopportune time for the Panthers, who now have just seven games left in the regular-season.
Panthers now 4 points behind Maple Leafs in Atlantic Division
After only securing one of a possible four points in Montreal and Toronto, Florida now sits at 44-27-4 and four points behind the Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division.
It's going to take a herculean effort to pass both the Leafs and the Lightning — Tampa Bay has won four games in a row and are a point up with a game in hand.
Since Sunday afternoon, Florida has lost three straight games, and it's looking likely that the squad will finish either second or third place in the division. That means they'll play one of Toronto or Tampa, whichever one doesn't end up in first in a couple of weeks' time.
“It’s playoff hockey at this time of the year,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said after Wednesday's loss, per NHL.com's Dave McCarthy. “It’s always one-goal games it seems like. We’ll continue to fight and continue to build. We did a lot of good things. It’s not something we’re going to hang our heads about I don’t think.”
Sam Reinhart scored a goal and added an assist in the losing effort, while Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves between the pipes.
“You just need to keep battling,” Anton Lundell said of the team's mounting injuries. “I feel like we played pretty well today. Sometimes you’ve just got to push and keep battling and at some point, you’re going to get the bounces on your side.”
At this point, maybe more important than winning the division is getting healthy ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After advancing to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals — and winning the franchise's inaugural championship last year — the club is hoping to make another deep run in 2025.
The Panthers are back in action on Saturday afternoon against the Senators in Ottawa as they look to avoid losing four straight games for just the first time this season.
