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The Florida Panthers are looking to take a stranglehold on the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday night — but they'll have to do it without one of their best players. Sam Reinhart, who has 11 points in 14 games this postseason, won't suit up for the tilt, head coach Paul Maurice confirmed.
Reinhart was injured on a hit by Canes forward Sebastian Aho early in Game 2; he didn't play in the second or third period of the 5-0 victory at Lenovo Center. The 29-year-old was favoring his left leg after being knocked down by Aho while carrying the puck into the offensive zone.
“It’s a player that touches all parts of your game, a critical part of our power play, [Aleksander] Barkov and Reinhart are elite at penalty killing, and he draws the heavy fire and pulls the best set of defensemen from the other team,” Maurice said after the morning skate, per NHL.com's Tom Gulitti.
“So, it’s a significant player out of our lineup, for sure, and we have gone through other significant (players missing games). Barkov and [Sam] Bennett and [Aaron] Ekblad have all missed important times in the playoffs, so you have to be able to survive it.”
Maurice confirmed that Reinhart is day-to-day and will have a chance to play in Game 4. In his absence, Jesper Boqvist will enter the lineup.
“Obviously, I haven’t played in a couple here, so I’ll try to get my legs moving as soon as possible and keep it simple and all that,” Boqvist said, per Gulitti. “I’ll just try to build on those couple of games. So, it should be fun.”
Boqvist will likely play on the top line alongside Barkov, who has 12 points in 14 games in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Although Reinhart hasn't been one of the main offensive drivers as of late, he's a crucial piece of the defending Stanley Cup champions. He led the team in the regular season with 39 goals and 81 points, and was second with 43 assists through 79 contests.
“You can’t have one guy go down and not still have a chance, or you don’t have the depth that you think,” Maurice continued. “That being said, there’s a 57-goal scorer out of our lineup. Nobody has that kind of depth.”
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Even without Sam Reinhart, Panthers dominated Hurricanes in Game 2
Despite losing a player of Reinhart's caliber, Florida easily beat Carolina in Game 2 on Thursday night, scoring three goals in the first period and never looking back en route to the 5-0 final.
Those three first period goals were scored on just five shots on Frederik Andersen, who was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov in the third period. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour confirmed that Kochetkov would get the nod at Amerant Bank Arena in Game 3.
Carolina has had an impossible time trying to beat Florida in the postseason. The Canes were swept in the 2023 East Final by the Cats, and dropped both games at home this time around, being outscored 10-2 in the process.
They just can't afford to go down 3-0 against the defending Stanley Cup champions, and will need to find a way to get a victory in a hostile Amerant Bank Arena. That's easier said than done considering Brind'Amour's group has lost 14 consecutive Eastern Conference Final games dating back to 2009.
Puck is set to drop on Game 3 just past 8:00 p.m. ET from Sunrise on Saturday night.
