Panthers end trip with win in Anaheim, then get ‘good news’ on Aaron Ekblad injury scare
Almost exactly a year after his season ended because of an ankle injury, Aaron Ekblad was again down on the ice Friday and unable to put any weight on one of his legs as he tried to get back to the Florida Panthers’ bench.
“It’s not last year,” though, Andrew Brunette said. “He’s going to be OK.”
The Panthers could breathe a sigh of relief. Even after Ekblad’s right knee buckled in the first period and a lower-body injury knocked him out of Florida’s 3-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks, the Panthers don’t expect the injury to be a long-term concern. Initial tests showed “nothing structural,” Brunette said, and the team is “very hopeful” he won’t be out long.
“It was way better than we thought it was going to be,” the interim coach said, adding the team will reevaluate the star defenseman Saturday.
The actual event was scary. With 18:55 left in the first period, Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler checked Ekblad into the boards and star center Aleksander Barkov, who lost his footing near the play, slid in feet first and tripped the two defensemen. Ekblad’s knee bent awkwardly and he crumpled. A skirmish broke out and Ekblad crawled around on the ice, unable to even rise to his feet on his own.
Trainers eventually helped Ekblad get to his feet. Even then, the two-time All-Star couldn’t put any weight on his right leg, though, as he clambered off the ice in front of a hushed crowd of 12,296 at the Honda Center.
Ekblad retreated back to the dressing room for further evaluation and Florida officially ruled him out during the first intermission.
The injury came nearly a year after Ekblad fractured his left ankle last season, forcing him to miss the final two months of the season, including the entirety of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. He was able to return by the start of the training camp, though, and didn’t miss a beat, quickly returning right into contention for the James Norris Memorial Trophy with 57 points and the league’s fourth most defensive point shares. No one has been on the ice for more goals this season than Ekblad and his 15 goals are fourth most among NHL defensemen.
On Thursday, Ekblad set the franchise record for points by a defenseman by dishing out three assists in a loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. He has 291 points in his career, all with the Panthers.
The injury mired an otherwise spectacular performance for Florida (42-14-6) in Anaheim. All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice in the first period as the Panthers outshot the Ducks, 19-4, and forward Joe Thornton added another in the second while Florida outshot Anaheim, 15-8. Huberdeau now has 86 points this season, one behind Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid for the league lead.
The Panthers doubled up the Ducks (27-26-11) in shot attempts, shots on goal and scoring chances. They finished with 42 shots on goal and rookie goaltender Spencer Knight, who made his fourth straight start with star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky ailing, stopped all 17 shots he faced for his first NHL shutout.
The win puts Florida back into first place in the Eastern Conference in terms of both points and points percentage. The best news, however, came from the training room.
“It’ll be a clearer picture tomorrow of exactly what it is,” Brunette said, “but, yeah, it was positive news tonight.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 10:30 PM.
