Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad will play Game 1 vs. Caps after missing 6 weeks with knee injury
Aaron Ekblad will be in the lineup for the Florida Panthers when they begin the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs Tuesday against the Washington Capitals.
The star defenseman, who missed the final six weeks of the regular season with a right knee injury, will play in Game 1, interim coach Andrew Brunette announced following the Panthers’ morning skate at FLA Live Arena. Ekblad practiced Sunday and Monday in Coral Springs, and skated next to MacKenzie Weegar at Florida’s morning skate Tuesday in Sunrise.
Ekblad won’t have any sort of set minutes limit, Brunette said. The team will just try to manage his time on ice a bit based on how he responds.
“He’s prepared himself physically. Cardiovascularly, he seems really good, so we’ll see how it goes,” Brunette said. “We’ll try to manage him a little bit, but he’s such a competitive guy he’s going to want to go every shift. We’re just going to have to be aware of where he’s at.”
The Ekblad-Weegar pairing averaged 15:08 per game in 5-on-5 action and Ekblad will also play on the top-power play unit next to forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux and Sam Reinhart, bumping winger Anthony Duclair down to the second group.
Ekblad was in the hunt for the James Norris Memorial Trophy before a three-player pile up in a game against the Anaheim Ducks in March cut short his season after 61 games. The Panthers placed him on long-term injured reserve a few days later -- the cap flexibility let Florida trade for defenseman Robert Hagg ahead of the trade deadline — and he spent the rest of the regular season trying to get ready for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Even in his shortened season, Ekblad’s 15 goals were sixth most among NHL defensemen and his 57 points were tied for ninth.
The situation was similar to last year, when Ekblad fractured his leg with about a month left in the regular season. He was never able to return during the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, though, and Florida lost its opening-round series to the eventual-champion Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. Ekblad would have been able to return if the Panthers reached the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Ekblad’s injury this year was nowhere near as serious and Florida quickly said it expected him to return during the first round of the Cup playoffs or the second round, at the latest.
“When we saw him go down in Anaheim, it looked pretty bad like the past year in Dallas,” Huberdeau said. “Obviously, you never want to see that, but obviously we’re happy it wasn’t as bad and he was able to come back.”
The two-time All-Star resumed skating about three weeks ago and was a full participant in both of the Panthers’ practices this week, although he wasn’t cleared to play until after the second one.
On Monday, Brunette said he thought Ekblad would be good to go for Game 1 and if not he’d be ready by the end of the week. By Tuesday, Florida officially had the good news: The Panthers will have their full-strength lineup ready for the postseason.
Said Brunette: “They’re ready to go.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 10:35 AM.
