Panthers skid into Christmas break with 3rd straight loss and lose Aaron Ekblad to injury
The Florida Panthers will go into the long Christmas break seven points out of postseason position, dealing with an ever-increasing rash of injuries and fresh off another disheartening loss after they blew a lead Friday, and got blown out 5-1 by the New York Islanders on the road.
The Panthers wasted an early 1-0 lead and gave up the go-ahead goal with just 44.1 seconds left in the second period, and it wasn’t even close to the most concerning aspect of the loss. Florida also lost Aaron Ekblad to an upper-body injury in the opening minutes and the star defenseman never returned.
Now, the Panthers (15-16-4) will have nearly a week off to sort through everything going wrong for them in these massively disappointing first few months of the 2022-23 NHL season.
In some ways, Florida’s season started inexplicably. After winning the Presidents’ Trophy last year, spent the first quarter of the season ranking near the top of the league in shots, scoring chances, high-danger chances and just about any statistical category measuring offensive proficiency, except for actual scoring. An abysmal power play and near-the-bottom-of-the-league shooting percentage kept Florida from converting chances into production.
In the last week or so, most of those positive signs have disappeared, though, and the Panthers’ loss to the Islanders (19-14-2) in Elmont, New York, was simply a matter of being outplayed by a now-superior opponent. When the Islanders took the lead for good at the end of the second period, they went into the second intermission with a 28-14 advantage in shots and an astonishing 23-5 edge in 5-on-5 shots. Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and All-Star right wing Matthew Tkachuk, whose first-period goal was his 40th point of the season, were virtually the only reason Florida was actually competitive at any point at UBS Arena.
There are excuses to be had. When Ekblad exited in the first period, it left the Panthers without two of their three best skaters as star center Aleksander Barkov also missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. In all, Florida has now had nine players go down with either injury or illness in the last month: Goaltender Spencer Knight, defenseman Radko Gudas, forwards Colin White, Anton Lundell, Patric Hornqvist and Chris Tierney, Barkov and Ekblad.
Right wing Anthony Duclair also has yet to play this season after offseason surgery to repair his left Achilles tendon.
Ekblad, 26, went down with 12:44 left in the first, going after Oliver Wahlstrom after the Islanders right wing dug his stick at Bobrovsky after the whistle blow. Ekblad landed one solid jab on Wahlstrom and then came out of the scrum with his right arm dangling limp, gesturing at the possibly injured limb.
Florida officially announced the star defenseman was questionable to return in the second period, but he never returned to the bench.
A few minutes after Ekblad left, the Panthers did take a 1-0 lead on a 4-on-4 goal by Tkachuk, but they melted down across the final two periods, giving up five straight goals in the second and third to lose their third straight, and for the sixth time in eight games. They also now have a worse goal differential than the last-place Ottawa Senators.
The lone positive for Florida is it now has time to get healthy. The Panthers don’t play again until Thursday, when they host the Montreal Canadiens in Sunrise, and won’t return to the ice for practice until Tuesday.
“Hoping that we use this break as like a fresh start when we come back,” Tkachuk said, “because when we come back, there’s not a lot of room for losses for our group.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 8:45 PM.
