Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov out vs Detroit Red Wings. The latest on his injury
Florida Panthers top-line center and team captain Aleksander Barkov will not play against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday as he deals with a lower-body injury.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Barkov is being held out as a precaution so that the injury doesn’t worsen.
“We want it to completely heal,” Maurice said after Florida’s morning skate Wednesaday.
Maurice said he doesn’t expect Barkov to be out too long but that he would hold him out again Friday against the Minnesota Wild if he isn’t fully healthy.
“[Even] if he’s at 95 percent for the Minnesota game, he won’t go in that one either because of the way he plays,” Maurice said.
Maurice added that there is no structural damage — “no strains, no pulls or anything sinister.”
“We caught it early enough that we think it’s very short term,” Maurice said.
With Barkov out, Florida’s forward lines at morning skate were as followed:
▪ Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Sam Reinhart
▪ Carter Verhaeghe-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk
▪ Evan Rodrigues-Kevin Stenlund-Ryan Lomberg
▪ Jonah Gadjovich-Steven Lorentz-Will Lockwood
Barkov did not play in the final 5:47 of regulation or the 48 seconds of overtime in the Panthers’ 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday due to the injury, which Maurice said tightened up on Barkov during the game.
“He’s been dealing with something that we don’t want it to get worse,” Maurice said Monday. “And it didn’t. I think we got him [out] early enough.”
Maurice said Barkov first pointed out that the injury began to “tighten a bit” in the first period and then it got to a point in the third period that Maurice took him out of the game to avoid the injury from worsening.
“I said, ‘He’s out as soon as he can’t go,” Maurice said.
Barkov played 17:13 on Monday, the fourth-most ice time among Panthers forwards against the Ducks.
In 40 games this season, Barkov has a team-high 35 assists to go along with 11 goals. Barkov missed three games earlier this season and has worn a full face shield the past five games after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face against the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 4.
One additional lineup note: Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov returns to the lineup Wednesday after sitting out Monday’s overtime loss to Anaheim. Josh Mahura will be out.
Return of the Lyon King
Goaltender Alex Lyon, whose heroics in net down the stretch last season helped the Panthers sneak into the playoffs en route to a Stanley Cup Final run, will start for the Red Wings on Wednesday in his first game back in Sunrise.
Lyon, who began last season as Florida’s No. 3 goaltender, helped the Panthers clinch their playoff spot by rattling off a 6-0-1 run from March 29-April 10 with starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky sidelined.
“He was definitely the most important reason we got into the playoffs last year with the run he went on when Bob went down late in the season,” Tkachuk said after morning skate. “Him coming in and stealing the show led us to the playoffs. It’ll be cool to see him in net tonight. It’s well earned that he got this opportunity for Detroit after what he did for us last year.”
He parlayed that into a two-year contract with the Red Wings over the offseason. Lyon enters Wednesday with a 9-4-1 record, 2.58 goals against average and .922 save percentage. He has gone 5-1-1 in his past seven starts entering the Panthers game.
This story was originally published January 17, 2024 at 11:42 AM.
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