His recovery from injury ‘felt like forever.’ Panthers’ Gadjovich rewarded in his return
There was chaos in front of the net, and Jonah Gadjovich took advantage. The Florida Panthers had been attacking the Chicago Blackhawks’ Petr Mrazek in waves early in the first period on Saturday, but nothing had gotten past the opposing goaltender.
Finally, Gadjovich struck, corralling his own rebound in front of the net and getting a wrist shot through.
Jubilation ensued. Center Tomas Nosek and defenseman Niko Mikkola immediately embraced Gadjovich. His teammates on the bench were elated.
“You love to skate by and see all the smiles,” Gadjovich said after the game, an eventual 5-1 Panthers win. “And I think that’s just the group that we have here. It’s just a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles. We have a good time when we come to the rink.”
It was a long time coming. Gadjovich had missed the Panthers’ previous 18 games while dealing with an upper-body injury, with his last game coming on Dec. 20 against the St. Louis Blues. For nearly a month and a half, all he could do was practice, get treatment and bide his time.
He wasn’t even a guarantee to get in the lineup on Saturday. Gadjovich only made his return because rookie Mackie Samoskevich was sick.
But Gadjovich stayed upbeat throughout the process, knowing he would get rewarded at some point.
“It’s felt like forever, for sure,” Gadjovich said. “You have good days and bad days, but the staff here was just so incredible working with me and getting me back out there. I honestly owe it all to them.”
And the Panthers perhaps owe their dominant performance on Saturday to Gadjovich.
Florida fell behind 1-0 seven seconds into the game when the Blackhawks scored on their first shift.
The Panthers went on the offensive after that. Over the next five-and-a-half minutes, Florida had 10 shots on goal and 22 total shot attempts, capped by Gadjovich’s goal to tie the game. From there, Sam Reinhart gave Florida a 2-1 lead it would take into the first intermission and then the Panthers would get goals from Matthew Tkachuk in the second period as well as Evan Rodrigues and Carter Verhaeghe in the third to cap the blowout win.
“It was huge. I’m so happy for him,” Verhaeghe said of Gadjovich. “He works so hard in the gym, and he’s always the happiest guy when you see him, whether he’s playing or not. He deserves it. He’s put in so much work to come back, and he’s grinding every day. All the boys were really excited.”
Now, Gadjovich’s primary role with the Panthers isn’t to be a goal-scorer. His tally on Saturday was just his second this season and fourth total in two seasons with the Panthers. He’s a fourth-line winger who uses his physicality to set the tone.
He’s also a noticeable presence in the dressing room and on the bench, a player who can easily bring a morale boost to his team.
“He’s been here now long enough that he’s more comfortable on the bench, talking and chirping, and he’s certainly well respected around the league,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Very, very clean player, but very physical.”
The respect he has garnered was noticed on Saturday as he made his long-awaited return.
“Just been putting in the work behind the scenes and just working towards getting back out there for a game,” Gadjovich said. “Just being with the boys and battling out there, it was fun to get back out there.”
But will Gadjovich stay in the lineup? It’s a question Maurice has to figure out how to properly answer.
Gadjovich made his way back into the lineup only because Samoskevich was under the weather. When Samoskevich, who plays on the Panthers’ second line with Sam Bennett and Tkachuk, is ready to return, how will Maurice handle that?
Does Gadjovich become a healthy scratch? Does he replace Samoskevich and Jesper Boqvist stay on the second line, where he played in Samoskevich’s absence on Saturday? Or another player — A.J. Greer, Nosek or Boqvist, perhaps — come out of the lineup as a casualty of Florida’s forward depth when the team is at full strength?
Time will tell.
This and that
▪ Reinhart’s game-winning goal on Saturday was his 30th goal of the season. It’s his fourth consecutive season logging at least 30 goals.
▪ Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky over his past four games, all wins: 102 saves on 107 shots against (.953 save percentage).
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