The latest on Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov after hit from Lightning’s Brandon Hagel
Aleksander Barkov might play on Saturday afternoon when the Florida Panthers host the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 3 of their Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series.
The Panthers’ captain also might not play.
Coach Paul Maurice on Friday left everything on the table after Barkov missed the final 10-plus minutes of the team’s 2-0 win over the Lightning in Game 2 after he was leveled by Lightning forward Brandon Hagel.
“He hasn’t been ruled out yet and he hasn’t been cleared,” Maurice said.
Game 3 of the best-of-7 series will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. Florida leads the series 2-0.
Hagel was handed a five-minute major penalty for interference on the play, and Barkov went to the dressing room under his own power but did not return to the game. The NHL Department of Player Safety on Friday suspended Hagel one game for the play.
Maurice did not comment directly on the hit when asked about it. However, that didn’t mean he completely ignored it, either. When asked separately about how the Panthers have contained Lightning star Nikita Kucherov and how it seems like the team is “hitting him every time he’s on the ice,” Maurice quipped that “the only players that we hit are the ones that have pucks” — which can be interpreted as a veiled shot on the Hagel hit.
Maurice said he has two or three lineups drawn up if Barkov isn’t able to play Saturday. One of A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich or Tomas Nosek, who have all been healthy scratches through the first two games of the series, would draw into the lineup, and the forward lines would most likely be reconfigured. Barkov centers the top line with Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart on his wings.
“He means everything,” said center Anton Lundell, who usually assumes Florida’s top-line center responsibilities when Barkov is sidelined. “He’s our captain, our leader. Obviously we never want to have him out of the lineup, but at the same time, we’ve got to be able to step up — everybody, not just me, the whole team. He’s been carrying us a lot during the whole season, so we all own him that to step up and make sure that the job is taken care of.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM.
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