Panthers injuries keep piling up, with Jones the latest. ‘That’s the theme of our year’
Seth Jones’ memorable Friday — being named to the United States’ Olympic team, playing in his 900th career NHL game and playing in the Florida Panthers’ first-ever outdoor game — ended on a sour note. The defenseman played just three shifts and three minutes before exiting the makeshift rink at loanDepot, home of the Miami Marlins, with an upper-body injury after taking a puck to the neck in the first period of Florida’s eventual 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers in the Winter Classic.
And now Jones joins the long list of key Panthers players sidelined by injury in what has been an adversity-filled first half of the season for the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions.
Jones has been ruled out for Florida’s home game against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, and his status for the immediate future is up in the air.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice is continuing to list Jones as day-to-day for now. Jones is scheduled to see a doctor on Monday. More clarity about his status — and whether he’ll join Florida at the start of its upcoming six-game road trip that starts Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs — will be determined after that.
“That will tell us everything we need to know about the timeline,” Maurice said.
The Panthers have been no strangers to dealing with injuries to key players this season.
They have played every game so far this year without captain Aleksander Barkov (ACL/MCL in right knee), star winger Matthew Tkachuk (torn adductor muscle/sports hernia) and fourth-line center Tomas Nosek (knee). Veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder) and fourth-line winger Jonah Gadjovich (upper-body) have also been sidelined long-term, as has replacement fourth-line forward Cole Schwindt (arm).
“That’s the theme of our year, clearly,” Maurice said after the Winter Classic on Friday. “Every year has something. … This year is about we have to overcome these injuries. Figure out a way to win without your best players. But if you can do that, there’s a pretty good prize at the end.”
That prize, as Florida knows, is the Stanley Cup. The Panthers won it each of the past two seasons.
No team ever has an easy road to hoisting the Cup. The pain and the challenges that the campaign presents and how a team overcomes them plays a part in the story.
“You’ve got to go through it,” Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. “Everyone goes through it. We’re no different. You’ve got to have guys that are able to step in and fill roles and produce. That’s what we’re going to need. It’s going to be a tough January. Everyone’s going through it. It’s a lot of games at this time of year for a lot of teams … So, this is going to be a big month for us.”
For now on the defense, the Panthers will move Uvis Balinskis to the second defense pairing to take Jones’ spot alongside Niko Mikkola. Donovan Sebrango draws in to fill in on the third pair with Jeff Petry. Tobias Bjornfot was recalled from the Charlotte Checkers, Florida’s American Hockey League affiliate, as a reserve until Jones is cleared to return.
But Florida, which is on the outside looking in of a playoff spot at the midway point of the season, probably can’t afford to take too many more hits to the roster. Tkachuk is getting closer to returning — he has practice in a non-contact sweater for about a week-and-a-half now — but most of their key injured players aren’t expected to return until after the Olympic break or beyond.
“Yeah, we’re going to get some guys back, but we’re probably going to lose some guys,” Maurice said. “The further you get in, the threshold, I think, in the league is five guys [injured]. If you have four or five guys out, you can look fairly close. … We’ve been sitting at six all year.”
And so the challenge continues. They’ve handled it well in spurts, but they need to find enough of a spark to continue treading water until the roster becomes more complete.
“Can we overcome it?” Maurice said. “We aren’t going to look the same and people will probably attribute different things (such as), ‘Well, they’ve played a lot of hockey.’ We had played a lot of hockey two years ago. So, that’s not changing. Can we overcome our injuries? That’s our challenge this year.
“If we can do it, if we can handle our adversity, we’ve done our job.”
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