Yes, the Florida Panthers are already seeing injuries piling up.
And yes, the Panthers know things could be much, much worse.
Florida forward Brad Marchand will need six weeks to recover from his left leg injury and should be able to resume play with the Panthers sometime in November, head coach Paul Maurice confirmed Friday. That comes on the heels of forward Aleksander Barkov being expected to need a similar timetable before he can play again, also because of a left leg injury.
Losing two stars isn’t good. But Maurice sees the silver lining.
“Nobody said ‘months’ yet,” Maurice said.
That’s the difference between the injuries this season and what was happening to Florida at this point last season. By then, Barkov was already expected to be sidelined at least seven months with torn ligaments in his right knee and Matthew Tkachuk was also going to be out for multiple months while recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor.
Barkov wound up missing the entire season. Tkachuk didn’t start his season until mid-January. The Panthers saw players miss a combined 544 games with injuries last season and missed the playoffs, an unceremonious end to their run as back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
So, yes, losing Barkov (who could be back by the end of November) and Marchand (who’ll be back on the ice in three weeks, then is expected to need three more weeks to rehab and condition) for a few weeks now isn’t ideal. But Florida has been there before.
“We’re no stranger to guys going down the last few years and guys have done a great job of stepping up,” Tkachuk said. “Worst case, you just got to win 1-0, 2-1.”
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There have been clear sighs of relief with the knowledge that Barkov and Marchand will both return in a few weeks. Florida was short-handed in all four games of its season-opening road trip — Marchand missed the first two, Barkov missed the next two, and defenceman Aaron Ekblad also missed two because he and his wife were welcoming a baby – and the Panthers went 2-0-2 anyway.
Ekblad is expected to be in the lineup when Florida plays its home opener Saturday against Minnesota.
“There’s a threshold to this,” Maurice said. “You can only survive so many (injuries] and we proved that. But you get two or three guys out, it’s standard operating procedure in the National Hockey League. That’s just normal. You prefer it’s not your No. 1 at any one position because those guys hurt to lose.
“Everybody’s got two or three. And then, you know, you get to five, it starts to get a little tight. Anything over five, you start to really feel it.”
