Aleksander Barkov Still Out as Florida Panthers Take On New York Rangers
The Florida Panthers will still be without Aleksander Barkov as they head up to New York for an Eastern Conference final rematch with the Rangers.
NEW YORK — The Florida Panthers will be without captain Aleksander Barkov when they take on the New York Rangers in an Eastern Conference final rematch.
Barkov has been out since Oct. 10 with a lower-body injury after sliding into the boards feet first while trying to defend an empty-net goal.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Barkov is likely to return during one of the remaining two games on this New York trip, with a return being more likely to happen on Monday in Buffalo rather than Saturday on Long Island.
At the very least, he will return for the Panthers’ trip to his hometown of Tampere for the NHL’s Global Series in Finland — and they are confident they are not rushing him back for it.
“The structure of our season had nothing to do with when we would feel he’s ready,” Maurice said. “We’re not holding him out. That’s the doctor’s call and Sasha’s call, so if he can get in Saturday, he will play Saturday, and we’re not holding him out Monday to make sure he gets to Finland.
“I don’t think that’s changed at all for him. He wants to play Saturday if he could. If he was ready, he would. It’s not an injury where, by the time we get there, it’s well before our original prediction, so he’s well within the window we thought it would be. And we wouldn’t let him play in Finland if he wasn’t right.”
Barkov skated alongside Jonah Gadjovich, who had been dealing with back spasms, in the team’s IR skate following their optional morning skate at Madison Square Garden.
Gadjovich also remains out of the lineup.
But even if they cannot get Barkov into a full practice before his return (because there just aren’t that many on the schedule) they feel they will be able to pinpoint a return for him just fine.
“We have very low practice time,” Maurice said. “We won’t get much until mid November when we come back from Finland. But he’s not 22, right? He can be really in tune with his body, he works hard off these all summer. He can get all the conditioning he needs and we can also keep him in a more controlled environment. He’s out there cutting hard in the corners and Gadjovich is leaning on him, so he’ll know when he’s ready.”
THE NEWS
Today’s game will air at 7 p.m. EST on Scripps Sports and Panthers Plus. It will also be available for streaming on ESPN+ for those outside of the Panthers’ broadcast territory.
For more information on how to catch this afternoon’s game, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
— Sergei Bobrovsky will get the start in net against New York for his second crack at earning his 400th career win. He sits at 399 wins going into tonight’s game.
PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Evan Rodrigues — Jesper Boqvist — Mackie Samoskevich
Uvis Balinskis — Patrick Giles — A.J. Greer
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Adam Boqvist — Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
Scratched: N/A
Injured: Tomas Nosek (LTIR), Justin Sourdif (SOIR), Aleksander Barkov (lower-body), Jonah Gadjovich (back spasms)
NEW YORK RANGERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle —Filip Chytil — Kappo Kakko
Adam Edstrom — Sam Carrick — Johnny Brozinski
K’Andre Miller — Adam Fox
Braden Schneider — Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren — Victor Mancini
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Injured: Jimmy Vesey
(Rangers lines via DailyFaceoff.com)