NOTEBOOK: Florida Panthers Heading to Nashville Without Tkachuk, Luostarinen

Eetu Luostarinen will miss Tuesday night’s game in Nashville while awaiting the birth of a new child; Matthew Tkachuk will not travel with the team.

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will be without two key forwards when they head to Nashville to take on the Predators on Tuesday night.

With Matthew Tkachuk already expected to miss some time, Eetu Luostarinen will also be staying back in South Florida as he and his wife, Tiia, await the birth of their child.

Florida is expected to call a player up from AHL Charlotte to replace Luostarinen in the lineup for Tuesday night’s game.

Tkachuk’s timeline is still uncertain, but as Maurice said on Tuesday morning on 560WQAM’s Joe Rose Show, he is not expected be out of the remainder of the regular season.

The Panthers are still awaiting a full timeline on Tkachuk’s injury as the tests come back.

As of right now, the only roster move the Panthers are making is calling up the player who will be slotting in for Luostarinen in Nashville.

“We got a pretty good idea of where it’s at, we just have to make sure everybody looks at the pictures the same way and then I don’t have that concern,” Maurice said. “He’ll play.”

The Panthers gave Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett the day off from practice after they returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off as champions, but they are both expected to play in Tuesday’s game just as they did when the team returned from the break on Saturday.

“It was the first day off for Bennett and Reinhart,” Maurice said. “They got Sunday off and they’ll take today off.

“Everybody else got two weeks, these guys get two days. In the next two weeks, we would like to keep them off the ice a fair amount if we can.”