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The Florida Panthers’ quest to become the first professional organization to three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 2000s has not gotten off to a hot start.
Sasha Barkov might miss the entire season after tearing his ACL just before the season started, and Matthew Tkachuk remains on injured reserve to treat the groin injury he suffered way back during the 4 Nations tournament.
Tomas Nosek, Dmitry Kulikov, and Jonah Gadjovich have all missed time due to injury, and forward Eetu Luostarinen will be joining them after an unforeseeable injury.
The Panthers said Luostarinen suffered burns in a “barbecuing mishap,” and there is no timetable for his return.
“I’m going to list him as week to week because we don’t have a lot of experience with this and some of this is when he comes back and feels comfortable with the equipment on,” head coach Paul Maurice said on Wednesday. “He wasn’t in the hospital overnight. He did get seen by doctors in that vein.”
Barkov, Kulikov, Gadjovich and Nosek all still have months to go in their recoveries; Tkachuk may start skating by the end of this month and could make his season debut sometime in December.
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Forward Cole Schwindt, whom the Panthers claimed off waivers last month to help with their injury problems, is now on the injury list himself. Schwindt will need surgery in the coming days to repair a broken arm, and the Panthers expect that he’ll miss two to three months.
The “barbecuing mishap” comes roughly a week after the New Jersey Devils announced that Jack Hughes would miss around eight weeks after he reportedly cut his finger after slipping and falling on glass.
Florida has made it to three Cup Finals in a row, but they currently sit in sixth place in the Atlantic Division with 19 points (10-8-1). The last NHL team to three-peat was the New York Islanders, when they won four straight to begin the 1980s.
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