The Florida Panthers visit the Nashville Predators on Monday night after losing two more players to injuries this past week.
In addition to being without star forwards Aleksander Barkov (knee) — the team’s captain — and Matthew Tkachuk (adductor), who haven’t played all season, plus defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (labrum) and forward Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), the Panthers lost forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Cole Schwindt.
Luostarinen is week-to-week after a “barbecuing mishap” and Schwindt broke his arm in Monday night’s 8-5 home win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Barkov, Tkachuk, Luostarinen and Kulikov all played key roles in helping Florida win its second consecutive Stanley Cup last season.
“We won’t be dominant in a lot of games because of the personnel that’s out, but we’re staying in them,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I think we’re getting better in some areas we weren’t even great in. We’re forced to adapt our style of hockey to the players that are in. Some of that adaptation we’ll get to keep. That’s the idea. We’re trying to do some things differently than we’ve done in the past.”
Those things were not successful on Saturday night against the team the Panthers beat in the Stanley Cup Final both times to win the Cup. Florida lost 6-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise.
The Panthers trailed 3-1 after the first period and pulled to within 4-3 after two, but the Oilers scored twice into an empty net late.
“They had the lead, so they were able to protect a little bit and we had the chance to push a little bit hard,” Maurice said. “Shots were (13-8) for them in the first period, but we missed the net 13 times. We were in the right end and generating enough but just gave up too much.”
Sam Reinhart had a power-play goal to stretch his point streak to six games (five goals, five assists).
The Predators have lost seven of their last eight after a 3-0 home defeat to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday despite a 35-26 shots advantage.
“It’s been pretty much the same thing all year,” Nashville’s Jonathan Marchessault said. “I think we play decent games. Like, it’s hard for me to analyze the game. I don’t know. I feel like (Saturday) we played great and still we have zero goals. I don’t know what to say really toward that.”
Juuse Saros made 23 saves as the Predators were shut out for the second straight game. They fell 4-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins a week ago Sunday in their second game of the NHL Global Series in Stockholm, Sweden.
A positive against the Avalanche was the return of star defenseman and captain Roman Josi, who had missed 12 games due to an upper-body injury.
He played 19:40 with four shots on goal and eight shot attempts.
“I felt good,” Josi said. “It was nice to be back. I’ve been skating for a while now, which was good to get my legs going. It was nice to be back. When you’re injured, it’s tough watching from afar.”
–Field Level Media
