The injury hits keep coming for the Florida Panthers — and this lost season gets one game closer to its conclusion.
Forward Evan Rodrigues, one of the few mainstays to take the ice Thursday, played just one shift and 49 seconds before exiting with a broken finger on his right hand in the Panthers’ eventual 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Amerant Bank Arena.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored the game-winner with 3.8 seconds left after the Panthers tied the game about a minute earlier.
The loss drops Florida to 35-33-3.
But the real loss is the latest injury. Maurice said Rodrigues is likely out four to six weeks depending on if he needs surgery, essentially ending his season either way considering Florida has three weeks left in its season.
The current count of players sidelined is up to 10: Forwards Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Mackie Samoskevich, Jonah Gadjovich, Cole Schwindt and Rodrigues as well as defensemen Niko Mikkola and Uvis Balinskis.
Barkov hasn’t played all season after undergoing surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee early in training camp. Lundell (ribs), Mikkola (knee) and Balinskis (foot) have all been effectively ruled out for the year. Marchand (lower body) and Reinhart (foot) are trending as possibly being done, as well. Gadjovich (upper body) doesn’t seem likely to return either.
Forward A.J. Greer is also currently out while serving a three-game suspension that runs through Saturday.
Forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek also missed significant time this year, as did defensemen Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov.
“The most dangerous job in sports right now is to play for the Florida Panthers,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
It has the Panthers limping to the final line after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups and reaching the Stanley Cup Final three seasons in a row.
While Florida isn’t mathematically eliminated yet — with 73 points and 11 games left, the Panthers’ theoretically can max out at 95 points; the Ottawa Senators, currently occupying the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot, have 85 points — the focus right now is just on mustering through the season without any more major injuries and getting the team on a path to recovery before next season begins.
“You know the end date,” Tkachuk said. “It’s not like we’re gearing up for the playoffs.”
That said, the Panthers still have to play the games on the schedule. The effort will be there, even if it doesn’t always translate in the final score if only because of the sheer skill deficiency with the lineups Maurice has to use compared to what the team looks like at full strength.
“If we lose the culture, we’re absolutely screwed,” Tkachuk said. “That’s our ace of spade. That’s our trump card. And if we lose that and mail it in and the guys coming in and out of the lineup see that — if some of the guys that have been here for a few years, that have been far and won a few times, if we take the foot off the gas — that shows them that that’s OK and that’s not OK. So if we lose the culture, we’re screwed, and we’re not going to do that.”
That was the case on Thursday. Despite a stellar effort in net by goaltender Daniil Tarasov, who made a career-high-tying 47 saves (including going a perfect 19 for 19 in the first period), Florida was down 2-0 after two periods to Minnesota (41-20-12) on goals by Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman in the middle frame.
Tkachuk cut Florida’s deficit to 2-1 on a redirect of a Gustav Forsling shot 42 seconds into the third period. It was Tkachuk’s 250th career goal. Florida had just 19 shots on goal against Minnesota’s Jesper Wallstedt. Ekblad tied the game at 2-2 with 1:13 left to play with a shot from the left circle on a feed from Jones with Tarasov on the bench for an extra skater.
And then Eriksson Ek ended the game in the dying seconds with a wrist shot from up close off a Brock Faber rebound.
“All the things that you try to do when things are good and you’re winning, you want to make sure you can do them,” Maruice said. “We’re going to have some nights here in the in our last 11 games where we can’t control the other team, and it may be tough, but then we come back the next night and play hard. … We got used to having five or six guys out; now we’re getting to nine and 10. That’s tough, and they treat each other the way they’re supposed to. So I’m proud of that.”
The Panthers now go on the road for a back-to-back against the New York Islanders on Saturday (1 p.m., Scripps Sports) and New York Rangers on Sunday (1 p.m., Scripps Sports).
