Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov to miss 2-3 weeks; Matt Tkachuk out against Sabres
It seems that the Florida Panthers will be out a couple of key players on Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice announced that winger Matthew Tkachuk will miss Saturday’s game due to an illness, while center Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury.
Maurice announces Aleksander Barkov (lower body) is expected to miss the next 2-3 weeks.
They’re optimistic he’ll be back in time for the Global Series in Finland, and maybe even sooner than that. pic.twitter.com/U6DlcBtA8a
FLA coach Paul Maurice says Matthew Tkachuk is out tonight (illness) and Spencer Knight starts vs BFO
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 12, 2024With Tkachuk’s reason for missing the game just being due to an illness, it’s assumed that he will probably only be out for the one game. The Panthers next play on Monday against the Boston Bruins, so Tkachuk will have a bit of time to recover, although it’s still possible that he could be dealing with the illness at that point.
Tkachuk has had a relatively normal start to the year in terms of production, with two assists so far in two games this year. He’s coming off of a year where he had 26 goals and 62 assists for 88 points in 80 games, and looking to return to the production that gave him back-to-back 100-point seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The bigger injury news is that of Barkov. The Panthers’ captain suffered a lower-body injury in the dying minutes of Thursday’s game against the Ottawa Senators when he was attempting to prevent an empty net goal and crashed into the boards. He managed to avoid a fracture with the injury, but will still be out for 2-3 weeks.
Maurice mentioned that the team is optimistic that Barkov will be back in time for the Global Series in his home country of Finland against the Dallas Stars.
Like Tkachuk, Barkov has produced at a relatively normal rate to start the year with one assist in two games. He was par for the course last season as well, with 23 goals and 57 assists for 80 points in 73 games.
In more positive news, goaltender Spencer Knight is expected to start for the Panthers game on Saturday. The start will be his first NHL game since February 18th, 2023, as he then entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program to work on his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Knight did spend some time in the American Hockey League last season, playing 45 games for the Charlotte Checkers and finishing the year with a 25-14-5 record, a .905% save percentage, and 5 shutouts.
The Panthers will hope that they can beat the Sabres without their two best players when they visit Buffalo on Saturday at 7 p.m. EST. Florida currently finds themselves in fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 1-1-0 record.