FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The injury bug is back.
After enjoying a brief moment of a fairly healthy lineup, the Florida Panthers are once again dealing with a slew of injuries as they prepare to head down the home stretch.
“You can’t wrap these guys in bubble wrap,” head coach Paul Maurice said.
So far, the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions have lost 400-plus man games to injury this season.
On Monday, Maurice provided updates on several key players.
Niko Mikkola
The news on Mikkola was better than expected.
After suffering a lower-body injury during a scary knee-on-knee collision with Flames forward Ryan Strome during the third period of Friday’s 4-1 loss at Calgary, the Panthers blueliner thankfully won’t need surgery and should be able to go through his offseason as planned.
“He will be out weeks instead of months,” Maurice said. “[It’s a] 4-6 week rehab.”
Based on how bad the injury looked, that’s the best outcome anyone could’ve hoped for.
“We’re really relieved on that,” Maurice said.
In 68 games, Mikkola had logged 11 points (3G, 8A), 116 hits and 81 blocked shots.
Next season will be the first year of his eight-year extension signed in October.
Sam Reinhart
Reinhart’s immediate future remains cloudy.
After staying behind during Florida’s recent four-game road trip, the star forward’s availability for Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Kraken doesn’t sound promising.
"He's testing tomorrow,” Maurice said. “More tests tomorrow."
With a lot of miles on his tires, Reinhart’s injury isn’t easy to pinpoint.
"It's more than one thing he's been dealing with," Maurice said last week.
Suiting up in 64 games, Reinhart still stands as Florida’s leader in goals (29) and points (61).
Uvis Balinskis
Balinskis has been sidelined by a lower-body injury for the past five games.
Now, we know why.
“He does have a fracture in his foot,” Maurice said.
In terms of a timeline, Balinskis should follow Mikkola’s recovery of 4-6 weeks.
In 54 games this season, the Latvian defenseman has notched 15 points (5G, 10A).
Seeing an elevated role, his 16:22 of time on ice per game is a career best.
Mackie Samoskevich
After missing the loss at Calgary, it was revealed that Samoskevich suffered a “pretty good laceration” from a skate blade roughly 24 hours earlier in Thursday’s win at Edmonton.
“He’s 7-10 days before he’s back,” Maurice said.
In 66 games this season, Samoskevich has posted 23 points (6G, 17A).
An underrated stat, he also ranks second on Florida with 25 penalties drawn.
Brad Marchand
Hampered by an undisclosed injury for some time, Marchand last played on March 6.
Over the past few weeks, the veteran forward has been visiting doctors to both assess his injury and plan how the road ahead should be handled to get him back to 100%.
That initial testing now appears to be done.
"Marchy had his tests, sent them to the doctor, and now he's doing a doctor tour,” Maurice said. “We'll get an idea of how we're going to rehab that hopefully in the next 10 days."
Over a point-per-game player, Marchand has registered 54 points (27G, 27A) in 52 games this season.
Anton Lundell
Lundell was listed as “banged up” and did not take the ice on Friday in Calgary.
While his status for Tuesday’s tilt with the Kraken remains up in the air, Lundell is closer to returning than some of his other teammates as his injury isn’t considered severe.
As of Monday, he’s yet to resume skating.
"We'll list him as day to day,” Maurice said. “He's not good enough to be on the ice yet. He's getting looked at. We don't think there's much there, but he's not ready to play.”
In 64 games, Lundell has posted 44 points (18G, 26A) and won a team-high 580 faceoffs.
