Florida Panthers shake off Barkov, Marchand injuries

Paul Maurice had every reason to be road weary. Instead, the Florida Panthers coach was almost giddy as an arduous four-game season-open trip concluded late Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Rightfully so, after a coast-to-coast odyssey ended with a 2-1 win against the Kings, giving the Panthers six out of a possible eight points on the trip.

A deeper reason may be that Maurice can count on improvement in key areas despite the loss of two of the team’s most important players.

Notably, Sam Reinhart, the Panthers’ leading scorer last season, and newcomer Brady Tkachuk, a three-time All-Star, have not registered a single point.

Remarkably, the Panthers have scored only one power-play goal in 23 opportunities.

Those are the sort of anomalies that can occur during any four-game period in a season. They receive more notice when they come at the start of the season.

The Panthers’ four-game trip, which spanned about 5,780 miles, was loaded with oddities. The biggest head-scratcher was that they never played with the lead in any of the games until Matthew Tkachuk scored what would be the decisive goal with 8:40 remaining against the Kings.

Yet they went 2-0-2 and are the only team in the Eastern Conference without a loss in regulation, despite losing Sasha Barkov and Brad Marchand to injuries.

Marchand’s injury being evaluated

The Panthers were awaiting results of a MRI on the injury to Marchand’s left leg and are expected to provide an update when the team returns to practice Friday.

Meanwhile, TSN hockey insider Pierre LeBrun reported that “early word” is the Panthers may have avoided the worst-case result on Marchand as they did with Barkov, who will be out six to eight weeks. LeBrun said Marchand’s recovery could be longer than six weeks but would not extend multiple months or the entire season as initially feared.

The Associated Press reported Marchand would be back in November, according to a source.

The expectation is that Florida forward Brad Marchand will be fine in a few weeks, per source. It’s not season ending. He could be back sometime in November. We expect more detail from Paul Maurice tomorrow.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) October 8, 2026

The Panthers finally play their home opener Saturday, 6 p.m., against the Minnesota Wild.

Maurice saw plenty of positives to build on from challenging circumstances on the road.

“It's been a good trip. Really, really good trip,” he said after the win against the Kings. “I like our 5-on-5 game an awful lot. I think we gave up 11 even-strength shots tonight. They're battling and they're dialed in. They're not cheating the game. So I'm very pleased with the road trip. Very pleased with it.”

The Panthers have allowed only two goals in 170:48 of 5-on-5 ice time.

All four games were low scoring and decided by a single goal. They are succeeding at the close-checking style that enabled they to win back-to-back championships. Essentially, they are playing playoff hockey in October.

Panthers excel at their physical style of play

Matthew Tkachuk indicated that has been partially dictated by the injuries, which included top-pairing defenseman Gustav Forsling missing a game and his partner Aaron Ekblad missing the past two due to his wife giving birth.

“I think when guys are banged up or out of the lineup or coming out mid game or whatever, you just got to oversimplify it,” Tkachuk said. “That's alright — Panthers hockey; win low-scoring games and it translates to playoffs.”

They are leading the NHL in hits (144) and hits per 60 minutes (34.23).

Although goals have been tough to come by, the Panthers are pressing the attack. They rank sixth in the league at 43.4 percent of time in the offensive zone, according to Edge advanced stats.

Their penalty kill has been solid at 78.9 percent. They are taking too many avoidable penalties, though, averaging 14.5 penalty minutes per game, seventh most in the league.

Meanwhile, the last line of defense has been outstanding. Goalie Jacob Markstrom, considered a question mark as the replacement for Sergei Bobrovsky, has a .927 save percentage, stopping 51 of 55 shots.

Lundell, Eller among possibilities to fill Marchand's spot

“He's been special to start this season,” defenseman Seth Jones said after the win at L.A. “A lot of big saves, and some breakaways tonight as well. But he's been unbelievable in that for us. He's been a rock back there.”

Jones has been a stalwart on the blue line, averaging 27:43 of ice time, fourth most in the league. He also contributed a goal in the win against the Kings.

One of these games the number 1 line will score as well. The question for the home opener is who will replace Marchand, who replaced Barkov alongside Reinhart (who moved to center) and Brady Tkachuk.

Anton Lundell has filled in ably for Barkov in the past. But it could be veteran center Lars Eller, who is tied for the team lead with three points on fourth line — with Garnet Hathaway and Boko Imama — which drew praise from Maurice after the win against the Kings.

“Lars Eller has been incredible for us. Huge on the five-on-three [penalty kill]. He's on the ice at the end of the game. Hathaway, I thought that whole line early in the game when I could get him out before the penalties kicked in, [was] really physical and stylistically perfect for the way that we want to play.”

Perhaps the biggest concern so far for the Panthers is that the injury situation doesn’t get out of hand as it did to scuttle last season.

“We're not going to have a victim mentality,” Jones said. “You know, we can't think about the past and last year. Injuries happen. I think we have an extremely deep team. Everyone plays the exact same way, and I think that's what makes us great.”

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