Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice wasn’t ready to draw conclusions after one loss about how his defending Stanley Cup champions will cope without captain Aleksander Barkov, who is expected to be out for two to three weeks due to a lower-body injury.
The Panthers also struggled without forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek in their 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. “We won’t use today as a judgment,” Maurice stated.
However, he was disappointed with the lack of effort the Panthers showed, especially after they took the lead but then allowed four straight goals.
“We’ve won many games in the past without them, and you have to play in a way that allows that to happen. And we’re not doing that,” he explained. “We didn’t play a game that lets you survive without some key players. But I believe we can improve.”
Barkov, a two-time Frank J. Selke winner for being the NHL’s best defensive forward, got injured when he crashed into the boards while trying to stop Tim Stutzle from scoring an empty-net goal in a 3-1 loss at Ottawa on Thursday.
Maurice is hopeful that Barkov will be back in time for the Panthers’ two NHL Global Series games against the Dallas Stars on November 1-2 in Tampere, Finland.
Tkachuk is day to day due to an illness, while Nosek has missed all three games this season because of an upper-body injury he suffered last month.
These injuries forced Maurice to adjust the lineup, leading to forward Patrick Giles making his NHL debut.
The Panthers’ goals came from defenseman Nate Schmidt and Sam Bennett, who scored on a tip-in from Sam Reinhart’s point shot, marking Florida’s first power-play goal of the season.
Despite this, Florida has now lost two straight games after winning their season opener against Boston.
“We have what we need in this room,” Schmidt said. “Now it’s time for guys to step up. We’re missing two irreplaceable players, but we have the guys who can step in and do what we need within our system.”
Goalie Spencer Knight took responsibility for his performance after stopping 22 of 26 shots in his first NHL start in 18 months. Tage Thompson’s go-ahead goal slipped through Knight’s legs from 25 feet away, and he took time to get up, which allowed Henri Jokiharju to score and make it 3-1 with a shot from the left point.
“I think really that loss starts with me and ends with me. I can’t be making plays like that,” said Knight, who is returning to play after entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program in 2023 to help with obsessive-compulsive disorder and spending last season in the minors.
Knight chose not to blame Barkov’s absence for the loss.
“Obviously, when you don’t have him in the lineup, you got to switch things up,” Knight said. “But I think we have enough faith in this room regardless of who’s in and who’s out.”
The Panthers will finish their four-game road trip against Boston on Tuesday and Columbus the following day.
