FORT LAUDERDALE — A freak cooking accident is behind the absence of Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen, with coach Paul Maurice saying he could miss a couple of weeks as he heals up.
According to Maurice, Luostarinen was grilling presumably during the Panthers’ off day on Sunday.
There was some sort of malfunction with the gas grill, and Luostarinen suffered burns on the lower half of his body.
Luostarinen obviously missed Monday’s 8-5 win over the Vancouver Canucks and will not be in the lineup for a little bit.
“He suffered burns and we list him as week-to-week because we don’t have a lot of experience with this,” Maurice said. “When he comes back, he will have to be comfortable putting the equipment back on. He was not in the hospital overnight, but he was seen by doctors.”
Florida also lost center Cole Schwindt during that game against the Canucks when he broke his right arm in a hard collision with goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Bobrovsky came out to play the puck as Schwindt was coming on defense. Schwindt did not appear to see Bobrovsky before turning into him with both players hitting the ice.
Schwindt did not return to the game. Maurice said he may need surgery for the injury.
“He is very likely to have surgery, he’s going to see the doctor today,” Maurice said. “So, two to three months.’’
Florida is now down seven players — six of whom are forwards — due to a variety of injuries.
As Maurice said Wednesday, Florida knew Matthew Tkachuk would miss significant time due to his offseason surgery for a sports hernia and groin injury.
Then Tomas Nosek sustained a knee injury during training, with captain Sasha Barkov blowing out his right knee with a non-contact injury on the first day the veterans skated in training camp.
Since then, the Panthers have lost Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Jonah Gadjovich (suspected shoulder), Luostarinen, and Schwindt.
“When you came into camp, you had this expectation of being a powerful team on the ice,” Maurice said. “The Nosek injury surprised us; the Matthew injury, we knew what that was so we dealt with that mentally. … We won’t be dominant in a lot of games because of the personnel we are missing, but we’re staying in it, and I think we’re getting better at some areas that maybe we weren’t great at.
“We have been forced to adapt our style of hockey to the players who are in.”
ON DECK: GAME No. 20
NEW JERSEY DEVILS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
