{"id":475704,"date":"2026-02-27T20:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475704\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T20:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:21:30","slug":"panthers-hope-to-get-key-players-back-during-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475704\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers hope to get key players back during road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 The Panthers have been dogged by injuries all season. Captain Aleksander Barkov has been out<\/a> for the whole season with a knee injury, and other key players such as Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov and Seth Jones have missed significant amounts of time.<\/p>\n

But as the Panthers, who are currently playoff longshots, enter the final month and a half of the season,<\/a> they should get some reinforcements. Some of those important players are close to returning, and all but Barkov will travel with the team as they embark on a four-game trip that begins after Friday night\u2019s game against Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll bring everybody on our road trip coming up with the exception of Barkov,\u201d Maurice said Thursday morning. \u201cAnd we\u2019re bringing them because there\u2019s a chance that they may play at some point on that road trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kulikov, who has played just two games this year, and center Tomas Nosek, who has been out all season, have returned to practice in regular jerseys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not far off,\u201d Maurice said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jones, who has not played since Jan. 2, is practicing in a non-contact jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had been off for so long, you almost forget about him and what he can do,\u201d Maurice said Tuesday. \u201cAnd then he steps back into practice and say, \u2018Man, we\u2019ve missed that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobrovsky\u2019s strong night<\/p>\n

Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky did not look rusty after weeks off for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The veteran goalie had one of his best games of the season, saving 28 of 29 shots (a .966 save percentage \u2014his highest percentage in a non-shutout) in a 5-1 win over Toronto on Thursday.<\/a> The sole goal he allowed came when Florida already had a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly had some big saves that he had to make, and he did,\u201d Maurice said.<\/p>\n

Bobrovsky said the Olympic break was a good time for him to get in rest while mixing in some training to stay sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good time for (a) break, just to get rest, and a good time for practicing and for training,\u201d Bobrovsky said. \u201cSo that\u2019s also with the heavy schedule, sometimes it\u2019s tough to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tkachuk\u2019s missing stuffed animal<\/p>\n

One of the stars of the Winter Olympics was not an athlete, it was a plush toy version of a cute member of the weasel family. Medal winners at the Milano Cortina games each received a stuffed version of the Olympic mascot, Tina the Stoat.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tkachuk, an assistant captain for the gold-winning American men\u2019s hockey team, said the team\u2019s stuffed toys were quickly taken away \u2014 for the toys\u2019 own protection during the team\u2019s celebration. He said he will have to ask for it back soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took it away from us immediately, knowing we would probably lose it or trade it in for a beer or like whatever we were going to do with it,\u201d Tkachuk said Thursday. \u201d \u2026 I\u2019ll ask for mine because it\u2019ll be cool for the kids one day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 The Panthers have been dogged by injuries all season. Captain Aleksander Barkov has been out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5105],"tags":[57,5,1180,189,4,43,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-475704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-florida-panthers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-lightning","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tampa-bay","15":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","16":"tag-tampabay","17":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116144458059422934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}