FORT LAUDERDALE \u2013\u00a0The Florida Panthers will be adding two more to the injury list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Head coach Paul Maurice announced on Thursday after the team\u2019s morning skate at Baptist Health\u00a0IcePlex\u00a0that defensemen Aaron Ekblad has a broken finger and Dmitry Kulikov suffered a broken nose in Tuesday\u2019s game against the Ottawa Senators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both leaving during the third period, Ekblad went to the locker room after blocking a shot with his hand during a penalty kill and earlier in the period, Kulikov\u00a0departed\u00a0following being hit in the face with the puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Expected to be multiple weeks, Maurice said\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0\u201cnot sure if there\u2019s enough time\u201d for Ekblad to return to the lineup before the regular season\u00a0comes to an end\u00a0on\u00a0April 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Logging the second-most minutes on the Panthers this season with 1,618:24, Ekblad\u00a0had recorded\u00a026 points (4G, 22A) in 72 games prior to being knocked out of the lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sustaining a \u201cpretty significant\u201d broken nose, Kulikov will miss Thursday\u2019s game against the\u00a0Boston Bruins, but\u00a0may return this weekend against the Pittsburgh Penguins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it goes,\u201d Maurice\u00a0said of\u00a0Kulikov. \u201cHe wants to play.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Already missing 57 games due to an upper-body injury sustained during the second game of the season, the 35-year-old veteran has averaged 17:56 time on ice, while blocking 13 shots and throwing 18 hits in 17 games this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the story has been much of the season for the Panthers,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0next man up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Panthers recalled defensemen Tobias\u00a0Bjornfot\u00a0and Mikulas Hovorka from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. Both will be in the lineup against the Bruins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playing 25 games with the Panthers over the past two seasons, including 11 games this year where\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0registered three points (2G, 1A),\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0plenty of familiarity with\u00a0Bjornfot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system\u2019s part of the game, he\u00a0knows exactly where he\u2019s going because he\u2019s studied it,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0consistent with the game. A\u00a0really strong\u00a0idea of what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0going to look like tonight and there\u2019s\u00a0very little\u00a0aberration in his game. Just a great, great pro.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Expected to play alongside\u00a0Bjornfot, Hovorka,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0been a consistent partner of\u00a0Bjornfot\u2019s\u00a0in Charlotte, will get his second NHL game and first at\u00a0Amerant\u00a0Bank Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an opportunity to show my game,\u201d said\u00a0Horvoka. \u201cShow the chance that I can play here and it\u2019s definitely something I look forward to grab the chance and show how I can play and help the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first NHL game on Feb. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 6-foot-6 blueliner logged 11:27\u00a0time\u00a0on ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posting a solid second season with the Checkers, Hovorka has racked up 16 points (4G, 12A) and a +21 plus\/minus rating in 53 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the trend of losing guys to injury continues for the Panthers, they could be getting center Cole Schwindt back in the lineup on the upcoming road trip, Maurice announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Out since\u00a0late February with a lower-body injury,\u00a0Schwidnt\u00a0has tallied four points (3G, 1A) in 22 games this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2013\u00a0The Florida Panthers will be adding two more to the injury list.\u00a0 Head coach Paul Maurice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-536820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-penguins","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","13":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116336009189891199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536820","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=536820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}