Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov to miss second straight game with injury

The Florida Panthers took the ice for Tuesday night's game at the Chicago Blackhawks without captain and forward Aleksander Barkov in the lineup after the 25-year-old was scratched with a lower-body injury following his participation in warmups. 

Florida fell to Chicago 3-2 and will have to avenge that defeat without Barkov. 

Per Tracey Myers of the NHL's website, Panthers coach Joel Quenneville confirmed on Wednesday that Barkov will remain sidelined through at least Thursday's clash with the Blackhawks. "He's doing better today. We're still ruling him out tomorrow," Quenneville said. "We don't think he's (out) long term. We'll see how he progresses over the next couple of days." 

As noted by ESPN stats, Barkov leads the Panthers with 37 points and 13 goals across 31 games this season. 

"Well everybody's going to be picking up more ice time, more quality ice time, and the responsibilities don't change," Quenneville added. "We don't want you to be someone you're not. You want to play your game the right way is what we try to re-enforce. Basically, more simplicity than anything, and let's go about it in a real hard way, and let's take pride in not being scored on and technically, defensively, get it right."

The Panthers are in third place in the NHL Central standings with 44 points, nine ahead of the Blackhawks. The top four teams from each division qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.