Panthers’ Paul Maurice gives promising Evan Rodrigues injury update

The Florida Panthers are not off to a great start to their three-peat quest. Even after beating the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday, they are a point out of the playoffs. The Panthers lost Evan Rodrigues to an injury on Wednesday, but Paul Maurice quelled any concerns in his postgame press conference.

“Maurice says lower-body injury for Rodrigues, but ‘we don’t think it’s too significant.’ Should get an update tomorrow,” team reporter Jameson Coop posted on social media.

Rodrigues was a key member of the bottom six for the Panthers on both of their Stanley Cup Final runs. When it looked like they would need to make a trade for salary cap purposes this offseason, they went out of their way to keep the veteran. Even though he did not finish the game, they hope to have him back soon for the playoff push.

Rodrigues actually left the game twice, returning for the Panthers after getting hit in the face with a puck. But the lower-body injury he suffered early in the third period knocked him out for the rest of the game. That meant that Brad Marchand needed to find a new way to do his rat tradition after wins.