Sunday Scramble: Florida Panthers suffer major blow, a legend says goodbye, Cam Fowler got how much?

Are the Florida Panthers going to be this season’s Year From Hell Team? 

Essentially, that means that whatever can go wrong does go wrong, and so far, their injury luck has been horrible. 

The news of Aleksander Barkov suffering significant ACL and MCL injuries that will require 7-9 months to heal is a major blow to the defending two-time champs. 

He’s hard to dislike, even if you’re an Edmonton Oilers fan. The man plays such an honest game, is relentless in his two-way play, and combines Selke-level prowess with 70-plus point scoring campaigns. 

Barkov is a machine. 

“There’s no hiding it. That’s the big man,” head coach Paul Maurice said. 

“He’s such an important place in that locker room. What we’re going to get to experience now is that you’ll get to know some of the other leaders that we have in our room. We’ll get to see other players. At the end of the day, I know there’s the idea of next man up, I get all that, but there’s not a next man for his skates.”

Add this to a Matthew Tkachuk injury timeline that sees his return pinned for December, and the Panthers are in a spot of trouble. Particularly for a team that didn’t produce much cushion in making the playoffs last year, just a point ahead of the Ottawa Senators, for example, in the wildcard. 

By playing the last three Stanley Cup Finals, the Panthers have logged an additional 67 games, significant wear-and-tear for any one roster. 

The volume of pieces at their disposal continues to amaze: Verhaeghe, Bennett, Reinhart, Marchand, Lundell, Forsling, Jones, Ekblad, and Bobrovsky. These could all be All-Star-calibre players, but now the regular season becomes all that much tougher. 

I think netminder Sergei Bobrovsky bears a lot of the load to right their ship. If he’s just alright with a .906 save percentage, his figure from last year, it would not surprise me if the Panthers are due for a slog of a season, and perhaps even miss the playoffs. 

Between Tampa, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and maybe an improved Detroit season, the Atlantic is no cake walk. (I know Detroit is a bit of fake news but maybe not anymore?). 

This also stress-tests the new salary cap rules. With the rosier projections saying Barkov could return during the playoffs, if the Panthers want him to potentially play, they aren’t going to be able to replace that money. 

If he sits on the shelf, then they could use their LTIR to soften the blow and assist a playoff run. General manager Bill Zito and his team of cap-ologists face a difficult question ahead, especially if a Stanley sunrise hangover plagues their start. 

Finland loses their captain

One other note on Barkov: what a blow to Finland’s Olympic team. Likely to be their captain at the tournament, this quote back from February at the 4 Nations from his usual stoic self summed up his commitment: 

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Barkov said before the tournament began, and their defensive injuries piled up.

 “Whatever they tell me to do, I’ll do. But I think we have good enough defensemen there.”

Finland is sneaky dominant in terms of earning medals at international events. Take the last five best-on-best Olympic competitions, which entail 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. 

Finland earned three bronze medals and one silver. That nation of just 5.5 million people medals at international competition – full stop. 

For a player on a Hall of Fame trajectory like Sasha Barkov, an Olympic medal would be a crowning jewel for the 30-year-old. 

The hockey fan in you feels bad for one of the game’s current greats. 

One more time for those bright yellow pads

To another one of the modern greats in the Flower. 

Storybook for Marc-Andre Fleury to get one last showing in the Penguins sweater. Ahead 2-1 in the 3rd period against the Columbus Blue Jackets, here comes Fleury out of the tunnel first. 

Of course, he goes eight for eight to clinch the pre-season win. The only thing better would’ve been the hot-dog pushup move in the shootout, leading to one more save. 

Alas, I’m sure Fleury is content. If Luca Del Bel Belluz doesn’t have the whole NHL thing take off, it’ll make for interesting trivia one day. 

It’s been a long goodbye process for the last number one goalie to go first overall. As he admits, “it feels like I’ve said goodbye to everyone seventeen times already.”