Panthers’ Eetu Luostarinen will miss time because of a barbecue mishap, adding to team’s injury woes
FORT LAUDERDALE Fla AP The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are now dealing with even more injuries including one sustained in a grilling accident And coach Paul Maurice when looking at the big picture is seeing all of this as a way for the champs to get even better Forward Eetu Luostarinen will be listed as week to week Maurice mentioned Wednesday with what he described as a barbequing mishap But the already-shorthanded Panthers don t seem to have a concrete timeline in mind for Luostarinen s return We don t have a lot of experience with this Maurice disclosed When he comes back and feels relaxed with the equipment on him away we go And forward Cole Schwindt who the Panthers claimed off waivers last month to help with their injury problems is now on the injury list himself Schwindt will need surgery in the coming days to repair a broken arm and the Panthers expect that he ll miss - months Luostarinen and Schwindt become the latest entries on an injury log for the Panthers that already included long-term issues for captain Aleksander Barkov preseason ACL tear Dmitry Kulikov upper body Jonah Gadjovich upper body Tomas Nosek knee and Matthew Tkachuk groin Barkov Kulikov Gadjovich and Nosek all still have months to go in their recoveries Tkachuk may start skating by the end of this month and could make his season debut sometime in December It is not at all what the Panthers expected to start the season But that s where Maurice sees opportunity the roster depletions have forced Florida to change its playing style somewhat and he thinks that could wind up providing valuable lessons There s an awful lot of good if you can capture if you can learn specific new things things that you have to learn to survive Maurice noted And that s really in specific methods what we re doing is trying to survive When you get to seven guys out of your lineup you ve got a trouble We can survive that and then learn through the adversity of it eventually We re going to have slightly after the commerce deadline the biggest movement in the league he added We re going to get various players back We can be a better association than we were going into the playoffs last year if we can learn how to do this It s just going to be hard It s going to be uncomfortable right now And we ve got to be good with that The Panthers expect that rookie forward Jack Devine part of two NCAA title teams at Denver and twice a Hobey Baker Award finalist before turning pro last year will make his NHL debut on Thursday in a home challenge against New Jersey