Panthers feel ‘very optimistic’ about Aleksander Barkov’s status for Game 4 after injury

The Florida Panthers are “optimistic” Aleksander Barkov will be back in their lineup for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals after he left with a lower-body injury in the first period of Game 3 on Monday, Paul Maurice said.

The All-Star center played just 3 minutes, 51 seconds before exiting with about seven minutes left in the period after a seemingly innocuous hit by Jack Drury. Barkov first went to sit on the bench, then headed back to the locker room and never returned. There was no score at the time and the Panthers went on to win 1-0 to take a commanding 3-0 series lead on the Carolina Hurricanes in the East finals.

A final decision on Barkov’s status will come Thursday, once Florida gets a sense of how he feels with a few days of recovery. The initial prognosis is good, though.

“Good news: It was as much precautionary as anything,” Maurice said. “We’re very optimistic that he’ll return soon and when he does, he’ll be ready to go, so we’ll wait until tomorrow to see how he’s feeling to make sure he continues on that path, but we’re optimistic that we’ll see him in Game 4.”

Even if he’s not ready for Game 4, Maurice doesn’t expect it to be anything to linger into the weekend.

“If necessary, we’ll see him in Game 5,” the first-year coach said.

The Panthers will try to clinch their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1996 on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise. If Florida can’t finish off the Hurricanes at home, Game 5 would be Friday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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The Panthers’ commanding series lead will not affect a potential return for Barkov, nor will the emotional component of Florida wanting its captain to be on the ice with a chance to clinch a trip to the Cup Finals, Maurice said.

“That wouldn’t be part of it. It will be a science-based decision,” the 56-year-old Canadian said. “The decision will just be based on his health and how he feels, and we’ll have another plan set all day tomorrow if he doesn’t go.”

After Barkov exited, forward Eetu Luostarinen handled most of the minutes as the fill-in first-line center, playing in between left wing Carter Verhaeghe and right wing Anthony Duclair. The Hurricanes outshot the Panthers, 5-0, when those three were on the ice together, although Verhaeghe totaled four shots and a blocked shot, and Duclair also blocked one shot.

If Barkov can’t return for Game 4, Zac Dalpe could slot back into the lineup. The forward played nine games in the first two rounds of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs — filling in when left wing Ryan Lomberg was injured — and scored a crucial game-tying goal on 13 shots, with four blocked shots and a plus-minus of minus-2.

Barkov ranks third on Florida in points in the Stanley Cup playoffs with four goals and eight assists. The star forward also has 40 shots, 10 blocked shots and a plus-minus of plus-6.

In the regular season, the 27-year-old Finn had 23 goals and 55 assists in 68 games, knocked out of the lineup at various points because of illness and injury.

“The first thing that goes through my head is, We’ve done this before,” Maurice said. “There’s advantages to going through the adversity that we went through this year because it’s not that big of a chance when it happens. ... You don’t make a big deal out of it on your bench and you really don’t during the year when it’s happening because there’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve got to win these games, so it wasn’t that seismic at the time. We’ve dealt with it before.”