There is little doubt that the Florida Panthers have one of the most challenging and demanding training camps in the NHL.
For the previous three seasons, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice has pushed his players through a very difficult and rigorous start to camp.
That’s why it’s no surprise that, as we reach week two of training camp, the Panthers are battling with injuries.
Cats center Anton Lundell did not practice and is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
“It’s minor, but we’re not putting him back on the ice until he’s 100%,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said of Lundell on Thursday.
The plan was for Lundell to play in Florida’s home preseason game on Saturday in Sunrise, but now it’s unlikely he suits up.
There is absolutely no reason for Maurice and his staff to have any player on the ice who doesn’t feel perfectly fine injury-wise.
“He won’t play in that unless he can get on the ice tomorrow and give it a good go, and even with that, I’m not sure why we would do that,” Maurice said. “We’ll just look at the home game on Monday.”
Forward Justin Sourdif will be out for a few weeks with an upper-body injury that also cost him around 12 stitches over his eye and on his lip.
“It’s going to take him three of four weeks, I think, before he’s back in the lineup,” Maurice said. “He went into the boards hard. It looks worse on the video. He’s fortunate it was no head injury.”
Sourdif suffered the injury during a camp practice earlier this week.
He was expected to start the season with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.
Tomas Nosek, who entered training camp as the favorite to be the Florida Panthers’ fourth-line center, will be out “weeks, not days” after sustaining an upper-body injury in Game 2 of Florida’s doubleheader against the Nashville Predators on Sunday, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday.
The injury occurred in the first period when Nosek crashed into the boards behind the Predators’ net after being tripped by Nashville defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.
Maurice did say the injury is not a concussion.
“It’s going to take a few days to know the extent of this injury,” Maurice said. “It depends on how fast he heals. But this is not going to be short term. So we’re weeks, not days, from where we’re at right now.”
Nosek, 32, signed a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Panthers this offseason to help replenish the team’s forward depth. On Sunday before the injury, Nosek centered wingers and fellow newcomers to the team AJ Greer and Jesper Boqvist — a look that very well could have been be the Panthers’ fourth line to begin the season.
With Nosek now sidelined, that opens the door for other players in camp to crack the roster. Exactly who gets the opportunity will depend on how the Panthers want to proceed.
They could go with a young player such as 24-year-old Patrick Giles, who spent the past two seasons at Charlotte of the American Hockey League and has had a strong training camp so far. Giles scored a goal and added an assist in Game 2 of the doubleheader against Nashville while centering a line with Jonah Gadjovich and Josh Davies.
Or they could go with a veteran such as Zac Dalpe, who is entering his fourth season with the Panthers organization.
“For all of those guys, there’s now an opportunity,” Maurice said. “Tomas might heal faster than that. He may be right for Opening Night. I don’t know. I’m just kind of hedging a little bit on that one. I don’t know the answer to yet. But, yes, all of the players that have center ice experience are going to get a real good look here in the next three games.”
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Maurice said forward Mackie Samoskevich re-aggravated the upper-body injury he entered camp with and now likely won’t make his camp debut until later this week.
Samoskevich was originally scheduled to be a full participant in practice for the first time on Tuesday.
“He had kind of like a flare up when he went back on the ice,” Maurice said. “It didn’t get worse. We want to get him cleaned up.”
Meanwhile, fellow forward Justin Sourdif left practice Tuesday after sliding into the boards.
“First thought when you looked at it was maybe he went in head first,” Maurice said. “There isn’t a sign now that he’s got a concussion; he just cut his face up a little bit and then he’s got some upper body stiffness.”
Neither of the rookies is slated to play in Florida’s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday at Orlando’s Kia Center.
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