The Florida Panthers lost two more players to injuries, one of them in a freak accident.
Coach Paul Maurice said forward Eetu Luostarinen will be out after suffering burns in a ‘barbecuing mishap.’
‘I’m going to list him as week to week because we don’t have a lot of experience with this and some of this is when he comes back and feels comfortable with the equipment on,’ he said on Wednesday, Nov. 19. ‘He wasn’t in the hospital overnight. He did get seen by doctors in that vein.’
Maurice added that forward Cole Schwindt is out for a broken arm. Schwindt, who collided with Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. will need surgery and will be out two to three months.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions have been wracked by injuries this season.
Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek have yet to return from offseason surgery. Captain Aleksander Barkov had ACL surgery after being hurt during a training camp practice. Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov had surgery for an upper-body injury last month and is out five months.
With all the injuries, Luostarinen’s line with Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell had become the Panthers’ most productive. Now Luostarinen is out.
It’s the second fluke off-ice injury in the NHL in a week. New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes had surgery on his finger after he was hurt at a team dinner. He’ll be out eight weeks.