Brad Marchand had to be helped off the ice tonight after a left knee injury, and the Panthers' brutal start just got worse.
He grabbed his knee in obvious pain and couldn't put any weight on it as the trainer helped him off. It was a hard scene to watch.
There's no official update yet. Until the Panthers say more, the only certainty is that it looked bad.
Marchand is 38 and carries a $5,250,000 cap hit. He scored in his first game of the season.
Florida was already stretched thin. Aleksander Barkov is on injured reserve with a knee injury and expected out until at least Oct. 27.
Gustav Forsling has been day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and Aaron Ekblad's absence has been described both as a personal matter and as an undisclosed injury.
Bill Zito's Panthers face an injury crisis before mid-October
The Panthers came into the night 1-0-2, with two overtime losses already. Paul Maurice has been patching holes since the first week.
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Losing Marchand for any stretch on top of Barkov would strip Florida of two of its most important veteran voices. That's a leadership loss as much as a scoring one.
His edge sets a tone in any room, and replacing that isn't as simple as calling up another forward.
Bill Zito can't wait anymore. With injuries piling up this fast, Florida needs reinforcements, and the Dylan Larkin chatter just got a lot more serious.
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Right now the Panthers look like a roof losing its shingles one storm at a time.
Florida hosts Minnesota on Saturday. By then, the team should have a clearer picture of how long Marchand will be out.
Fans of every team hate seeing a player go down like that. In Florida, the worry goes well beyond one game.
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Should the Panthers make a trade now with Marchand and Barkov hurt?
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