Aleksander Barkov finally let the Florida Panthers exhale Thursday, and the good news started on a stationary bike.
The captain's leg went out from under him at SAP Center. He walked straight off the ice and into the locker room, throwing his gloves to the ground in frustration.
Fans saw that and assumed the worst. Can you blame them?
"Sorry about that," Barkov said Thursday, a little sheepish about the scare he caused across the fan base.
He added that this one doesn't compare to the injury he sustained in September 2025. That confidence, straight from the player himself, carries more weight than any vague update.
"I walked back to the locker room. I hopped on the bike for a little bit," the Panthers center explained.
"I felt that, 'OK, it's not great, but it's not completely OK,' So, that was like the first good news for me. And then life started getting better."
Panthers open their home schedule against the Wild with Barkov in focus
The numbers explain why everyone flinched. Barkov has dressed for only two of Florida's four games and has yet to register a point.
For a player carrying a $10,000,000 cap hit, that's a quiet start. Nobody should worry about the production yet, because the body is the only real question.
Florida has survived without much from him. The Panthers opened with a 2-0-2 road trip, scoring eight goals and allowing eight.
Jacob Markstrom has done the heavy lifting in the crease. He's posting a .927 save percentage with a shutout already on his ledger.
Matthew Tkachuk has two goals, one of them a game-winner. Sam Reinhart, meanwhile, has been held without a point through four games.
Brady Tkachuk is still chasing his first point of the season, and he's gone minus-2 while doing it. The top six isn't exactly humming.
Brad Marchand is listed day-to-day with a leg issue too. Two veteran forwards nursing legs at the same time is the kind of math Paul Maurice hates doing in October.
Think of a guy who rolls an ankle at pickup, limps to his car, then texts the group chat that he's fine. Everybody still watches him on the next cut.
Minnesota arrives having dropped two straight, most recently a 3-2 loss in Tampa. A wounded opponent on the first night of a homestand is exactly the game Florida can afford to play cautiously.
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Should the Panthers keep Aleksander Barkov out against the Wild on Saturday?
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