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The reigning Stanley Cup champions' woes continued to pile up this week as the Florida Panthers lost yet another player to injury.
The Panthers are on the hunt to become the first professional North American sports team to achieve a three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers' feat in the early 2000s - something even the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs couldn't accomplish back in February.
However, the NHL franchise's quest has already taken a number of blows early into the 2025 season.
And the team was battered with yet another this week when it was revealed that Eetu Luostarinen would miss time on the ice due to a freak injury.
The forward suffered burns in an unforeseeable grilling accident, coach Paul Maurice revealed.
Luostarinen will be listed as week to week, Maurice said Wednesday, with what he described as 'a barbequing mishap.' But the already-shorthanded Panthers don't seem to have a concrete timeline in mind for Luostarinen's return.
Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen is set to miss time on the ice after a freak injury
The Finn suffered burns in a 'a barbequing mishap,' head coach Paul Maurice announced
'We don´t have a lot of experience with this,' Maurice said. 'When he comes back and feels comfortable with the equipment on him, away we go.'
The Finn is just the latest in a stream of injuries for the depleted Panthers as they look to defend their Stanley Cup title for a second year in a row.
Captain Aleksander Barkov (preseason ACL tear), Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Tomas Nosek (knee) and Matthew Tkachuk (groin) are all already out.
To make matters worse, forward Cole Schwindt, who the Panthers claimed off waivers last month to help with their injury problems, is now on the injury list himself.
Schwindt will need surgery in the coming days to repair a broken arm and the Panthers expect that he'll miss 2-3 months.
Kulikov, Gadjovich and Nosek all still have months to go in their recoveries with Barkov potentially even missing the entirety of the season.
Tkachuk, who has been dealing with the groin issue he sustained all the way back in the 4 Nations, may start skating by the end of this month and could make his season debut sometime in December.
It is not at all what the Panthers expected to start the season. But that's where Maurice sees opportunity; the roster depletions have forced Florida to change its playing style somewhat, and he thinks that could wind up providing valuable lessons.
Luostarinen celebrates winning the Stanley Cup with teammate Anton Lundell in June
The Panthers are dealing with a number of injuries, including star Matthew Tkachuk
'There's an awful lot of good if you can capture, if you can learn some new things, things that you have to learn to survive,' Maurice said.
'And that´s really in some ways what we´re doing, is trying to survive. When you get to seven guys out of your lineup, you've got a problem. We can survive that and then learn through the adversity of it eventually.
'We're going to have, slightly after the trade deadline, the biggest movement in the league,' he added.
'We're going to get some players back. We can be a better team than we were going into the playoffs last year, if we can learn how to do this. It's just going to be hard. It´s going to be uncomfortable right now. And we've got to be good with that.'
The Panthers expect that rookie forward Jack Devine, part of two NCAA title teams at Denver and twice a Hobey Baker Award finalist before turning pro last year, will make his NHL debut on Thursday in a home game against New Jersey.
The NHL has witnessed a number of injuries plaguing some of the league's biggest stars just months out from the Winter Olympics.
On Saturday weekend, Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy exited the 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens after he was left floored by a powerful slapshot from Noah Dobson midway through the second period.
Boston Bruins star Charlie McAvoy was struck in the face by a puck on Saturday night
With the Canadiens on a power play, Dobson's one-timer appeared to deflect off Boston forward Mark Kastelic before hitting McAvoy square in the face.
McAvoy immediately covered his face and dropped to the ice in apparent agony, while a team doctor rushed from the bench to help him. Teammate Nikita Zadorov was seen trying to retrieve lost teeth.
The injury was the latest concern for Team USA ahead of the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics with four other American stars - Stanley Cup champion Tkachuk, his brother Brady Tkachuk and two of the Hughes brothers, Quinn and Jack - also currently sidelined.
The New Jersey Devils announced around a week ago that Jack Hughes would miss around eight weeks after he slipped and fell on glass, cutting his finger.
