The Florida Panthers absorbed a good news - bad news injury situation on Sunday, though some might say that it’s a pretty bright update overall.
The good: Key forward Aleksander Barkov is expected to be back in the Panthers’ lineup, according to George Richards of the Miami Herald.
Sasha Barkov will be back in the #FlaPanthers lineup Monday w/ Jagr and Huberdeau barring any setbacks...Trocheck could be back to wing
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) November 15, 2015
As you can see from that tweet, it looks like Barkov will return to his center spot between Jonathan Huberdeau and Jaromir Jagr, reuniting a trio that showed some impressive chemistry before both Barkov and Jagr dealt with issues of varying severity.
The bad: Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov’s lower-body injury from Saturday looks like it might linger. He’s undergoing an MRI and is expected to miss about a week, also according to Richards.
#FlaPanthers Dmitry Kulikov has lower body injury, getting MRI...out v #tbLightning and likely out rest of the week at the very least.
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) November 15, 2015
That’s no fun, but this could be a solid situation if Kulikov’s issues aren’t that severe. Of course, in situations like these, future updates can turn a sunny situation cloudy.