Concussions sideline Ekblad, Malgin for key game vs. Leafs
SUNRISE — Aaron Ekblad will be out of the Florida Panthers lineup for at least the next week after suffffering a concussion during Saturday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
C o a c h To m Rowe s a i d Ekblad and center Deni s Malgin will be out seven to 10 days after both suffffered concussions on separate hits early in Saturday’s second period.
Rookie MacKenzie Weegar was brought up from Florida’s AHL affiffiliate in Massachusetts, although Rowe said veteran Jakub Kindl would be in the lineup tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We just have to take it day by day,” Rowe said of Ekblad. “We’ll see how he progresses. I talked to him (Monday), and he said he felt pretty good. But he’s defifinitely not ready to get back into the lineup.”
This is the third head-related injury for Ekblad in the past 14 months.
L a s t J a n u a r y, E k b l a d missed four games because of a concussion after being hit from behind by Edmonton’s Matt Hendricks. Saturday, Ekblad was again hit from behind as Tampa Bay’s Gabriel Dumont drove Ekblad into the glass with a high elbow.
Hendricks was suspended three games for his hit on Ekblad; as of Monday afternoon, the league had not done anything to Dumont.
Dur i ng t r a i ni ng c a mp, Ekblad was sent back to Florida from the World Cup in Toronto after he was rammed into the glass by Leo Komarov in the opening game between Team North America and Finland. Although it was suspected Ekblad had a concussion then, he was told he suffered concussionlike symptoms due to whiplash.
Ekblad was cl eared for practice with the Panthers soon after getting back from Canada.
“The way I was told, it was about blood flflow,” Ekblad said then. “When you get whiplash like that, there’s restricted b l o o d f l o w t o t h e h e a d , and that causes symptoms because the blood doesn’t drain out of the head as fast.
“There’s pressure there in your head giving you headaches.”
Weegar, 23, did not make it to South Florida in time for Monday’s brisk practice in Coral Springs and i sn’t likely to make his NHL debut tonight. A seventh-round draft pick by the Panthers in 2013, Weegar is having his best pro season since leav- ing his junior team in 2014.
“The kid has done a great job,” Rowe said. “We want him here to get a taste of what this is all about.”
In 165 minor-league games for the Panthers in two different leagues, Weegar has 22 goals and 76 points. This year, Weegar was selected to the AHL All-Star Game and has 12 goals with 29 points.
After shufflffling all four forward lines before Friday’s loss to the Rangers, Rowe put everyone back in place — like Jonathan Huberdeau back with Jaromir Jagr and Sasha Barkov, for example — during Monday’s practice.
Florida’s fourth line was without center Derek MacKenzie on Monday, as he was given the day offffffffffff.
“We went back to what they were more comfortable with, what we had when we were winning,” Rowe said.
Any playoffff hopes Florida still has likely depends on beating Toronto in both of the fifinal meetings these fifinal weeks of the regular season. The Leafs came into Monday holding the fifinal playoffff spot in the Eastern Conference with a seven-point cushion on the fading Panthers.
Florida comes into tonight’s game riding a fifive- game winless streak with losses in eight of its past nine (1-7-1).
It’s our biggest game of the season,” Rowe said. “We need to win it, and we need to win in regulation.”