Ekblad’s injury was scary, but likely not serious

Andrew Brunette, Jonathan Huberdeau and just about everyone else associated with the Florida Panthers couldn’t help but get flashbacks to last year when they saw Aaron Ekblad crawling around on the ice in the first period of their 3-0 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

The good news for the Panthers is their deepest concerns didn’t last long. By the end of the game, Brunette got “positive news” on the outlook for his star defenseman.

“We’re very hopeful,” the interim coach said. “It was way better than we thought it was going to be.”

The actual incident was scary: With 18:55 left in the first period, Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler collided with Ekblad against the boards. Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, who lost his footing near the play, then slid feet-first into the two skaters. Ekblad’s right knee buckled in the threeplayer pileup, a skirmish broke out and Ekblad was left crawling on the ice, unable to get back to his feet.

Trainers came out and helped Ekblad up. Even then, he couldn’t put any weight on his right leg. At the first intermission, Florida ruled him out with a lower-body injury.

Brunette said tests Ekblad had before the end of the game showed “nothing structural” about the injury. Florida (42-14-6) planned to reevaluate him Saturday with the hope that he would be out only “short term.”

Even if the injury keeps Ekblad out for some time, the prognosis is far better than last year, when Ekblad fractured his left ankle and missed the final two months of the season, including the entirety of the Panthers’ brief run in the playoffs.

“It’s not last year,” Brunette said. “He’s going to be OK.”

This injury scare came almost exactly a year after his last one. Last year, Ekblad’s skate got caught in the corner between the boards and the ice in a