Panthers young center on fire
Injuries to five starters have front office looking for players
Bjugstad, 23, returns to top-line form.
CORAL SPRINGS — Center Nick Bjugstad has never been a healthy scratch.
And until lastweekend, hewouldn’t have ever been demoted mid-game from the top line to the third line for poor defensive play.
But that’s exactly what happened over the lostweekendwhena slumping Bjugstad took a minus-2 in the blowout loss to the Blues and added another minus-2 against the Predators. However, Panthers coach Gerard Gallant never lost faith in Bjugstad, the team’s leading goal scorer last year with 24, and inserted him back on one of the top two lines in Monday night’s much-needed 2-1 shootout victory over the Penguins.
Bjugstad responded with the Panthers’ lone goal in regulation, and then kept Florida alive with the tying shootout goal in the third round before Jussi Jokinen potted the game-decider.
“When he’s confident he plays real good hockey, but when he gets down on himself that’s his toughest time,’’ Gallant said after practice Tuesday at the IcePlex. “We got to make sure he’s confident and feels good about himself. I think he was really disappointed about thegameontheweekend. He came back and played the way he’s capable of playing. He’s a greathockey player for us.”
Bjugstad, 23, had been tentative since sitting out a month in December with mi-
graines. Before Monday, he had just two goals and five assists in 18 games. Hesnappedanine-gamegoaldrought with his10th goal to become the ninth Panther with double-digit goals.
“I was very embarrassed after that game and completely understood where [Gallant] was coming from as far as bumping me back,’’ said the 6-foot-6 Bjugstad. “It’s my job to play well defensively if I’m not producing offensively. It was probably my worst game all year and it’s good to bounce back fromit and find away.
“Confidence comes with hard work. ... I’ll try to emphasize playing more physical and have got to usemy big body.”
Concussions and trades
Panthers General Manager Dale Tallon returned to the teamMonday after attending his mother’s funeral lastweek inToronto.
He gave a somber update on the team’s growing injury list and admitted the absence of five starters has rampedup his cellphone activity with potential trading partners before the Feb. 29 deadline arrives.
“We’re talking toother teams about adding a piece or two we feel would put us over the top, but we’re not going to mortgage our future,’’ Tallon said. “It depends on the cost.
“We want to deal from strength, not weakness. It’s pretty quiet because a lot of teams think they have a chance.’’
While it was obvious that top-line center Aleksander Barkov and bottomforward Quinton Howden were still nursing the effects of concussions from head hits, Tallon implied that top-four defensemen Willie Mitchell and Erik Gudbranson were also out with, similar “upper body,’’ injuries. Translation: concussions.
“They’re all similar injuries,’’ Tallon admitted. “It can happen two weeks after you get hit. That’s the mystery behind these injuries. You never know.’’
Tallon has asked the NHL officials why three of the concussion-causing head hits (including one to a sincehealed Aaron Ekblad) to his players weren’t penalized, and said the general managers would discuss tweaking the head-hit rule.
Mitchell has missed the last 11 games and has stopped skating. Gudbranson and Barkov have missed six and four games respectively, but skated hard Tuesday and may be available Thursday. Howden isn’t close and forward Brandon Pirri (ankle) is out for 2-3weeks.
Goalie decision
While the Panthers wouldn’t be in first place in the Atlantic Division if not for the stellar goaltending of Roberto Luongo (24-14-5, 2.29 goalsagainstit’s clear that he hasn’t been as sharp recently while giving up 18 goals in his last five games.
On the other hand, backup Al Montoya (9-4-1, 1.98 GAA) was solid in his last two outings, including Monday’s win in which he gave up onegoalon32shots before closing the door in the shootout.
Montoya has probably earned his first back-to-back starts this seasonon Thursday against the Sharks.
“They know what their jobs are and what we need from them,’’ Gallant said. “We look at it one day at a time. After practice [Wednesday] we’ll let the goalie know who will play.’’