Florida Panthers lack pushback in losing to Buffalo in 1st game without captain Aleksander Barkov

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Florida Panthers Paul Maurice wasn’t ready to jump to conclusions following one loss on how his defending Stanley Cup champions will hold up without captain Aleksander Barkov, who will miss between two and three weeks with a lower body injury.

It also didn’t help that the Panthers were also missing forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

“We won’t use today as a judgment,” Maurice said.

And yet, he was disappointed with the lack of pushback the Panthers showed in a game they opened the scoring before giving up four straight goals.

“We’ve won a bunch hockey games in the past without them in our lineup, and you have to play a style of a game that’ll allow that to happen. And we’re not at that,” he said. “We didn’t play a game that you can kind of survive without some guys out of your lineup. But I think we can get better at it.”

Barkov, a two-time Frank J. Selke winner as the NHL’s top defensive forward, was hurt after he crashed into the end boards attempting to prevent Tim Stutzle from scoring an empty-net goal in a 3-1 loss at Ottawa on Thursday. Maurice was optimistic Barkov will return in time for — if not sooner than — the Panthers’ two NHL Global Series games against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 1-2, which are being held in the center’s hometown of Tampere, Finland.

Tkachuk is day to day after being sidelined by an illness. Nosek has missed all three games with an upper body injury sustained last month.

The injuries led to Maurice shuffling his lineup, and forward Patrick Giles making his NHL debut.

The Panthers' goals were scored by defenseman Nate Schmidt and Sam Bennett, who tipped in Sam Reinhart’s point shot for Florida’s first power-play goal of the season.

It wasn’t enough for Florida, which has dropped two straight since a season-opening win over Boston.

“We have what we need in this room” Schmidt said. “Now it’s time for guys to pick up the slack. It’s two guys that are irreplaceable, but we have the guys that can go out and replicate in our system and what we can do.”

Goalie Spencer Knight blamed himself in stopping 22 of 26 shots in his first NHL start in 18 months. Tage Thompson’s go-ahead goal trickled in through Knight's legs on a shot from 25 feet, and he was slow to get up in allowing Henri Jokiharju to make it 3-1 with a shot from the left point.

“I think really that loss starts with me and ends with me. I can’t be making plays like that,” said Knight, who is making a comeback after entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program in 2023 to help manage an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and spending last season in the minors.

Knight declined to use Barkov’s absence as an excuse.

“Obviously, when you don’t have him in the lineup, you got to switch things up,” Knight said. “But I think we have enough faith in this room regardless of who’s in and who’s out.”

The Panthers close out their four-game road trip at Boston on Tuesday and Columbus a day later.

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