#florida-panthers

#florida-panthers

The Florida Panthers will be without one of their top defensive forwards, Eetu Luostarinen, on a week-to-week basis after he suffered a unique off-the-ice injury. According to team reporter Jameson Olive, head coach Paul Maurice announced that Luostarinen recently suffered burns during "a barbecue accident." Luostarinen's burns weren't severe enough to require an overnight hospital stay, but the Finnish forward's return date is unknown until he feels comfortable enough to put his gear back on.

The Florida Panthers get another day off to bask in the goal-scoring glory of Monday night's wild 8-5 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Florida has posted a 2-1 record on its current five-game homestand and will face the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night at Amerant Bank Arena. The Devils were soundly beaten 5-1 by the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena last night.

Sidney Crosby opened the scoring and closed the door on the Cats with a pair of power-play goals. The legendary Penguin also had an assist to earn First Star honors. A tripping penalty on Jeff Petry led to Crosby's first marker 6:24 into the tilt. After Erik Karlsson ripped a shot towards the net that struck Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin and Rust joined forces to work the puck free to set up Crosby's wrister, which easily beat a swimming Sergei Bobrovsky, from the left circle.

Florida overcame a slow start, and a two-goal deficit, and looked to be on the cusp of another victory in Philadelphia, but a needless offensive zone penalty on Sam Bennett snuffed out a late power-play chance and helped swing momentum back the other way as the Cats eventually fell 5-2 to the Flyers. Sam Reinhart had a strong game, scoring a shorthanded goal and setting up a power-play marker for Bennett, which tied the tilt midway through the final frame.

The start of the National Hockey League is only hours away, as we look forward to yet another thrilling season of action and exciting results over the course of the year. The first game of this season in the NHL at 5pm sees the Chicago Blackhawks take on the current back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, in what will be a tough game to start.

Seth Jones had waited most of his life to get a Stanley Cup ring. And then he had to wait even longer before he could see it. The Florida Panthers handed out the rings from their second consecutive title on Monday, and Jones was the first person on the long list of players, coaches and staff who got the prized pieces of jewelry during the ceremony.