As Panthers take commanding lead, Aleksander Barkov injury looms large: ‘He’s our leader’

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TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida Panthers’ championship swagger couldn’t possibly have been on more prominent display.

But will their captain be on display moving forward? That’s the only question that the Panthers haven’t had an answer for so far.

Nate Schmidt scored early, the Panthers smothered the high-flying Lightning and Sergei Bobrovsky slammed the door when needed as the defending champs are halfway home to eliminating their in-state rival thanks to a 2-0 victory at Amalie Arena on Thursday. Matthew Tkachuk, as only he can, simply grinned at the Tampa Bay bench as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Now, it’s onto Sunrise with the Panthers in command.

“They’re pretty good at playing defense,” Brayden Point said.

That they are.

Of course, they don’t figure to be nearly as good defensively if they have to play without Aleksander Barkov. The Panthers’ captain was injured in the third period when he was unsuspectingly hit by a nasty Brandon Hagel hit. Hagel was not ejected but did receive a five-minute penalty for interference.

Brandon Hagel has been given a 5-minute major for this hit on Aleksander Barkov pic.twitter.com/xn6RQcTqS2

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 25, 2025

Barkov remained on the ice for a while before slowly departing for the locker room. He looked a bit unsteady while walking off the ice. The Panthers did not offer any injury information about their captain postgame.

With or without Barkov, the Panthers produced a defensive masterpiece, only allowing 19 shots all game. Tampa Bay scored 294 regular-season goals, the NHL’s highest total.

In two games against the Panthers, the Lightning have mustered all of two goals.

“I thought we were strong in a 10 or 15-foot area around our net,” Maurice said. “That was the difference for us.”

This is an astute observation from perhaps hockey’s most astute coach. It’s not like the Lightning didn’t have the puck. They produced 61 shot attempts, compared to only 40 for the Panthers.

However, Florida’s ability to protect the slot was notable. The Panthers blocked 20 shots and only allowed a handful of Grade-A opportunities.

“I like some of the things we did in our own end very, very well,” Maurice said. “That’s a dynamic offensive team.”

No one is dismissing the Lightning’s ability to score in bunches, but they have been utterly contained by the Panthers.

The game was played with plenty of desperation and physicality, but the pace wasn’t a fast one. Only the first few minutes saw some frantic play, as both teams traded exceptional scoring opportunities in the first two minutes.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped Carter Verhaeghe on a breakaway only 30 seconds into the game. Moments later, Jake Guentzel was unable to convert on a golden opportunity. Florida then killed a Brad Marchand penalty and had the lead 17 seconds later on Schmidt’s third goal in two games. And it was a softy for Vasilevskiy to allow.

Playoff Schmidty™️ pic.twitter.com/XfibarZ38k

— x – Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) April 24, 2025

For almost the remainder of the evening, the game was played at a methodical pace. At Florida’s pace.

The Panthers sucked the air out of the building, allowing precious few odd-man rushes while forcing the Lightning to the outside all night.

Nikita Kucherov, the NHL’s leading scorer, was held to only one shot on goal and wasn’t his dominant self.

“It’s exactly what we wanted to do,” said Sam Bennett, who put the game away with an empty-netter in the final seconds. “Come in here and win the first two. Obviously the games aren’t perfect. There were a couple of mistakes by us tonight, but that will happen.”

When Florida did make the occasional mistake, of course, there was Bobrovsky to save that day.

Therein lies the problem with beating the Panthers. They are so suffocating defensively, so physical and so very good on the penalty kill — they snuffed all five of Tampa Bay’s power plays — that scoring against them is difficult enough, especially when they’re deploying their playoff mindset.

But then, even when the opposition is finally able to generate the odd chance, there is the presence of Bobrovsky.

Maurice was delighted with his goaltender’s performance.

“I think if you prepare and put the time in … it’s not like he’s (just) had a good week,” Maurice said. “Over the course of his career, the amount of time he puts into being great, you can’t be surprised. It’s a wonderful life lesson. If you want to get better, hone your craft. Find joy in it. And you see games from him when he’s so right. He earns it.”

The inability of the Tampa Bay power play to do anything with its many opportunities loomed large in this contest.

“You could talk about both penalty kills,” Jon Cooper said. “We nullified theirs (power play). They nullified ours.”

While this is true, it was the Lightning that badly needed to convert.

Bobrovsky rose to the occasion when needed.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Bennett said. “We’ve seen it for the last couple of years. When the moment gets bigger, he seems to be more on his game. It’s impressive.”

Almost as impressive as the way the Panthers defended in front of their goaltender.

Everybody was working for each other,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a big win.”

The goaltender is always your best penalty killer, the hockey cliche goes.

This was perhaps true in this game, but the guys in front of him were pretty spectacular.

“Guys were on their toes,” Bobrovsky said. “Everyone was protecting the goal very well.”

Game 3 is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday and Bobrovsky hopes Barkov will be ready.

Right now, nobody seems to know if he will be able to play.

“He’s the captain. He’s our leader,” Bobrovsky said. “But we’ve got depth. We’re going to step up and do a little bit extra. We have a good group of guys. We’re going to play for him.”

The Lightning locker room felt stunned, but not defeated, just yet.

“There’s no quit in this locker room,” Guentzel said.

With or without Barkov, there’s no lack of confidence in Florida’s locker room.

Why would there be?

The series is hardly over, but the Panthers have the Lightning precisely where they want them.

“The intensity is going to ramp up,” Maurice said. “The physicality will definitely ramp up.”

It appears the Panthers decided to ramp up when the playoffs arrived.

NHL, beware.

(Photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)

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