Florida Panthers Aleksander Barkov carried off the ice after scary injury
Florida Panthers captain Alexander Barkov was injured tonight attempting to defend the empty net, leading to a scary situation on the ice.
The play were Barkov was injured actually started in the offensive zone where he attempted to take a shot to tie the game late with the goalie pulled. Unfortunately, his stick snapped on him, leading to him being forced to defend against a Senators rush without his stick and no goalie backing him up. Unfortunately, this resulted in a worst-case scenario for the Panthers captain as Tim Stutzle just edged him out to score the empty netter. Furthermore, Stutzle and Barkov collided with each other and the end boards at the same time.
Barkov came away much worse in the collision, as he stayed down on the ice for a good period of time, clearly in a lot of pain. Eventually, he had to be helped back to the bench with some of his teammates as well as the team trainer aiding him to the locker room.
Barkov figures to be one of the most important players for the Panthers this season as they look to defend their championship. If he misses a significant period of time with this injury, it would be a huge blow to the team. Hopefully it looked worse than it actually is, but we likely will not get an update until tomorrow. We will just have to hope for the best for Barkov and the Panthers.
