George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers will be without forward Anthony Duclair for at least one game after he was placed on the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol list Thursday.
Duclair has been playing right wing on Florida’s top line since training camp. He has six points — all off assists — in his 10 games with the Panthers.
On Thursday night before the Panthers played host to the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning, Florida had Brett Connolly on the first-line rushes during the pregame skate.
Connolly started Thursday’s game with Sasha Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe.
How long Duclair will be out is unknown.
It could be just for Thursday’s game or substantially longer.
According to NHL privacy concerns, teams nor the league can disclose why a player is listed on the protocol lists.
He is the first active Florida player to be on the Covid-19 list since the league started announcing it when the season started last month.
Both Markus Nutivaara and Juho Lammikko were listed by the league but that was before they had been activated — because they were out during training camp because of what is suspected to be Covid-related concerns.
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky also missed all of training camp supposedly due to Covid issues.
Tampa Bay will also be without one of its top offensive threats Thursday as the team announced captain Steven Stamkos is out with a lower-body injury.
Stamkos has long been a thorn in the side of the Panthers, scoring 33 goals with 67 points in 54 games against Florida.
For Connolly, the apparent promotion is a terrific opportunity.
Just earlier in the week, it appeared that he had been bumped from the lineup as Florida had scratched him in four of five games and did not have him working with the first unit during practices.
Only on Tuesday, Connolly was back in the lineup against Detroit and played a pretty solid game.
Connolly could replace Duclair on the second power play unit as well.
Florida kept the rest of its lines intact; by moving Connolly up from the fourth line, Juho Lammikko returned to center the fourth with Ryan Lomberg and Noel Accari playing the wings.