Panthers Pregame: Sasha Barkov OUT v Carolina Hurricanes

The Florida Panthers will be without perhaps their best player Saturday night as Sasha Barkov will not play against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Panthers did not disclose Barkov’s injury nor did coach Andrew Brunette mention in his pregame that he would be out.

Barkov did not appear on the ice for warmups and the team said it was due to a lower body injury.

No other information is available.

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The Panthers are already a pretty banged-up bunch with Sam Bennett the latest to join a growing inactive list. Also on there: Noel Acciari, Olli Juolevi, Joe Thornton and Markus Nutivaara.

Florida is also without Sergei Bobrovsky as the goalie is out with an undisclosed upper-body injury.

Barkov, who tied Olli Jokinen for the franchise record for goals scored in a career on Thursday, came into the night leading the team with seven goals and is tied with Jonathan Huberdeau with 12 points.

The new lines are below:

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

CAROLINA HURRICANES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m.
• WHERE: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TICKETS: CLICK HERE
• TV/STREAMING: Bally Sports Florida
• RADIO: WQAM 560-AM
• Last season: Carolina won 6-0-2
• All-time regular season series: Carolina leads 69-44-11, 8 ties
• Odds via Bovada.lv: Florida (PL -1.5 +170) — (ML -140) — U/O 6
• Up next: Florida at NY Rangers, Monday, 7; Carolina at Tampa Bay, Tuesday, 7

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 10 Anthony Duclair

11 Jonathan Huberdeau // 15 Anton Lundell // 74 Owen Tippett

77 Frank Vatrano // 13 Sam Reinhart  // 98 Maxim Mamin

94 Ryan Lomberg // 17 Mason Marchment // 70 Patric Hornqvist

52 MacKenzie Weegar // 5 Aaron Ekblad

42 Gus Forsling // 7 Radko Gudas

62 Brandon Montour // 44 Kevin Connauton

30 Spencer Knight

31 Christopher Gibson

Scratched: Chase Priskie

Injured: Noel Acciari (IR), Olli Juolevi (IR), Joe Thornton (IR), Markus Nutivaara (IR), Sam Bennett (IR), Sergei Bobrovsky, Sasha Barkov