Florida Panthers Star Aaron Ekblad Leaves in Second Period

The Florida Panthers were already playing without defenseman Brandon Montour on Monday night in Boston when star Aaron Ekblad left in the second period.

Ekblad slowly left the ice with 7:25 following Boston’s second goal of the night and was not on the bench to start the third period and he did not return to the game.

Coach Paul Maurice did not go into detail about the injury following the game only categorizing it as a lower-body injury.

Maurice said he had no timetable for Ekblad’s return and that he would be medically evaluated on Wednesday.

The Panthers are flying back to Fort Lauderdale on Monday night and will have Tuesday off so no update could come from the team until Wednesday’s morning skate.

Due to salary cap constraints, the Panthers only have 20 players on their active roster so were already playing down a man when Ekblad left.

Ekblad, obviously, has had more than his share of injuries as two separate leg injuries cut his past two seasons short.

In 2021, he was injured in Dallas and missed the remainder of the season.

He was again hurt in Anaheim near the trade deadline in 2022 and was placed on LTIR and missed the rest of the regular season but was back for Game 1 of the playoffs against the Capitals.

On Monday, he seemed to stumble a bit as he was chasing down Jake DeBrusk on a breakaway and perhaps pulled something.

Ekblad was seen on the broadcast favoring his left side as he slowly made his way to the bench.

JAKE DEBRUSK IS UNSTOPPABLE ON HIS BIRTHDAY pic.twitter.com/d1INMeCQN3

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 18, 2022

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