Knight Starts for Florida Panthers v. Islanders, Barkov Close

The Florida Panthers will not have captain Sasha Barkov in the lineup tonight when they visit the New York Islanders.

But he is getting closer to a return.

Barkov skated with the team for the first time since being hurt in Ottawa on Oct. 10 on Saturday morning at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

Coach Paul Maurice said Barkov could play Monday night in Buffalo.

The Panthers will start Spencer Knight when they visit the Islanders at 7:30.

Jonah Gadjovich will also miss his fourth straight with back spasms. He also skated with the team on Saturday.

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Barkov has missed the past seven games with what is suspected to be a high ankle sprain.

In the final minutes of Florida’s eventual 3-1 loss in Ottawa, Barkov broke his stick in the offensive zone and chased after a puck heading toward the empty net.

Because he did not have a stick, Barkov slid to try and keep Tim Stutzle from putting the puck into the net.

He ended up crashing at full speed into the end boards — skates-first — and had to be helped off the ice and into the room.

Maurice had said that Barkov was on track to return at least in time for Florida’s two games in his hometown of Tampere, Finland, next week; he also said Barkov could return on this three-game trip to New York.

— The starting goalies: Knight vs. Semyon Varlamov. The Islanders are coming off an overtime win in Newark on Friday night and Varlamov will make his fourth start of the season.

He has allowed at least three goals in each of his previous three starts.

ON DECK: GAME NO. 10

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT NEW YORK ISLANDERS

• When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: UBS Arena; Elmont, New York
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/Fort Lauderdale); WHDT 9 (West Palm); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/Fort Myers)
• Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-140); Puck line (-1.5, +160); Over/Under 6 (+100/-120)
• Last Season: Islanders Won 2-1
• This Season — At Islanders: Saturday; March 16. At Florida: Feb. 2.
• All-time regular season series: Panthers lead 57-34-11, 8 ties
• Next Up for the Panthers: Monday at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (5-3-1) LINES

13 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe// 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

17 Evan Rodrigues // 70 Jesper Boqvist // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

10 AJ Greer // 36 Patrick Giles // 26 Uvis Balinskis

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

34 Adam Boqvist // 88 Nate Schmidt

30 Spencer Knight

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: None

Injured: Sasha Barkov (LBI), Jonah Gadjovich (back), Tomas Nosek (LTIR-UBI), Justin Sourdif (UBI)

PROJECTED NEW YORK ISLANDERS (3-2-2) LINES

10 Simon Holmstrom // 14 Bo Horvat // 13 Mathew Barzal

7 Maxim Tsyplakov // 29 Brock Nelson // 21 Kyle Palmieri

27 Anders Lee // 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau // 26 Oliver Wahlstrom

53 Casey Cizikas // 32 Kyle MacLean // 12 Liam Foudy

28 Alexander Romanov // 8 Noah Dobson

3 Adam Pelech // 6 Ryan Pulock

2 Mike Reilly // 24 Scott Mayfield

40 Semyon Varlamov

30 Ilya Sorokin

Scratched: Dennis Cholowski

Injured: Anthony Duclair (lower body)

New York Islanders Lines Courtesy NHL.com