As the Panthers look to take a stranglehold on their Eastern Conference Final series against Carolina tonight, they’ll be doing so without the services of one of their top players. Head coach Paul Maurice told reporters including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald that forward Sam Reinhart will not play and is listed as day-to-day.
The 29-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in the first period of Thursday’s game on a hit from Sebastian Aho. He left the game and did not return although that didn’t slow Florida down as they picked up the 5-0 victory.
Reinhart didn’t score at quite the same pace as a year ago when he had 57 goals but he was certainly a core contributor this season, tallying 39 goals and 42 assists in 79 games while averaging a career-high 20:30 in ice time, a solid return on the first year of his eight-year, $69MM contract signed on the opening day of free agency last summer. He hasn’t been quite as productive in the playoffs but is still seventh in team scoring with four goals and seven assists in 14 games.
In Reinhart’s absence, winger Jesper Boqvist will return to the lineup. He has played in nine playoff games thus far and has a goal and an assist, both coming in the same game in the Toronto series. Boqvist is averaging just 8:53 per game in the postseason but with Maurice not wanting to change his other lines around, the 26-year-old should be in line for a bigger role as he’ll line up on the top line alongside Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues.