Panthers Prepared to be Shorthanded Against Flyers

The Florida Panthers are likely to be shorthanded again when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.

Sasha Barkov and Aaron Ekblad are still likely to be out with their respective lower-body injuries.

Gus Forsling’s status is still up in the air due to an illness.

But they could get some reinforcements back in the lineup.

Dmitry Kulikov is set to return from a two-game suspension and Ryan Lomberg could draw back in the lineup after missing Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury.

No matter who draws into the lineup, coach Paul Maurice is not using it as an excuse.

Florida’s injury report has been pretty lengthy throughout the team’s four-game losing streak, but the way they played in Saturday’s shootout loss to the New York Rangers was markedly different from the first three.

“We were a really good, hard team and then we had three or four really unusual games,” Maurice said.

“But in that, Bennett was out, Rodrigues was out, we lose Ekblad, so now you start losing important players. It’s not an excuse, just a factor right? But tonight we had all those guys out and we played hard and we come in and, for me, we tie the best team in the Metropolitan Division, so it’s good.”

Story will be updated after coach Paul Maurice meets with the media at 3:45 p.m. EST.