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Florida Panthers are favored on the moneyline.

Florida Panthers at Anaheim Ducks

·Sun Oct 4·5:00 PM PT·KCOP,Scripps Sports,Prime Video (Local)·Anaheim, CA

By JR·2 min read

Panthers(1-0-1)

Ducks(0-0)

Sunday 10/045:00 PM

TLDR: Florida's captain missed all of last season with a torn ACL and MCL. He made it 2 games into this one before his other knee buckled in San Jose, so the biggest question about Sunday in Anaheim is Barkov's MRI result.

MON OCT 5, 5:00 PMKCOPScripps SportsPrime Video (Local)

Panthers

(1-0-1)

Ducks

(0-0)

Florida visits Anaheim on Sunday, October 4 with Aleksander Barkov's status unknown after his left knee buckled in an overtime loss in San Jose, and with Brad Marchand already on IR. Anaheim opens its season in Vegas first and plays without Troy Terry on long-term IR, plus 2 defensemen. The board has Florida as a modest road favorite. The Barkov MRI and the Ducks' first game will tell a lot about this one before puck drop.

Florida Panthers

Opened with a 1-0 shutout win at Carolina
2 days off between San Jose and Anaheim
Barkov awaiting MRI after left knee buckled
Marchand on IR, out until late October at best
Forsling day-to-day on the back end

Anaheim Ducks

First home game of the season at Honda Center
Panthers' center depth could be badly thinned
Terry on LTIR, top-6 scoring takes a hit
Helleson and Moore out, defense thin
Plays at Vegas 2 nights before

Here's what happened. In Florida's 4-3 overtime loss to the Sharks on Thursday night, Aleksander Barkov's left knee appeared to buckle in a scrum along the boards with Darnell Nurse and Zack Ostapchuk, and he left in the 2nd period. Paul Maurice said afterward it was 'not related to his injury last year at all' and that the club would 'have a good idea by tomorrow afternoon.' Friday's MRI decides whether the Panthers play Sunday's game, and maybe the next few weeks, with or without their No. 1 center.

Florida is already short up front. Brad Marchand is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and might be back before the end of October, which still leaves him out of this one. MacKenzie Entwistle and Jonah Gadjovich are on IR too, and Gustav Forsling is day-to-day on the blue line. Losing Barkov on top of that would leave a lot of the 200-foot work to whoever moves up the middle. That work is the thing Florida has always counted on him for.

Anaheim doesn't even start its season until Friday in Las Vegas, so the Ducks' night against the Golden Knights is the first real look at this group and comes before this one. How they hold up at T-Mobile Arena, and how much they lean on their top guys, will shape what Florida sees at the Honda Center 2 nights later. They'll be doing it without Troy Terry. He moved from the non-roster list to long-term injured reserve with a hip injury and isn't projected back until late November.

Florida's short sample has gone both ways. The Panthers opened by grinding out a 1-0 win in Carolina, then gave up 4 in San Jose and lost in overtime. That's 4 goals for in 2 games. The Panthers were stingy in the opener and leaky in the second game, and both games were played with Barkov in the lineup for at least part of the night. Sunday caps a California swing that started Thursday in San Jose, so Florida gets 2 days off before puck drop and doesn't have to deal with a back-to-back.

The Ducks' blue line is thinner than they'd like. Drew Helleson and Ian Moore are both on IR, and A.J. Greer is day-to-day after taking contact in practice with an upper-body injury. Sunday is Anaheim's first home game of the year, at 5:00 PM PT on Sunday, October 4. It comes 2 days after the Vegas opener, with a short flight in between. Whether Florida shows up with its captain or without him, this is an early measuring-stick game for a Ducks team that hasn't played a game that counts yet.

Florida Panthers at Anaheim Ducks

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