Aaron Ekblad to return for Florida Panthers in Sport 1 vs. Washington Capitals

The Florida Panthers kick off their first-round sequence towards the Washington Capitals Tuesday night, and it’s nothing however excellent news on the morning skate. Head coach Andrew Brunette confirmed to reporters together with Katie Gaus of BALLY Sports activities that Aaron Ekblad will make his long-awaited return to the lineup Tuesday night time. Mason Marchment may even be within the lineup after lacking the final recreation of the common season.

Ekblad, 26, could very properly have been within the dialog for the Norris Trophy had he performed your entire season. The 2014 first-overall decide put collectively the perfect offensive yr of his profession, scoring 15 objectives and 57 factors in simply 61 video games. These numbers got here in practically 25 minutes an evening, as he appeared fully recovered from the top and neck accidents that had actually hampered his profession in years previous.

Sadly, on his first shift of a recreation towards the Anaheim Geese in mid-March, Ekblad collided with teammate Aleksander Barkov and was pressured to go away with a lower-body damage. He didn’t return, which means his chase of 20 objectives and a point-per-game season should wait.

Now, after greater than a month on the shelf, he’ll return simply in time for the Panthers.