If you’re a hockey fan, you definitely know what went down in Game 2 between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. At 9:51 in the third period, Brandon Hagel from the Lightning made a hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, causing him to go down on the ice right away. Everyone at Amalie Arena was taken aback. This led to Hagel getting a major penalty after the officials reviewed the footage.

The Panthers were definitely not pleased, but there’s still no news on how their captain is doing. So, over on X, Panthers insider George Richards shared, “Paul Maurice: Barkov not ruled out for Game 3, but not cleared either.”

So, this is a bit of a mixed bag coming from the Panthers’ coach. His team is definitely up 2-0 in the series, but having the captain around will really help them maximize their potential. Therefore, it looks like Aleksander Barkov isn’t totally out for Game 3 just yet, but there are still a few things to sort out before we know if he’ll be good to go against the Lightning. What’s the reason for that?

It really comes down to what happened after Barkov left the ice that day. So, the question is whether he really has an injury or not. They just cannot allow their captain to remain on the injured reserve until his condition is really serious. What’s the reason for that? What do his statistics say?

Barkov kept showing off his top-notch two-way game. In 67 regular-season games, he scored 20 goals and added 51 assists, bringing his total to 71 points. He had a +1 plus-minus rating and averaged 20:15 of ice time per game. He’s already racked up 3 assists in the playoffs, which gives him a total of 3 points. He’s really important to the Panthers! It seems like Game 3 is going to be pretty intense between the two teams, especially since the Panthers are gearing up to avenge their captain.

Ready to avenge Aleksander Barkov

With the caption: “Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, and Sam Bennett were all chirping the Lightning bench at the end of Game 2. Absolute nightmare fuel for the rest of the NHL,” a video surfaced on social media, uploaded by B/R Open Ice. Joe Haggerty replied to the social media post, mentioning, “Florida Panthers are all telling Kucherov that he’s going to get it for Hagel’s hit on Barkov. Things are about to get nasty in the Battle of Florida.”

Get ready, Tampa Bay Lightning fans, because the Florida Panthers are coming in hot, and they won’t hold back! So, when you see guys like Brad Marchand, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sam Bennett giving the opponents a hard time, you can bet they’re itching to drop the gloves. After Brandon Hagel nearly took out their captain, Aleksander Barkov, they’re just looking to settle the score on the ice.

Who’s their target? Nikita Kucherov, right? It looks like the Tampa Bay forward has a bit of a short fuse, and it’s pretty clear that the three Panthers are targeting him in Game 3. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens between the two teams.