The Florida Panthers dropped a tight, tough game to the Ottaway Senators on Thursday night, but the result of the game was far from the focus when it was over.

In the game’s final moments, Florida captain Sasha Barkov suffered an injury that required him to be helped off the ice.

With the Panthers net empty and Florida pressuring the Sens, Sasha Barkov’s stick broke as he tried to shoot the puck from just inside the blue line and he was left scrambling down the ice to defend against an empty net goal.

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With no stick, Barkov was limited in whart he could do and tried to use his lower body to defend the net, but it didn’t stop Tim Stutzle from scoring into the yawning cage.

As Stutzle scored and Barkov went down in an attempt to block the shot, both went hard into the back boards, and Barkov went in feet first.

He remained on the ice for several minutes and was helped off by teammates, appearing to put no weight on his right leg.

Afterwards, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice had little to say about Barkov’s status.

"He's going to get looked at here tonight, and probably tomorrow as well,” Maurice said.

It was a similar sentiment from Barkov's teammates in the postgame locker room, as until Barkov is tested and evaluated by medical professionals, nobody will know exactly what may or may not be wrong.

"I don't really know yet what happened, I just saw he went down and obviously we don't want to see that," said Panthers forward Anton Lundell. "I can't say much right now. Hopefully he's okay and it wasn't anything bigger."

Florida fans will have to wait and hope that whatever Barkov’s injury is, that it’s not severe.

Friday is a travel day for Florida so the Panthers won’t be back on the ice until Saturday morning in Buffalo, which will be the next time Maurice will be able to provide an update on his captain.

The Cats play Buffalo Saturday night before wrapping up the road trip with back-to-back games in Boston and Columbus on Monday and Tuesday.

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