So, as we all know now, Game 4 wasn’t the best for the Florida Panthers, who, up until that point in the series, were firing through the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes, as they did in 2023. However, during game 4, which was an elimination game for the Hurricanes but a seemingly easy home game for Florida, the Canes came back strong, with their goaltender, Frederik Andersen, marking the second shutout of this postseason, and Florida coach Paul Maurice making some now viral statements about the last two goals conceded.

Now, there are many theories as to what exactly happened here that changed the pace of the series between the Canes and Florida. One of these things, according to Carter Verhaeghe, was the very fact that it was a home game, and Florida failed to “keep it simple” here, unlike they’d normally do at all the road games that they have shone at this season.

But another factor that perhaps no one on the Florida Panthers wanted to outright address was the fact that three of their key players, Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer, were all out on injury. This totally disrupted the depth that Florida had been so banking on all season and perhaps let the Canes find the holes in their opponent’s game. Now, however, as Florida heads to Raleigh for game 5, things have changed!

Florida coach Paul Maurice has just announced that all three players will be back in action for game 5. Reinhart has been one of the top scorers for Florida this season, so having him back after a break since his leg injury in game 2 of the series will itself be a boon. Further, with both Mikkola and Greer adding to that infamous Florida depth and Verhaeghe convinced that the road games are the ones where the team really shines, it sounds like Florida is going to cinch the Eastern Conference title pretty soon!

How does game 5 look now that Paul Maurice has announced the Florida Panthers’ injured players are back in the lineup?

Florida is still looking like the likely winner of game 5. Despite it being a road game, we know at this point this team can handle that, and now with three key players back in the lineup, the game 4 loss might end up being credited to their absence on that day.

After all, Sam Reinhart was the leading scorer for Florida in the regular season and managed 11 points in the playoffs with four goals and seven assists. In game 4, Reinhart’s absence was noticeable in the powerplay with Paul Maurice saying of Reinhart’s impact,“He changes the way you view our power play when he’s not there, in terms of who you’ve got to cover off.”

The Canes are probably kicking themselves with the bad luck of this announcement; however, they can look forward to playing on home turf with a (hopefully) supportive crowd, look towards Jaccob Slavin, who was on the ice for all 3 of Carolina’s goals in game 4, just generally keep up the morale, and use information as power, perhaps?

It’s no secret that the Florida Panthers players are returning from injury, so if the Canes are really desperate, then they might bring on the physical play quite hard, but that would also be a dangerous line to tread with Florida.