![]() He finds himself flanking Barkov’s left side on the top line alongside Duclair on a line Florida hopes will stick for the rest of the season.Īnd it already paid off with a goal for Luostarinen in the line’s first game together on Saturday. The numbers are not in Florida’s favor - mainly due to a host of injuries to the aforementioned centermen - but when healthy, the combination of Luostarinen and Staal have allowed the Panthers to have a wave of three units that kill penalties efficiently.Īnd it allows for top players like Barkov, Bennett and Lundell to have a lighter load in the long run.īut Luostarinen has become a player that the Panthers will continue to rely heavily on even with Barkov and Bennett back in the lineup. As a younger player, he needs to find a piece of the game where he can invest in and know he has a major impact.” ”At this point of his career, we don’t have him running big minutes on the power play so he can really sink his teeth in and make an impact on the game and we need to train him to do that. “Luosty’s got a lot of giddy up, he can cover some ice and he’s got a good, long stick. “There are a bunch of reasons ” Maurice said. Maurice entrusted him on the top unit alongside Eric Staal in November and he has stuck with it ever since. When he is not stepping up in the face of injuries, his impact is really felt on the penalty kill. So, it was nice to see him jump in there and you kind of expected it out of him.” His composure out there-offensively he’s making a lot of plays, defensively he’s always kind of had that game. “I don’t know many guys in this league who could fill in for Barky. “He’s such a smart player,” Sam Reinhart said He stepped in and put up two goals and seven points in seven games since Bennett sustained an injury that kept him out for over two weeks on Feb. When Barkov and Bennett missed time over the last two weeks, he rose to the occasion and helped the Panthers keep themselves from falling out of the playoff race as much as he could. “I think we could put another young player with him and they’d still be very good, or you could put a more one-dimensional player with him, and he could still be very good, because he can carry the line defensively.” “What you need eventually is for the center to carry the line, and he is a young player who is able to carry a line now,” Maurice said. He has taken on the role as the team’s top line center on multiple occasions when Barkov, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell have missed extended periods of time this season.Īnd he has parlayed that into a career-high 15 goals and 34 points with 18 games still to go. Sometimes by choice and sometimes by circumstance, the Panthers have leaned on Luostarinen a lot this season.įlorida coach Paul Maurice made it a point to do whatever he could to put Luostarinen in the top-9 at the beginning of the season and his confidence in him seemed to light a fire under him. ![]() Guys go down with injuries and he always finds a way to step up so that’s a big credit to him.” ”He is becoming a very reliable centerman where he has played in all situations of a game and he has become a huge part of this team. “For him, I think learning off Barky has been huge for him and you are starting to see it now,” Anthony Duclair said. The two have had their lockers parked next to each other the whole season and it is clear that the knowledge from one of the NHL’s premier two-way centers has rubbed off on the young Luostarinen. “He is always there so you can count on him whenever you’re open.ĭedicated to Daily Coverage of the Florida Panthersīarkov has had a pretty big hand in helping his fellow Finnish countryman develop into the player he has become. “He is making those plays that not too many guys can do,’’ Barkov said. ![]() The 24-year-old center has developed from a quiet, two-way fourth line center to a consistent fixture in Florida’s top-9 in the span of a year while smashing his career-highs in the process. “I don’t want to give him too many compliments,” Barkov said, “but he’s been really good this year.” SUNRISE - Eetu Luostarinen has received a lot of praise from the Florida Panthers this season.Įnough so that Panthers captain Sasha Barkov wanted to pump the brakes a little bit - at least jokingly - when asked about his new linemate. ![]()
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