Latest news with #Kulikov
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Craig Berube's Strong Message About Max Domi's Hit on Aleksander Barkov
The Toronto Maple Leafs fell 2–0 to the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoffs series on Sunday night. Although the series is now tied after the Leafs took the first two games, a major storyline from Game 4 was Max Domi's hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. The incident occurred with just seven seconds remaining in regulation and the game all but over. As players battled for the puck along the boards in the Panthers' zone, Domi, positioned near the slot, locked in on Barkov. Advertisement With Barkov facing the wall, Domi skated toward him and delivered a hard hit from behind, sending the Panthers' star head first into the boards. It was undoubtedly a dangerous play, but fortunately for Barkov, he appeared to be OK. Domi was given a five-minute major for boarding. Here's another angle of the hit: Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was asked about it on Monday morning but chose not to comment on it, instead bringing up something entirely unrelated. "To me, the Kulikov hit on Marner was 10 times worse," Berube answered. Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube during a postgame press E. Sokolowski Berube was referring to an incident that occurred in the second period involving Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner. Advertisement Marner had the puck in the Panthers' zone and, seeing Kulikov approaching, tried to avoid the hit. He spun the opposite way after smartly sending the puck behind the net. As he turned away, Kulikov caught him with an elbow to the back of the head. Fortunately for Marner as well, he appeared to be OK, staying in the game. Shortly after Berube spoke to the media, the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced Domi "has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for boarding Florida's Aleksander Barkov." There has been no announcement about possible discipline for Kulikov for his hit on Marner. Advertisement Game 5 between the Maple Leafs and the Panthers is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Related: Sam Bennett Speaks Out on Max Domi's Hit on Aleksander Barkov Related: Justin Bieber Sends Two-Word Message During Maple Leafs-Panthers Series
Reuters
19-03-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Panthers D Dmitry Kulikov (upper body) week-to-week
March 19 - The Florida Panthers have lost another blueliner for a while. Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury, Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters Wednesday. Kulikov sustained the injury after colliding awkwardly at high speed with New York Islanders forward Anthony Duclair in the first period of the Panthers' 4-2 loss on Sunday. The Panthers have been without top defenseman Aaron Ekblad since March 10, when he was suspended for 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. The Panthers have lost three of four games since Ekblad's suspension and will not have him back until the postseason. Kulikov, who leads the Panthers with 110 hits, had been playing alongside Niko Mikkola on Florida's second pairing in Ekblad's absence. Kulikov will be out of action for an extended period but is expected to return before the start of the playoffs, Maurice said. Kulikov, 34, has four goals and nine assists through 68 games. He has tallied 247 points (50 goals, 197 assists) across 1,016 career games with eight teams.
Miami Herald
19-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
How the Florida Panthers are retooling their defense pairings with another key player out
The Florida Panthers will be without another key player for the near future. Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov is week-to-week after sustaining an apparent injury to his right arm or hand in the first period Sunday against the New York Islanders. Panthers coach Paul Maurice on Wednesday said the team anticipates Kulikov returning before the end of the regular season, but Kulikov is now the third Florida regular to be sidelined along with star winger Matthew Tkachuk (on long-term injured reserve with an apparent groin injury) and top-pair defenseman Aaron Ekblad (suspended the rest of the regular season plus two playoff games) along with forward Brad Marchand (week-to-week with an upper-body injury). The timing of the injury isn't ideal. Florida has lost three of its past four games, including dropping a pair in which they had a two-goal lead in the third period. Now, they have to retool an entire unit late in the season, with just a month to go until the Stanley Cup playoffs begin. So how will they do it? With Kulikov out for the time being, the Panthers on Tuesday recalled Tobias Bjornfot to fill in on the blue line. He will draw into the lineup Thursday when the Panthers (41-24-3) resume their six-game road trip against the Columbus Blue Jackets (31-28-8). Bjornfot played in eight games for the Panthers during a stretch in January when Florida was down a pair of defensemen — that time Ekblad and Niko Mikkola. He didn't record any points in that stretch, but the Panthers had a 126-66 edge in shot attempts and a 6.15-2.37 advantage expected goals when Bjornfot was on the ice at 5-on-5 in that stretch. 'It's nice to have a guy that you bring up that everybody knows when he hops into the room and he gets on the plane,' Maurice said. 'This is normal for him. His games for us have been very good. He's one of those that falls into that category of a guy that when you send him down, you feel bad because he hasn't done anything wrong on the ice. His play has been solid for us. We just have had depth at that position while he's been here. We feel very comfortable with him in our lineup.' Bjornfot projects to take Kulikov's spot on Florida's second defense pairing opposite Mikkola. That will allow Maurice to keep his other two pairings — Gustav Forsling and Seth Jones up top, Uvis Balinskis and Nate Schmidt in the third pairing — intact. 'It'll be about managing minutes over the course of the two games, running everybody as hard as we need to to win a hockey game,' Maurice said, 'but at the same time, we've got to look at the bigger block. The thing that I prefer to do when you bring something in is just make one change. Do move the fewest pieces as possible to start. So that's kind of the idea.' This most likely, though, will put even more of an onus on Forsling and Jones to produce despite already playing significantly heavy minutes. Jones has averaged about 27:30 minutes of ice time over the past four games since moving to the top pairing and the top power-play unit. In his first three Florida games after being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks, Jones averaged about 21 minutes while playing on Florida's second pairing. Forsling has averaged about 24:30 minutes over the past four games, slightly above his season average of 22:54. 'We prefer that those guys were at 25 [minutes] or under,' Maurice said. But with a month until the playoffs and the Panthers trying to get out of a rare funk, they're going to do whatever they can to get back to their winning ways. More injury updates Maurice said there have been no changes to the timetables for either Tkachuk or Marchand. Tkachuk has not been on the ice since sustaining his lower-body injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off but the team is targeting him returning during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Marchand, acquired from the Boston Bruins at the trade deadline, sustained his injury on March 1 while playing for Boston against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He took part in two of the Panthers' three morning skates last week and was a full participant in practice on Wednesday.
Miami Herald
29-01-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
‘It seems like I just started': Panthers' Dmitry Kulikov reflects on journey to 1,000 games
The euphoria from nearly seven months ago still hits Dmitry Kulikov from time to time. It was his defining moment with the Florida Panthers, in his second stint with the team that drafted him, and it came in the biggest game in franchise history. June 24. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers. About five minutes left in the second period. Tie game. Kulikov crashed into the Panthers' net, swiping the puck away from danger as the Oilers eyed a scoring chance and starting the sequence that ultimately led to Florida scoring the winning goal to secure the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup. 'Certain things set it off,' Kulikov said. 'You see a picture or a billboard or something like that, and then it just takes you back to the playoffs last year and you relive some memories. Or you see a picture pop up on your phone and then it just kind of comes back. Every time, it's just chills, goosebumps.' Kulikov yearned for that moment for more than a decade-and-a-half ever since Florida drafted him in the first round as an 18-year-old. He finally reaped the rewards of his career's longevity by getting a hockey player's ultimate prize. On Wednesday, Kulikov's longevity will be recognized as he plays in his 1,000th NHL game when the Panthers host the Los Angeles Kings to begin a three-game homestand at Amerant Bank Arena. He is just the 405th player and 138th defenseman in the NHL's 108-season history to hit the milestone. It's a feat Kulikov admits he never thought too much about. It was tough to grasp the magnitude of it early in his career mostly because it seemed so unattainable. But Kulikov got to this point by persevering through a career that saw him go from a steady presence with the Panthers to a journeyman who bounced from team to team and had to overcome injury to having stability again with the team where it all started. To Kulikov, 34, it also means something else. 'It means I'm old,' Kulikov said with a laugh. 'It's a lot of games. When I first heard of somebody playing that many games, the number didn't mean anything to me. It was so many games that I couldn't even understand how somebody could get to that point and how many years it would take. Now that I'm coming up on 1,000, it still doesn't make sense. It seems like I just started last year and now it's Year 16. 'The time goes by fast.' Kulikov's road to 1,000 NHL games started in 2009, when the Panthers selected him with the 14th overall pick in the NHL Draft. Born in Lipetsk, Russia, Kulikov had played the previous season in Canada's Quebec Major Junior Hockey League where he led the league's defensemen with 62 points in 57 games while also being named the QMJHL Defenseman of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year and the league's top professional prospect. 'He's mature beyond his years, a very worldly young man,' then-Panthers scouting director Scott Luce said after the Panthers drafted Kulikov. 'His adjustment to North America was very quick and that speaks to his character. This guy can rush the puck, run the power play and is good defensively. We did extensive due diligence on this, with his coaches here and with his coaches in Russia. He's a very motivated young man.' Kulikov wasn't shy about making his immediate intentions known. 'My goal is to play in the NHL next year,' Kulikov said after being drafted. 'We'll see what's going on. I love the hard work. ... To make an NHL team, you have to be better than someone else. That's my goal.' That gritty determination, that burning desire to keep pushing and keep improving, still lives in Kulikov 16 years later. He made the Panthers' roster out of training camp that 2009-10 season, playing in 68 games and producing 16 points (three goals, 13 assists). Kulikov would go on to play 460 games over seven seasons with Florida before bouncing around the league. He played for seven teams over the next seven seasons, and outside of a three-season stint with the Winnipeg Jets, he played no more than 80 games with any given team and twice was traded midseason. 'It's a journey,' Kulikov said. 'You learn things along the way. ... The league kind of demands of you to be a professional and just take care of yourself.' That journey ultimately brought him back home to the Panthers. Florida entered the 2023 offseason intent on adding veteran defenseman depth since it was going to be without key players Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour early in the season as they both recovered from shoulder surgery. Kulikov signed a one-year, $1 million deal to come back to Florida, which was in a much different position than it was during his first stint. When Kulikov played for the Panthers the first time around, his seven-season stretch included five years with Florida as one of the worst teams in the NHL and two with first-round exits from the playoffs. Attendance at home games was sparse more often than not. Now? Florida was coming off a run to the Stanley Cup Final and had made the playoffs each of the past four years. The team was selling out its home arena. The young players in Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad he saw coming into the league were now the leaders of a perennial contender. 'It's really cool seeing where the sport is in South Florida and how much people love hockey,' Kulikov said. 'I started when I was 18. Now, I have a son. He's also into hockey. So I go to the rink, talk to parents, and everybody seems to want their kids to play. They want their kids to make it. It's not just for fun. It's getting serious even at the younger levels.' Barkov said Kulikov 'hasn't changed as a person' in between his stints with the Panthers. 'He's still that young Kuli who's excited to come to the rink every single day, even though he's getting old,' Barkov said. 'He's a huge part of our defense. He's always defense-first. He has skill to make plays. He has skill to shoot the puck and play in any situation on the ice. He's very reliable to us on the back end.' The numbers support that. Entering Wednesday, Kulikov holds the Panthers' franchise record for hits (970) and also ranks among the top 10 in franchise history for blocked shots (749, second), games played (587, sixth), points by a defenseman (168, sixth), assists by a defenseman (136, sixth) and goals by a defenseman (32, ninth). In 127 games since returning to Florida, Kulikov has 30 points (four goals, 26 assists) and a plus-minus rating of plus-21 while averaging nearly 18 minutes of ice time per game. But for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who also coached Kulikov during his stint in Winnipeg, it's the moments like his play in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final that define what Kulikov has meant for the team. 'He's done a lot of heavy, hard things,' Maurice said. 'The camera doesn't always catch the back end of how it started to get the guy going. ... Dmitry's just found the right game at the right time in his career, and he's excelled in it.' Added Kulikov: 'Everybody has their own journey, and mine has been like this. I'm fortunate that I was able to come back this past year with the Panthers. This is the best memory of my whole career, this whole past year.' And he doesn't want those memories to end. That's why he chose to stay with Florida, signing a four-year, $4.6 million deal this offseason that will carry Kulikov through his age-37 season. 'That's almost a statement that lends itself to this,' Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito said. 'We're trying to get guys to want to be here and he's all-in. He's all in, 100 percent ... and that's really priceless. To have a commitment from a guy like that with everything that he leaves out on the ice, it's encouraging.' Kulikov's goal 16 years ago was just to make the league as early as he could. His goal now before he closes out his career? 'Winning another Cup,' Kulikov said. 'You get a taste of it. Now, what motivates me is winning another one. I don't care about points or stats or anything like that. Winning is everything. No matter how we do it, and who is driving us on certain nights, I'm happy for everybody.'
