Injury sidelined Panthers’ Luostarinen in 2023 Cup Finals. He wants to make mark this year

Eetu Luostarinen could only watch last season as the Florida Panthers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals. After being a key if not underrated part of the Panthers’ push through those playoffs, Luostarinen broke his tibia in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final, forcing him to sit out the entire Cup Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights, who beat the Panthers in five games.

“It stinks,” Luostarinen said. “It’s not fun to watch from the side.”

He won’t be watching from the side this year. Luostarinen is one of the three Panthers players who has been active in every game this season — all 82 regular-season games plus all 17 playoff games to date. His 100th game of the season will be Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday at Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena.

“Pretty fortunate to get back to this position in back-to-back years,” Luostarinen said. “Last year, I wasn’t able to play. I’m excited for the challenge and ready to go.”

Luostarinen’s value to the Panthers comes with the fact that he can do just about anything the team needs. He’s a natural center but has played the majority of the past two seasons on the left wing. And even with that, he is still effective when needed to take faceoffs, winning a career-high 53.6 percent during the regular season and winning 52.9 percent of his draws in the playoffs.

He’s key on the penalty kill, forming a stellar one-two punch with Kevin Stenlund as one of Florida’s two primary forward duos when playing a man down (Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart is the other pairing), and can draw in on the second power-play unit when needed.

He’s quiet when it comes to point production — just 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) this regular season and only six points (one goal, five assists) in the playoffs — but Florida doesn’t look to him for big points. He’s a grinding, shutdown defensive forward who has the ability to go up against some of the opponent’s best.

According to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick, the Panthers have given up just four goals this playoffs in the 207-plus minutes that Luostarinen has played at five-on-five.

But it was in his absence during the Stanley Cup Finals last year that the Panthers gained an even fuller appreciation for what Luostarinen meant to them.

“We just could not replace him,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “And then he grows like all players. He’s a better player this year. He understands the game we play at a very high level. He can go up and down the lineup and we can always move him back into the middle if we have to, but he’s a really important player for us.”

And this year, they’ll have him for the biggest series of the season.

This and that

▪ With 31 power-play goals and five short-handed goals, Sam Reinhart is one of six players in NHL history with at least 36 special-teams goals in a second season (including playoffs). It’s the second consecutive year the NHL has had a player accomplish the feat, as Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl had 39 special-teams goals in 2022-23.

The other four to do so: Mario Lemieux (52 in the 1988-89 season and 43 in the 1995-96 season), Mike Bossy (39 in the 1980-81 season) and Dave Andrychuk (36 in the 1992-93 season).

▪ Matthew Tkachuk is one point from becoming the seventh United States-born player from posting 20 points in consecutive postseasons. The six who have done so: Jake Guentzel (2017-2018), Phil Kessel (2016-2017), Patrick Kane (2014-2015), Mike Modano (1999-2000), Kevin Stevens (1991-1992) and Craig Janney (1990-1991).