Shorthanded Panthers make no excuses after Game 4 loss against Carolina denies a clinching chance

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — There was no Sam Reinhart, no Niko Mikkola and no A.J. Greer for the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

There were also no goals. And Panthers coach Paul Maurice doesn’t mind that Tuesday just became a learning day instead of a celebration day.

The Panthers were denied a chance of clinching a berth in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night, falling at home to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0. Florida was without Reinhart for the second straight game, and didn’t have Mikkola — a two-goal scorer in Game 3 — or Greer after both got hurt Saturday.

“I am exceptionally happy with the learning opportunity,” Maurice said. “I’m not screwing around with you. There are consistent things in games that we don’t love and you cannot eradicate those. Give Carolina credit. … I thought they were very consistent with their game plan.”

Game 5 will be Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina. There will be plenty of video reviewed by then, though the Panthers know much of what Maurice is going to say already.

“We know they played really well, so they deserved to win,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We didn’t have our best. All we’ve got to do right now is just learn from this one and be better next game.”

Reinhart left Thursday’s Game 2 in the first period after a low hit by Carolina’s Sebastian Aho. The Panthers aren’t concerned at this point that it’ll be a long-term absence. He, Mikkola and Greer are all considered day-to-day — which at least raises some possibility that at least some of them could play in Game 5 on Wednesday.

“I would expect, hopefully at some point in this series, they’ll be able to come back in and play,” Maurice said.

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