Barkov and Marchand are skating, and the middle has four weeks to hold

Best news out of Sunrise all month, and it comes with an assignment attached. Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand are back on the ice, Paul Maurice has the captain about four weeks out and Marchand about three, and Jacob Markstrom is close. The leadership group returns around Thanksgiving, and until then the centers holding the middle have to start finishing.

"They are on schedule, and that's a positive," Maurice said Thursday. He's still working off the original six-to-eight-week window, and both players felt good on the ice.

A quick refresher on the injuries themselves. Barkov, who missed all of last season, left the Oct. 1 game against San Jose with a lower-body injury and avoided surgery.

Marchand went awkwardly into the post after a high stick against Los Angeles on Oct. 6. Markstrom took a puck at practice before the road trip and went on injured reserve with a 10-to-14-day estimate. Maurice leans toward 10 and called him "not far off."

Lineup watch:

• Barkov: skating, about four weeks left.
• Marchand: skating, about three weeks left.
• Markstrom: skating, close. Akira Schmid keeps the net until he's back.

Now the part that matters for the next month. Florida is 7-4-2, nearly all of it without its captain, and the biggest reason wears 19. Matthew Tkachuk has 20 points in 13 games, 16 of them assists, per NHL data. That's first-line-center production from a winger, and it's covering for the middle of the lineup.

Here's the problem. By our count, Sam Bennett has gone four straight games without a point, Anton Lundell six and Eetu Luostarinen 11. For Luostarinen, that's every game since the first two of the season.

Lundell is winning 51.5% of his draws and playing 17.7 minutes a night, so the coaches trust him. The trust isn't the issue. When a center goes six games dry, it's usually not the system. It's nobody living at the net front, and that's fixable by Friday.

The rest of the room is pulling its weight. The penalty kill is at 85.5% by our count, and the cats closed the road trip with two straight wins, including a 5-1 night in Winnipeg. Bennett had the simplest reaction to seeing the two leaders skating: "It's awesome."

The goaltending situation runs on a shorter clock. Schmid is at .893 over his last five starts and Markstrom at .898 on the season, per NHL data. Neither number goes on a banner. Markstrom getting back in the next week matters more to the standings than Barkov's date does.

Friday opens a three-game homestand against the same Jets they just handled on the road, and Winnipeg is 0-4-1 in its last five by our count.

This franchise has spent whole seasons waiting on a best player to get healthy with no date in sight. A firm timeline and a winning streak is the good version of that wait.

Pabs' read: The cats will be fine on the wings. Bennett breaks his drought on this homestand, Markstrom starts one of the three games, and Florida is still above .500 when the captain walks back in.