Sharks top Panthers in OT as Barkov's knee steals the night

Sharks 4, Panthers 3 (OT). Florida stole a point out of San Jose with a 17-second comeback, and nobody in Sunrise is going to care about that point until they know what happened to Barkov's knee.

How it went

Florida was already down a defenseman before puck drop. Gustav Forsling, the overtime hero from the opener, was a late scratch with an upper-body injury, so Uvis Balinskis drew in next to Radko Gudas.

The first 40 minutes of the Sharks' season opener belonged to San Jose. Mason Marchment scored at 14:20 of the first, and then Will Smith took over the second, scoring shorthanded at 5:52 and on the power play at 10:37, both times set up by Macklin Celebrini. That made it 3-0.

In between, Aleksander Barkov's left knee buckled along the wall in a puck battle with Darnell Nurse and Zack Ostapchuk. He went straight down the tunnel and didn't come back. This is the captain who missed all of last season after reconstructive surgery on his right knee, and this was only his second game back.

Eetu Luostarinen got one back on the power play at 17:10 of the second. Then the third opened like somebody flipped the bench over: Luostarinen scored again at 5:01, and Matthew Tkachuk tied it 17 seconds later off a feed from Sam Bennett.

Overtime lasted 3:14 before defenseman Luca Cagnoni finished it from Smith and Celebrini. San Jose outshot Florida 32-26 for the evening.

Three things from San Jose

1. The minutes tell the Barkov story. He logged 9:15 tonight after about 20 and a half minutes in the opener at Carolina, per NHL data. He gets looked at Friday, and until the team says more, that's the whole report. It's enough to make the flight to Anaheim an uncomfortable one.

2. Luostarinen played like the guy who had to. He scored twice in 16:28, which is up two and a half minutes from opening night by our count. When the captain goes down, somebody has to absorb the hard minutes in the middle of the ice, and Luostarinen did it with the puck on his stick.

3. The young Sharks beat them. Smith finished with two goals and an assist, Celebrini had three assists, and Cagnoni ended it. Florida spent two periods chasing Celebrini, and the shorthanded goal came while the Panthers had the man advantage. That one's on the room, not on the goaltender.

Ferda play of the night

Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Jacob Trouba at center ice in the first period, then went back out and threw five hits in 19:37. He didn't get on the scoresheet, and he didn't need to. That's the kind of shift that keeps a bench engaged on a night it's getting outplayed.

What they said

Maurice didn't have much on his captain after the game, other than the timeline. "We'll have a good idea by tomorrow afternoon," Maurice said.

Pabs' read

I'll take the point, and I'll take the push back. A team that falls behind by three on the road and ties it in 17 seconds has real character, and Akira Schmid kept it close with 28 saves. But I've watched this team long enough to know which number matters tonight, and it's 9:15. Everything else waits on Barkov.

Next game

Sunday at Anaheim, 8 p.m. ET at Honda Center, then Tuesday at Los Angeles at 10 p.m. ET. The full box score is on the game page.