Paul Maurice confirms bad news on Sam Reinhart.

The Florida Panthers will look to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their series over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday night, but they will have to do it without a core member of their group.

On Saturday, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice officially confirmed that injured forward Sam Reinhart will not be available for the Panthers in Game 3. Reinhart was of course injured in Game 2 when he was on the receiving end of an awkward hit from Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho, one that caught him quite low.

The injury looked bad at the time and Reinhart's reaction on the bench spoke volumes, as did the reaction from Maurice when he first received word from the back on Reinhart's injury. Despite this, Maurice insisted on Saturday that Reinhart is currently being considered day to day, although I would take that with a grain of salt at this time of year.

Reinhart coming out of the lineup means that a spot opens up for someone else and it will be Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist who will be the beneficiary of that vacant spot in the lineup in Game 3. Boqvist previously came out of the lineup when Evan Rodrigues returned from injury but he will now get another opportunity due to the unfortunate injury to Reinhart.

The Hurricanes have yet to show any real signs of life in the Eastern Conference Final through two games and they may not get a better opportunity than they will in Game 3 with Reinhart out of the lineup.