A top Panthers player a late injury scratch vs. Sharks. What we know

The Florida Panthers played without one of their top defensemen on Thursday.

Gustav Forsling, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime in Florida’s season-opening win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, was a late scratch in the team’s game at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday at SAP Center.

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The team announced his absence as being due to an upper-body injury.

Uvis Balinskis drew into the lineup in Forsling’s absence.

Forsling, who plays on Florida’s top defense pair with Aaron Ekblad, scored with 4.3 seconds left in the five-minute overtime period on Tuesday to lift Florida to a 1-0 win over Carolina. He was on the ice for 22:40 on Tuesday. He did not practice on Wednesday but was on the ice for pregame warmups, according to Panthers team reporter Jameson Olive.

Forsling has missed just seven total regular-season games across the past four seasons.

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With Forsling out, Dmitry Kulikov moved to the top pair with Ekblad. The duo of Niko Mikkola and Seth Jones remained intact, while Balinskis joined Radko Gudas on the third defense pair.

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This story will be updated.