Florida Panthers owe Canada an apology if they always planned to shut down Marchand, Bennett and Reinhart
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Tyler Ball
Mar 31, 2026 (6:45 PM)
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Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
After shutting down Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand for the season the Florida Panthers and Hockey Canada are under fire for their decision making.
Hockey Canada came up short at the Olympic Games featuring three players from the Florida Panthers Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, and Sam Bennett.
Since returning from the Olympics with a disappointing silver medal all three players have struggled with injuries with two of them being shut down for the season.
Hockey Canada selected two players whose team had every reason to shut them down
Upon returning from the Olympics Games, the Panthers have been without Reinhart, Marchand, and Bennett.
The Panthers remained at the bottom of the Eastern Conference having little incentive to keep their injured star players on the ice.
Marchand played just 6 games for the Panthers since his return with the most recent being March 6th Panthers head coach Paul Maurice confirmed that Marchand was dealing with a lingering issue dating back a while.
Reinhart, Florida’s leading scorer last played on March 12th before being shut down for the year with injuries he has reportedly had all season.
Then, there is Bennett the only one left standing in the Panthers lineup, he will return tonight but, is still playing through injuries he has had all season long including one that many believed would keep him out of the Olympics before he was ultimately named to the team.
This means, going into the Olympics, that Team Canada selected three members of the team who were playing through injury and were entirely unaware of the fact or decided to take the risk anyway.
Canadian fans deserve better from players who wear the maple leaf
In the end, this came back to backfire as Canada was left with three players playing hurt that ultimately underperformed especially when the moments were largest leaving Canada without vital depth scoring power.
All three players took their place on Team Canada and unlike Captain Sidney Crosby did not know when to step aside for other talent to replace them.
This Canada to be embarrassed by the United States on the biggest stage losing the gold medal and allowing it to head south for the first time since 1980.
Now, fans are furious and believe that Bennett, Reinhart, and Marchand all owe an apology to them for these decisions that were made.
Canada’s hockey operations department will now have four years to ponder their mistakes and one has to wonder if they will reconsider taking players going through injuries over other top healthy talents.
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| POLL | ||
MARS 31|76 ANSWERS Florida Panthers owe Canada an apology if they always planned to shut down Marchand, Bennett and Reinhart Do you think these three players owe Canada an apology? | ||
| Yes | 50 | 65.8 % |
| No | 26 | 34.2 % |
| List of polls | ||