FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov needed surgery Friday to repair the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee, injuries that will likely sideline him for the regular season and potentially the playoffs as Florida tries to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup.

Barkov was injured Thursday in his first official practice of training camp. He had surgery Friday, and the Panthers said the typical timetable for recovery from such a procedure is seven to nine months.

At minimum, that timetable would mean he won’t be playing before the start of the playoffs. The injury also ends any chance of him representing his native Finland — as he hoped and planned — in the Milan-Cortina Olympics this coming February.

“He’s such an important person in that locker room,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Friday. “I think what we’re going to get to experience now is you’ll get to know some of the other leaders that we have in our room.”

Barkov was hurt 20 minutes into practice, during a drill on a play where he took minimal contact.

“I know the idea is next man up,” Maurice said. “There’s not a next man for Barky’s skates.”

Barkov led the Panthers in assists last season with 51 and was second in points with 71. He added six goals and 16 more assists in the playoffs when Florida won its second consecutive Stanley Cup.

Barkov has appeared in more than 86% of all Florida games, including playoffs, in his 12 NHL seasons. This is the first time he has dealt with a potential season-ending injury.

And now, the Panthers — who have been to the past three Stanley Cup finals and played more games in the past three seasons than any team in a three-year span in NHL history — have to navigate another missing star as the season approaches.

In addition to Barkov, the Panthers also won’t have forward Matthew Tkachuk while he recovers from offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle. There is no formal target for Tkachuk’s return; given the typical return-to-play timelines for such procedures, it wouldn’t seem likely that he returns before December.

Since Tkachuk came to the Panthers in 2022, Florida has played only five games without either him or Barkov in the lineup — all last October, with the Panthers winning three of those five contests. And Tomas Nosek, who had a big role in last season’s run to the Cup title, is expected to miss considerable time because of a knee injury.

“It’s going to be tough,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said when asked about the Barkov news Friday. “He’s our leader — there’s no replacing Barky. Everyone has to step up. There’s no replacing him, but it’s another challenge for our group. And we’re usually pretty good at overcoming challenges.”

Barkov is Florida’s franchise leader in many categories, including games played (804), goals (286), assists (496), points (782), power-play goals (84) and game-winning goals (52).

Ruben Amorim has hinted that some of his Manchester United players are still struggling to escape the scars of last season as they go in search of back-to-back Premier League wins at Brentford.

United are yet to win consecutive league games under Amorim.

They have the chance to change the unwanted run when they visit the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday following last weekend’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea.

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Another win would be a welcome step forward for Amorim and his players.

And the Portuguese coach has admitted finally winning back-to-back games would help his squad begin to get over the trauma of last season when United lost nearly half their league games and finished 15th.

“I think if we start winning it is not [a question of] 10 wins in a row,” said Amorim.

“I am talking about the second one, then the third one. The feeling will change and again that is something about the environment that we are living for a while.

“If you look at Bryan [Mbeumo] in that moment when we are struggling you feel a different guy compared to the rest of the team.

“You have to understand that some of the guys are here for a while and that feeling is still here and for that [to change] we need to win games.”

United impressed in spells against Chelsea last weekend and were also praised for their performance against Arsenal on the opening day of the season.

Last season, they beat Manchester City and Arsenal and drew with Liverpool at Anfield.

It’s against the so-called smaller teams that United have struggled most and Amorim has called on his players to treat Brentford as if they were another of the Premier League’s top six.

“The important thing is to do the maximum and to face that game like we faced Liverpool last year because we were struggling, or the way we started the season against Arsenal,” he said.

“We were really excited to start the season. We should have that feeling all the time.

“I think if we as a team, if we don’t understand the momentum now, we have a big problem.

“We need to understand the momentum of the club and the opportunity that we have to win the next game. So it’s on us and the responsibility is on us.”

Harry Kane reached a century of goals for Bayern Munich with his second strike against Werder Bremen on Friday and claimed a piece of European history in the process.

Kane’s 100 goals have come in just 104 matches, the fastest anyone has achieved that mark with a club in Europe’s top five leagues this century.

Erling Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo needed 105 games to notch a century of goals for Manchester City and Real Madrid, respectively,

Kane, who joined the Bundesliga giants from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2023, is the 19th man to score 100 goals for Bayern.

The 32-year-old has been in particularly prolific form to start the new season. Kane now has 10 goals in five Bundesliga games and 15 goals in all competitions.

After Jonathan Tah had opened the scoring for Bayern, Kane made it 2-0 with his 99th goal from the penalty spot in the 45th minute after being fouled by Marco Friedl. It was Kane’s 18th successful penalty conversion in 18 attempts for Bayern, the longest streak without failing to score in Bundesliga history.

It took only until the 65th minute for Kane to bring up the century as he finished low from the center of the box following a pass from Luis Díaz.

Although he was undoubtedly eyeing a third hat trick of the season, Kane was substituted in the 78th minute to a warm reception from Bayern fans inside the Allianz Arena.

The match finished 4-0 after Konrad Laimer added a fourth goal for Bayern late on.

Information from ESPN Research was used in this report.