The Florida Panthers aren't expecting to see Brad Marchand play again anytime soon, and with the team's playoff hopes dwindling it's possible that the two-time Stanley Cup winner and Olympic silver medalist's season could be over.

Marchand has been dealing with a lower-body injury for some time, Florida coach Paul Maurice said Monday. The Panthers entered Monday 12 points out of a playoff spot with 19 games remaining, meaning it would take some sort of miraculous finish just for the injury-plagued, back-to-back Cup champs to get into the postseason.

“There’s going to be a decision made on what’s the best way to get him to 100% full health,” Maurice said.

Marchand, even while dealing with the injury, ranks second on the Panthers in goals (27), assists (27) and points (54). He and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby are the only players, age 37 or older, with at least 27 goals this season.

The Panthers haven't said specifically what the injury is, but Maurice said it's something that Marchand has been able to manage until now.

“We had a handle on it and there were times where he didn’t play and kind of maintained it and came back in, and then it just got to the point on this road trip that it was never recovering and continuing to kind of get worse,” Maurice said. “We’re hopeful that we got it early enough ... we’ll know this week.”

Marchand's absence only adds to the story of the season for the Panthers.

Florida lost captain Aleksander Barkov to torn knee ligaments during his first practice of training camp, played nearly 50 games without Matthew Tkachuk while the star forward recovered from surgery last summer, have seen their defensive numbers plummet since Seth Jones got hurt two months ago — and those are just some of the injuries the Panthers have been hit with.

“We've been dealing with this right from 20 minutes into our first day of training camp this year,” Maurice said.

Marchand won a Cup with Boston, then was traded to Florida last spring and helped the Panthers win their second consecutive title. He's in the first year of a six-year contract with Florida.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

MIAMI (AP) — Bam Adebayo remembers what people thought of him nine years ago, when the Miami Heat drafted a then-teenager out of Kentucky after his lone college season.

“I'm someone who got drafted to play defense, and everybody thinking I was just a lob threat,” Adebayo said.

He's evolved since.

Adebayo joined Dwyane Wade as the only 10,000-point scorers in Heat history on Sunday night. Adebayo entered the night 23 points shy of the milestone; he got 24, helping Miami to a 121-110 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.

Adebayo — the Heat captain, a title they take seriously in Miami — is on pace to average at least 18 points per game for the sixth consecutive season. He made four 3-pointers on Sunday night, giving him 94 for the season and matching his total from the last two seasons combined.

“Just shows the growth of my game,” Adebayo said. “Obviously, this organization believes in me. I’ve been here that long so I can get 10K with the same team. And obviously, being in the history books behind somebody like D-Wade, it's a great accomplishment.”

He's got a long way to go to catch Wade, who scored 21,556 points for the Heat. But there is another mark well within Adebayo's reach.

Adebayo is second on the Heat rebound charts behind the player he replaced as captain, Udonis Haslem. He has an outside chance of catching Haslem by the end of this season — he would need 207 rebounds in Miami's final 17 games — and has said that's the only record he's really chasing.

And he's still, without question, the anchor of Miami's defense. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra regularly touts him as a defensive player of the year candidate, but the scoring is not overlooked.

“He came in not known necessarily as a scorer,” Spoelstra said. “He’s worked and willed himself into that. And for this particular team, his scoring is really important.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA