Florida Panthers Face Major Blow as Luostarinen Leaves Game with Horrible Injury

While the tensions were clearly boiling over in Game 5 between Carolina and Florida in the Eastern Conference Finals, it seems that Eetu Luostarinen's eagerness to make an impact cost him.

While aiming to hit Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall with a vicious body check, he completely missed the veteran, who dipped and dodged around the hit and sent Luostarinen slamming hard into the boards.

He stumbled to get to his feet and made his way to the bench before leaving to the locker room.

The Panthers then announced that he was going to miss the remainder of the game and won't return.

It's a huge blow to the Panthers as he was one of their more underrated and overperforming forwards this postseason.

A relative unknown name compared to others on the team, Luostarinen has really come into his own as a role player with the Panthers.

This season he had 24 points in 80 games, but it's the playoffs where he has really started to shine.

His 13 points in 16 games (4G, 9A) is tied for third on the team along with Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe; not bad considering his role as a third-liner.

He's the type of player that winning teams typically employ, and his emergence as a consistent and reliable secondary option for a very potent Panthers team just underlies how good they really are.

We won't know how severe the injury is until head coach Paul Maurice gives us an update, and hopefully for the team he isn't out long-term.

His passion and recklessness was a big reason why Florida might make it to their second straight Stanley Cup, but it might have cost him in the end.