FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida forward Brad Marchand is expected to miss the first month of the season, meaning the 38-year-old will be sidelined for the Panthers' first 14 games, at minimum, while continuing to recover from offseason surgery.
Marchand revealed in mid-August that he had surgery, the details of which have not been released. He was dogged by a lower-body issue for much of last season when Florida's hopes of contending for what would have been a third consecutive Stanley Cup were derailed by injuries throughout the lineup.
“He's going to take the month of October for rehab,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Thursday after the team's first day of training camp. “That may mean he's ready to play right at the end of it. That may mean he needs a short period of time, assuming no setbacks. But we're planning on rehabbing for October.”
Marchand missed a career-high 30 games last season. He was effective — with 27 goals and 27 assists for 54 points in 52 games — before getting shut down in early March, around the time it became clear that Florida was not going to qualify for the playoffs.
Marchand was on the ice Thursday, though not in either of the two sessions that Florida used for its first day of camp. He went through a separate workout with forward Jonah Gadjovich, who was limited to 10 games last season before having neck surgery.
Gadjovich remains out indefinitely, Maurice said.
“There's a couple of things that we're trying to get sorted out,” Maurice said. “Clearly, it's been a long-term issue for us and it hasn't resolved, so we're still looking at different options and searching for some answers on this to see if we can get him back playing. He's skating, as you saw, so we're not concerned with that. But we'll list him as out indefinitely.”
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FILE - Florida Panthers' Brad Marchand (63) controls the puck against the Minnesota Wild during the second period of an NHL hockey game Jan. 24, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Lily Dozier, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An SUV driver was under the influence of drugs when she swerved into the wrong lane, blew a red light and slammed into a Los Angeles city bus, killing two riders, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged her with murder.
It was a tragedy compounded by the subsequent fatal crash of a TV news helicopter that had been covering the collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios was speeding and impaired when she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue and struck a vehicle before plowing into a city bus on Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told a news conference.
Rios, 36, faces two charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two people on the bus, identified as Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31. Castillo left four children.
“There are no words that can truly capture how much we will miss him or the space he leaves behind in our lives,” Castillo’s youngest daughter, Johaunna, wrote on a fundraising page for funeral expenses.
Rios was being held on $4.1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Online court records did not list a lawyer who might speak on her behalf, and the public defender’s office did not immediately return a message about whether it was representing her.
Reached Wednesday, her mother Cindy Rios said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn Rios since her arrest and had not been contacted by law enforcement. She could not immediately be reached Thursday for additional comment.
The news helicopter crash killed both people on board, pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno, and a man on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire.
A vigil was planned Thursday evening to honor the victims of both crashes.
There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter to go down, but investigators said significant clues could come from the last seconds of video the crew broadcast. In it, an alarm could be heard inside the helicopter’s cockpit as it lost altitude.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday that the video is “probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far.”
Just after the beeping starts, a woman’s voice says “uh oh.” The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm suggests a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed. He said the pilot appeared to be trying to perform an emergency maneuver to use the wind to force the rotor to spin again.
The NTSB is also investigating the bus collision.
Moreno and Marciniw both worked for Angel City Air, a helicopter contractor, and provided aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined Angel City Air in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, NBC4 said.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts.
A memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw, who died in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station, at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) ADDITION: the day prior while covering an accident for a television station.
A person adjusts flowers at a memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw, who died in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station, at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) ADDITION: Adds in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station.
A memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw who died in a helicopter crash is seen at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
In this aerial view, people investigate the aftermath of a news helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.(AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A person adjusts flowers at a memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw who died in a helicopter crash at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
