"Defenseman Bryan McCabe does not have a serious back injury as originally feared and could be back in the Panthers' lineup sometime this month.

McCabe was injured in Friday's season-opening loss at Carolina, rammed into the boards midway through the second period. McCabe had an MRI at Cleveland Clinic in Weston Saturday afternoon where the results were negative.

According to the Panthers, he has a lower back contusion and sprain. McCabe is expected to be out at least two weeks.

''There's no fracture, it's a contusion and a lower back strain,'' general manager Jacques Martin said. ``That's good news.''

Martin said McCabe was examined at RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C., after the injury, where he was originally diagnosed with some sort of fracture. Saturday morning, hours before McCabe had his MRI, Canada's TSN reported that McCabe had a ''broken back'' and at least one broken vertebrae. One other major Canadian network (Rogers Sportsnet) picked up on the story later in the day; both cited unidentified sources.

Said Martin: ``We thought there was some fracture in a certain part where the muscle attached. As you know, at the rink, they don't have the kind of technology to do a thorough examination. Anyone can say anything. Once we got the result, we published what was accurate. ''"