Florida Panthers Not Concerned With Tkachuk’s Minutes After Easing Him Back in Round 1
Matthew Tkachuk put in some extra work in during Saturday morning’s practice as the Florida Panthers look to ramp him up for Round 2.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Matthew Tkachuk is continuing to ramp things up from his return to injury as the Florida Panthers prepare to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Panthers star did some extra work off to the side with strength and conditioning coach Maxim Ivanov while the team took the ice on Saturday morning for its first practice ahead of the second round.
He returned to the main group for the back half of practice to work on the power play with the top unit alongside Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Seth Jones and Carter Verhaeghe.
Tkachuk has played limited minutes since returning to the lineup, but his absence from the main group did not reflect any concern for his status entering Monday night’s Game 1 in Toronto.
“He actually did more today than having practiced with us,” Maurice said. “He was doing some strength and conditioning stuff and he couldn’t do all of it in one day, so that was the key piece.”
Tkachuk averaged 13:42 of time-on-ice in the first round, which ranks ninth amongst Panthers forwards. Despite that, he still managed to put up three goals and five points in the five-game series victory.
The Panthers were able to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning while rolling their third line of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand out of the two-hole. It is a possibility they could have an even more balanced attack with a healthier Tkachuk in Round 2.
Tkachuk played 16:32 in Florida’s 4-2 Game 4 victory over the Lightning, and therw was no concern for his minutes despite the Panthers resting Tkachuk for the majority of the third period of their blowout Game 5 victory to seal the series.
“Well, it’d be critical for every team to have their best players available,” Maurice said. “I felt, in the last two [or three] games, I didn’t monitor anything Matthew did. Really the first two games of the series was the only the time I was really careful with minutes, so I really don’t think about that behind the bench.
“Now, having everyone healthy is highly unusual and not to be expected, so we kind of just roll with it.”
Just heard on hockey broadcast Tkachuk texted his brother to get the low down on Toronto. The same two wankers that dropped their gloves in a game with Canada in the Four Nations Cup, because the game previous they were booed by Canada. The Canadians weren’t booing the American team there were booing Trump and his tariffs. Yes they can play hockey but they are mean and vindictive most likely taught by their father hockey player that loved to fight. It’s a shame because they good be great if the arrogance didn’t precede them.