Florida Panthers Star Matthew Tkachuk Trending Towards Round 1 Return

Paul Maurice said on the Joe Rose Show that Matthew Tkachuk could return for Game 1 of the playoff depending on how he fares in practice this week.

The Florida Panthers could get star Matthew Tkachuk back for the first round of the playoffs.

Tkachuk had been out of the lineup since sustaining an apparent groin injury while representing Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

The Florida star had been skating on his own for the past couple of weeks and could make a return early in the playoffs depending on how things go this week. He is expected to return to the main group in the team’s first full practice after the regular season’s conclusion on Thursday.

"This week is a really important week for him,” Maurice said on 560 WQAM’s Joe Rose Show on Monday morning. “He's not that far off. If he's not [ready for Game 1], he's very close. We're not missing this by two weeks. It might be a day or to until a full push.”

When Tkachuk returns to the lineup depends on how he fares during practice this week, but it is not expected to keep him out of any more than just one or two playoff games at most.

“What will happen is that he will amp up and have full skates and hard skates towards the end of this week, and as he goes through those, how quickly he recovers the next day will be the key things,” Maurice said. “If he comes in the next day no there’s no soreness, then he’s right, he’ll be ready to go. If he’s got a little residual soreness, we may have to hold him another day or two, but he’s not that far off.”

Tkachuk finished the season with 22 goals and 57 points in 52 games for the Panthers this season.

The 27-year-old forward shared a team lead in points (21) with Aleksander Barkov while leading Florida to its first Stanley Cup last year.