Tkachuk battled through an apparent shoulder injury during Game 4, sitting out most of the third period
Tkachuk battled through an apparent shoulder injury during Game 4, sitting out most of the third period
Matthew Tkahcuk had a rough night on Saturday during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
He entered the game hobbled with an apparent shoulder injury, though as it’s the playoffs, there has been no official word from the team.
Throughout the first two periods Tkachuk gutted it out as best he could but clearly wasn’t his usual, dynamic self.
Then came the third period, with Florida trailing 3-1 when the puck dropped.
Tkachuk skated two shifts during the first 3:50.
After that, he sat at the end of Florida’s bench and didn’t get up for quite a while.
During the final TV timeout with 5:56 to go, Tkachuk skated onto the ice and had a brief chat with Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky before skating down the bench with some words, assumedly of encouragement, for his teammates.
About a minute of game time later, Tkachuk jumped over the boards and skated his first shift in what felt like an eternity.
He was out there for 59 seconds and seemed to handle himself well.
The next time he took the ice was with 2:26 to go, and he stayed out there until the game was over.
Unfortunately for Florida, they weren’t able to claw all the way back after falling behind 3-0 and lost the game 3-2.
“Matthew has been a grinder his whole life and he was again tonight,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said afterwards. “We were just hoping to get into some situation where he could use what he had to give us.”
Now the Panthers have to return to Las Vegas trailing in the best-of-7 series three games to one.
After the final buzzer sounded, Tkachuk was in the middle of a wave of extracurricular activities, though he was mostly locked up with Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo as everyone on the ice seemed to grab a dancing partner.
Once in the locker room, Tkachuk stood in front of his locker and faced the questions he knew would be coming.
He first spoke about the frustration of sitting on the bench for most of the final period.
“Obviously you want to be out there playing,” he said. “I was able to go out there at the end and try to make some magic happen late, but we ran out of time.”
He was then asked what held him out of the game and whether it was a pain tolerance issue or if he was being held back.
“It was just…it wasn’t really…I don’t even know how to answer that,” Tkachuk said. “Just tried to find a way to get out there to make it work tonight and came up probably just a second short.”
It’s certainly no surprise that Tkachuk wouldn’t divulge any information about the injury, which for his sake, and the Panthers, doesn’t bother him as much during Game 5 on Tuesday.
Barring any setbacks between now and then, one would think that Tkachuk will do everything in his power to gut it out as best he can.
“That’s a tough question,” he said when asked what it would take for him not to play the next game. “I don’t even know. I don’t really want to talk about that right now.”
Maurice was asked a similar question regarding Tkachuk’s status for Game 5.
“Well, we’ve got two days off to assess that,” Maurice said. “We'll get some good rest and make that decision then.”
“I don’t know what is going to come from this,” Tkachuk added when asked about potentially logging more ice time during Game 5. “We’re excited that we have an opportunity that we’re comfortable in.”
Florida was down 3-1 during the first round against the historically good Boston Bruins, heading back north after losing Game 4 at home, needing three straight wins, including two on the road, to avoid elimination.
We know how that story ended.
Now Florida will need to rekindle the same playoff magic and pick up a massive road win in Vegas, or their season will be over.
“Just go out there and win one game and force them to come back to Florida,” Tkachuk said.