Matthew Tkachuk resumes skating, Panthers still targeting opening round of playoffs for return
Feb 8, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) looks on after scoring against the Ottawa Senators during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)There was a welcomed sight on the ice at the Florida Panthers training facility on Monday morning.
Before the Panthers scheduled practice, injured forward Matthew Tkachuk was seen doing some skating and shooting pucks.
It's the first time Tkachuk has been seen on the ice since last month's 4 Nations Face-Off.
While representing Team USA, Tkachuk suffered an apparent groin injury that led to the Panthers placing him on long-term injured reserve.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice has said that the team hopes to have Tkachuk back in the lineup sometime during the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which are set to begin during the third weekend in April.
On Monday, Maurice reiterated that the timeline has not changed while explaining that Tkachuk still has to do some significant conditioning work to get back into game shape.
"He was basically just out there touching pucks today," Maurice said. "There's no conditioning component to it, because he's not there yet. So he'll probably just get out in the ice and move some pucks around for a few more days, probably another week or so, and then hopefully we get to a point that he can start driving. You can do off ice things to try to mitigate some of the conditioning losses, but he is going to have to get into some significant skates here, and I think we're still a ways from that."
In addition to working his legs and his lungs back into a place where he can jump back in during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and be an impact player, it will probably take a few games for him to truly get back to his comfort level.
There is no way to duplicate the speed, physicality and intensity of an NHL game. You just have to live it.
"You can't stay in game shape unless you're playing games," Maurice said. It's game sharpness more than conditioning. We can do a bunch of stuff off the ice, his VO2 (Max) numbers may be better when he comes back, but it's just a sharpness thing, and you need to get into some games do that. This guy has got a lot of games under his belt, so those guys that have played for a while, can usually make enough minor adjustments in their game to buy themselves time till they get just the timing down."
The good thing is that Tkachuk is on the ice and the process remains uninterrupted, as far as we know.
He's with the Panthers on their current road trip and will continue to skate and ramp up until the medical staff is comfortable with him moving on to a heavier workload on the ice.
"So he was on the ice but I don't consider it an ice session day because he's not doing anything with coaches in terms of anything related to hockey," Maurice said. "He's got to get out there and feel the puck, that's all he's doing. He's close enough to travel, close enough to start skating. At some point, there will be a handoff to the coaches. That's when we'll start being able to do some more things with him."
For now, the first round remains the tentative target for Tkachuk.
We'll see how much progress he can make over the next several weeks.
"That's where we're still shooting for," Maurice said. "Depending on when those games get scheduled, it may have an impact."
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