Tkachuk wasn’t 100 percent in Round 1. Panthers’ depth allows them to manage his time
The following three sentences can all simultaneously be true.
1.) Star winger Matthew Tkachuk was clearly not at 100 percent during the Florida Panthers’ first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Tampa Bay Lightning as he returned from an injury that sidelined him for two months.
2.) The Panthers are not overly concerned about Tkachuk and that level of worry lessened as the first-round series progressed.
3.) The Panthers don’t necessarily need Tkachuk to be at full strength and carry the load throughout the playoffs.
Florida coach Paul Maurice eased Tkachuk back into game action during the first round series against Tampa after he missed the final 25 games with an apparent groin injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February. Tkachuk only took part in two team practices prior to suiting up for Game 1 against the Lightning on April 22 and for the five-game series had an average ice time of just 13:42, nearly four-and-a-half minutes lower than his regular-season average of 18:14.
Even with that, Tkachuk still tallied five points in the series, including a team-high-tying three goals.
“I felt, in the last two [or three] games, I didn’t monitor anything Matthew did,” Maurice said Saturday ahead of Game 1 of the Panthers’ second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday (8 p.m., ESPN). “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.”
Whether Tkachuk has to be monitored moving forward, the Panthers have built a team that has more than enough depth to supplement his playing time.
In fact, Tkachuk’s injury played a part in building that depth.
The Panthers placed Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve on March 2, a move that freed up his $9.5 million hit against the salary cap for the duration of the regular season and enabled Florida to beef up its roster at the trade deadline.
That came in the form of acquiring forwards Brad Marchand and Nico Sturm in addition to defenseman Seth Jones.
Marchand started his Panthers tenure in Tkachuk’s spot as the right wing on Florida’s second line before ultimately finding a home on the team’s third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. Evan Rodrigues primarily took over Tkachuk’s spot at that point until Tkachuk returned for the playoffs. Now, Rodrigues is playing on the left wing of the second line, while rookie Mackie Samoskevich, who had been in that spot since January, was a healthy scratch for the final three games of the Lightning series.
And Florida got contributions throughout the lineup in their series against Tampa Bay, with 10 players scoring at least one goal and 15 tallying at least one point while playing steady defensively regardless of which five players are on the ice at any given time.
“Guys know there’s enough depth,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “It’s a good thing to have at this time of year.”
Taking advantage of rest
When the Panthers begin their series against the Maple Leafs on Monday, it will mark their first game in five days after wrapping up their first-round series with the Lightning on Wednesday.
The team took two days off of the ice on Thursday and Friday before holding practices Saturday and Sunday ahead of their flight up to Toronto.
“The schedule kind of tells you what to do,” Maurice said. “The positive is we have a history now together of a whole bunch of different ideas, so there wouldn’t be any surprises for our players in how the dates would lay out. As soon as that first game gets scheduled, everybody pretty much knows what we’re doing. We, early on, prioritize rest, and then on the back end of it prioritize prep.”
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