After a lengthy league-wide vacation for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Florida Panthers will return to action on Saturday.
The NHL team with the most players competing in the 4 Nations event was Florida, with eight.
Three of those guys are still returning to South Florida: Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, and Sam Reinhart.
When Florida hosts the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night in Sunrise, the other five players—Sasha Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola, and Gustav Forsling—should be in the starting lineup.
Florida has held some less-than-full squad practices at its new Fort Lauderdale facility during the last few days.
Only 11 players were on the ice on Thursday, but on Friday, Barkov and Forsling, two of the 4 Nations players, joined the team.
Before Saturday’s game against Seattle, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice gave a post-game update on the health of several of his players.
Tkachuk is the only one of the five players who attended 4 Nations who is not anticipated to participate against the Kraken.
“It is healthy for everyone to play,” Maurice remarked. Matthew would be included in that, but I don’t think he’ll be playing tomorrow.
Maurice advised taking a day-to-day look at Tkachuk for the time being.
“Over the next few days, I’ll give you a pretty good update,” he added.
During the 4 Nations tournament, Tkachuk was battling his injury, missing the entirety of the match against Sweden and portions of both games against Canada.
It is hoped that Tkachuk did not cause any more significant problems after attempting to play despite his injuries during the 4 Nations title game, as the Panthers were keeping a careful eye on their players from a distance.
Maurice remarked, “I don’t know that anything changed in that game from the game before in terms of his injury.” We’ll examine him today and tomorrow after he returns to the office today. Although it won’t be a final one, I should have a better handle on the injury tomorrow. It would be as though he didn’t complete the game when we played on Thursday. I’m not sure if I’ll have him in or out tomorrow. I’m hoping that we’ll give him some rest nonetheless, and that over the course of the next two or three days, we’ll have a firm grasp on the situation.
Getting Tkachuk back inside and under the Panthers’ medical staff’s care will be crucial.
The trainers and medical team who worked with Team USA will provide Florida’s staff with a thorough breakdown, and whenever Tkachuk returns, they will perform a physical analysis and decide on the best course of action.
Regarding the Team USA medical staff, Maurice remarked, “They don’t call me.” They’ll speak with our guys, but since they are aware of every accident over the past 10 years, I wouldn’t divulge the nature of the problem until our guys get a firm grasp on it. He wasn’t excellent enough to win the game, but he was good enough to make the starting lineup.
After the 4 Nations break, the Panthers have a friendly schedule that will primarily keep them in South Florida for the upcoming weeks.
With the exception of a brief trip to Nashville on Tuesday, they will play six of their next seven games at home.
After he returns to town, we’ll find out what the latest information is on Tkachuk.
