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The Florida Panthers are gearing up for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Last year's Stanley Cup Champions are poised to make another run at the historic trophy, with a stacked, deep roster full of postseason gamers.
Recently, Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice has been holding players out of the lineup in order to allow his guys a chance to rest and recuperate from any injuries or ailments ahead of the playoffs.
The list of Panthers who were given some extra time to heal during the final games of the regular season includes Sasha Barkov, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Gustav Forsling, Anton Lundell, and Niko Mikkola, just to name a few.
On Thursday, Maurice was asked about his team's status for Game 1 of the Playoffs against Tampa Bay, which is set for Tuesday night at 8:30 from Amalie Arena.
“There isn’t anybody that I would say that I know is not ready for Game 1," said Maurice. "There's no injury there that's week-to-week."
Maurice said he may hold a couple guys out of Friday's practice unless they're quite close to 100%.
"We're not going to run them hard early in this (postseason) to set anybody back," he said. "Everybody is possible for Game 1."
Does that "everybody" include injured forward Matthew Tkachuk, who remains on LTIR (long-term injured reserve) from an apparent groin injury he suffered during the 4 Nations Face-Off back in February?
It would appear not, or more accurately, not yet.
“He went after it pretty good today,” Maurice said of Tkachuk. “He won’t skate tomorrow. He'll skate on off days going into the decision day, which will be after Monday’s skate.”
Whether or not Tkachuk is able to suit up for Game 1, it’s clear that he’s on the cusp of making his return.
It’s been a frustrating stretch for Tkachuk, who said earlier this week that he felt he was playing the best hockey of his career prior to his injury.
The numbers certainly back that up.
In the eight games prior to 4 Nations, Tkachuk racked up a ridiculous eight goals and 16 points.
While it’s not reasonable to think he can play at anywhere close to that kind of pace after missing two months, the sooner he’s back in the lineup, the more time he’ll potentially have to get back into game shape.
We’ll see how things play out over the coming days.
Stay tuned.
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