After a Game 4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Florida Panthers are regrouping and looking for answers as they try to be the first team to win a Stanley Cup after being down 3-1 since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
It appears the injury bug is finally taking a toll, as both Matthew Tkachuk and Anthony Duclair were clearly playing banged up in Saturday night’s contest.
Head coach Paul Maurice provided no official update on Tkachuk and Duclair during media availability Sunday morning, The Athletic’s Michael Russo said. However, he mentioned that both players would undergo rehabilitation and evaluation Sunday while the rest of the team will travel back to Vegas.
It’s not a great sign – especially for Tkachuk, who was kept off the ice for an extended period Saturday night after taking an open-ice hit from Golden Knights winger Keegan Kolesar in Game 3. It limited his ice time to just 16:40 in Game 4 despite the Panthers not holding a lead the entire game, his lowest of the Final aside from Game 2 when he received a 10-minute misconduct penalty.
Both players have multiple points in the Final but were held off the scoresheet in Game 4. Duclair did not come out for the start of the third period in Game 4 with an undisclosed injury but would later return.
More must-reads: