Three other Panthers played with major injuries, including Tkachuk, who cracked his sternum.
LAS VEGAS: Regarding Matthew Tkachuk’s “sternum problem,” which kept him out of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, Paul Maurice was questioned.
The Florida Panthers coach responded, “He broke it, that was the problem,” following a 9-3 loss in Game 5 that saw Vegas win the Stanley Cup. “And he returned and finished with a goal.”
With 2:13 remaining in Game 3, the Panthers won in OT thanks to that game-tying goal. Tkachuk was not alone, though. According to Maurice, four players sustained major injuries but, like Tkachuk, managed to play through them until Tuesday night.
Tkachuk suffered his injury on a first-period hit by Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3. Maurice also called the injury a broken “clavical, sternum, collarbone.” To play Game 4, Maurice said someone had put on Tkachuk’s equipment for him, lace his skates and pull on his jersey.
Maurice remarked, “He’s so smart, he can find his way around the ice.” “In that game, I believe he had three of our best opportunities to score. But he was unable to do the tasks he needed to.
Tkachuk was declared out of Tuesday’s Game 5 after missing the most of the third period of Saturday’s Game 4 defeat.
“The idea was if we could get (the broken bone) to calm he might be able to get him to Game 7,” Maurice said.
Other Panthers regulars suffered serious injury, too.
“I’ll share one with you,” Maurice said. “Aaon Ekblad broke his foot in the Boston series. He popped his shoulder out twice, passed a concussion (protocol), tore his oblique, then went on the ice the other night, drove the puck in the offensive zone and we scored. Then he scored (in Game 5).”
Radko Gudas had a high-ankle sprain.
“That’s six weeks,” Maurice said. “He missed a period.”
Sam Bennett, too, was fighting injury.
“In the Toronto series, that Game 3, the idea was they’d shut down the Bennett-Tkachuk line,” Maurice said. “Sam hurt himself so bad. He was on his second injury. We walk in the room after Game 4, that we lost, and he could barely take his shoulder pads off. I thought, ‘Should I help him? How would he feel about that?’ I walked over, but he rebounded and continued to play.”
