Several Panthers will spend short offseason in rehab or just waiting to heal
After the Panthers quietly battled through several serious injuries in the Stanley Cup Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights, it looks like several players will be focused on healing in the offseason.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice revealed the number and severity of the injuries after Tuesday’s Game 5 season-ending loss, including several broken bones.
At Thursday morning’s exit interviews, Maurice detailed the damage and the players who will spend spend their shortened offseason rehabbing.
Matthew Tkachuk suffered a broken sternum. Aaron Ekblad broke his foot and dislocated his shoulder. Eetu Luostarinen broke his tibia, keeping him out of the entire Stanley Cup Final. Sam Bennett was fighting through groin and oblique issues. Radko Gudas sprained his ankle.
Ekblad is the only one expected to undergo surgery, though it appears he’s also the only one who won’t be ready come training camp in September.
“They’ve already been looked at, but now the doctors are gonna see the full extent of where they’re at and we’ll chart a course for recovery.” Maurice said.
Maurice notably didn’t mention Brandon Montour, who was reported to be heading toward surgery for a torn labrum.
“There might be some guys that aren’t as fit as they would have if they had a five-month healthy summer,” Maurice said. “That might curtail what they can do over the next six weeks, but I think everybody else is healthy.”
Ekblad said he dislocated his right shoulder during the Carolina series. He was already playing through a broken foot at that point, which he said he broke in Game 2 of the Boston series. Ekblad didn’t find out about the break until in between the Toronto and Carolina series. He played in each of the Panthers’ playoff games.
“You adjust to the pain and stuff like that,” Ekblad said. “It just kind of actually gets easier as you go. First three weeks with the foot was tough, and it was more painful off the ice than on the ice, which was good.”
Tkachuk admitted that his broken sternum occurred in the first period of Game 3 when he took an open ice hit from Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar. It led to him leaving the game, only to return to score the tying goal late in the third period to force overtime.
“I just didn’t know if it was gonna be my last game or my last period or my last shift, so tried to do everything we can,” Tkachuk said. “We won the game, which is great, and the next few days were pretty tough.”
Then he played Game 4, but quickly saw his condition deteriorate as the game went on. He missed half of the third period, but remained on the bench to save his strength for the final few minutes. Tkachuk even nearly scored in the final seconds to force another overtime, but couldn’t elevate the puck high enough, perhaps because of his injury.
He said Thursday it was a whole team and brotherly effort to get him prepared. His younger brother, Senators forward Brady Tkachuk, helped him dress and get out of bed. He needed assistance to get on top of the training table, and someone to tie his skates and put on his jersey for him.
Maurice said Tkachuk’s recovery time is expected to last four to six weeks, and he is expected to be available for training camp.
“There were 12 better options than me for forward basically at that point,” Tkachuk said. “I knew I wasn’t myself, but tried to give everything I can and can hold my head high knowing that I did everything possible to try to play.”
Bennett suffered his groin injury at the end of the regular season and it stuck with him into the playoffs. It’s unclear when he injured his oblique, but Maurice described it as “significant.”
“For hockey, it’s so much twisting,” Maurice said. “That’s real. I think it was the most egregious for him in the Toronto series.”
Luostarinen was the only one of the bunch to miss multiple games since suffering the injury in Game 4 of the Carolina series. The break, Maurice said, is near the top of the shin and left too much discomfort for Luostarinen to play. Surgery is not expected.
“I don’t know how they did it,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.
The shortened offseason will be a unique dynamic for Florida. Had they missed the playoffs, the Panthers would’ve already been two months deep into the offseason.
Instead, the Panthers went through all of those injuries to ultimately come up short of the Stanley Cup, needing three more victories to win. But, that doesn’t mean there are any regrets.
“It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it,” Ekblad said. “It was fun.”