Healthier Panthers are nearing full strength in the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers

Winnipeg Free Press

a day ago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The bumps and bruises and worse started to pile up midway through the Florida Panthers' third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
Matthew Tkachuk only returned for the playoff opener after sitting out the final two months of the regular season with the injury he suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and seems to still be gutting through it. Sam Reinhart and Niko Mikkola each missed time during the Eastern Conference final, and A.J. Greer's injury he tried playing through eventually sidelined him.
'It's very hard to win a Cup with unhealthy bodies,' Greer said.
The Panthers found that out the hard way two years ago when they were the skating wounded. Tkachuk had a broken sternum, Aaron Ekblad had a broken foot, two shoulder dislocations and a torn oblique muscle, Radko Gudas had a high ankle sprain and they lost to Vegas in five games in the final.
While the Edmonton Oilers looked to be in better shape going into this series with the notable exception of injured forward Zach Hyman, Florida has gotten healthier. Coach Paul Maurice said Reinhart is 'back to full health,' Tkachuk, Mikkola and Greer are making a difference and the defending champions are two wins away from hoisting the Cup for a second year in a row.
'It's always good to have a full team that's healthy,' fourth-liner Tomas Nosek said after practice Wednesday. 'It's been good so far, and hopefully it stays that way.'
The Panthers will have their ideal lineup for Game 4 on Thursday night in Sunrise after that same group waxed Edmonton 6-1 earlier this week to take a 2-1 lead in the final. Other than do-it-all defenseman Seth Jones, no one played more than 23 minutes in Game 3.
That balance, after so much overtime hockey early in what looked to be an evenly matched series, combined with an extra day between games, makes them rested and ready.
'We've been, I think, great the whole playoffs,' center Anton Lundell said. 'It doesn't really matter when we play. It's always fun to play, so we don't really care. But obviously now we have had a couple days off, so it's fun to get the energy back and prepare.'
Reinhart scoring Monday night was his first goal since being out for two games in the Eastern Conference final, ending a drought that dated to the second round against Toronto. He had six shots in Game 2 and has been steadily progressing.
'I'm not worried about him,' Maurice said. 'I think his game is getting stronger — quite a bit stronger.'
So is Tkachuk's, even if it's clear the tough winger is not moving as well as he does when 100%. But he had an assist and was noticeably better in Game 3, which Maurice called Tkachuk's best of the playoffs.
'It took him a while to build out,' Maurice said. 'The speed of the Carolina series was probably a really, really good thing. Some of these injuries I'm sure they're dealing with it, you can't condition them and rehab them at the same time. They need some time. And he was out for such a very long time that I would say the last month, but certainly the last three weeks, he's back to form now.'
That spells trouble for the Oilers, playing without Hyman and with top-line forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dealing with an undisclosed injury that has him relegated him to game-time-decision uncertainty. Their longest-tenured player not being 100% is a major blow after Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Hyman were such an effective trio getting to this point.
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Coach Kris Knoblauch foreshadowed a lineup change that may or may not be injury related. Either way, his team's depth is being tested.
The same has been the case for the Panthers, who have used 22 skaters in the playoffs following 30 during the season. They've grown accustomed to shuffling players in and out and chugging along like some of the NHL's best teams have to do.
'With our depth this year, even when guys are injured or guys are out of the lineup, there's just so much depth on our team that guys can fill in seamlessly and it doesn't change our lineup that much,' Bennett said. 'That's definitely a huge factor for us.'
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl