clinched their second consecutive title<\/a> by again topping the Edmonton Oilers. He went through the summer trying to rehab \u2014 but eventually decided that he needed the surgery knowing it would cost him the first few months of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe wait isn’t over. But it’s close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe looks awesome,\u201d Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. \u201cGood to see him back out there. He brought us some energy today, that’s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the waiting game shifts to when Tkachuk will play a game. Florida plays host to Washington on Monday and Montreal on Tuesday, then will be the home team for the NHL Winter Classic at the Miami Marlins’ ballpark against the New York Rangers on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Panthers are scheduled to practice at the ballpark on Thursday. Other than morning skates, that will be their next practice. And there’s no guarantee that Tkachuk will play Friday. Florida is not going to rush it just for him to be part of an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a whole bunch of things he\u2019s got to get through. The question is, is there enough time,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He might be healthy enough or close to enough that he could play, but we\u2019re not guessing on this. … As much as we like the spectacle of it and we\u2019d love for him to be a part of it \u2014 it would be great for the game to see him out there \u2014 the Florida Panthers need him healthy for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the Panthers won their second straight Stanley Cup in June, Tkachuk revealed that he had sustained the injuries while playing for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He missed the final 25 games of the regular season but returned for Game 1 of the Panthers\u2019 first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tkachuk had 23 points \u2014 eight goals and 15 assists \u2014 in 23 playoff games, including seven points in the Stanley Cup Final. He’s expected to address reporters later this week and indicated after the practice Sunday that all went well with the workout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Panthers have been without a slew of key players all season, including captain Aleksander Barkov. They entered Sunday tied for the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, only five points out of the lead in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida has gone through this season with the expectation that Tkachuk would be back on a \u201cDecember-ish\u201d timeline. He has said he wants to play in the Winter Classic, the Panthers’ first outdoor game, and for Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will enjoy the talent upgrade,” Maurice said. “He’s a great player. But it\u2019s the personality more. He\u2019s chirping on the ice, right? He\u2019s giving it to guys. They\u2019re laughing. He\u2019s bringing a little joy to everyone. He\u2019s funny on the bench. He has an incredible emotional IQ in terms of the game of hockey. When nothing needs to happen, he doesn\u2019t do anything. When something needs to happen, he figures out the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Matthew Tkachuk played hockey on Sunday, which was a jolt of long-awaited good news for the Florida Panthers. How longRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104619688,"featured_media":1655148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-12-29T11:31:45Z","apple_news_api_id":"f05dc761-f91c-44eb-815d-92484b8d83e2","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-12-29T13:02:22Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A8F3HYfkcROuBXZJIS42D4g","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_speedyseo_primary_category":"","_sunbeam_story_id":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1398],"tags":[1671,1415],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-1655114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-panthers","tag-nhl","tag-video","sunbeam-copyright-the-associated-press"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/251229_Matthew_Tkachuk_Panthers_practice.jpg?quality=60&strip=color","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104619688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1655115,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655114\/revisions\/1655115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1655148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655114"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1655114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}