Matthew Tkachuk misses Panthers’ must-win Game 5 in Stanley Cup Final with injury

The Florida Panthers will have to try to extend their season without Matthew Tkachuk on Tuesday.

The superstar right wing will not play in Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final as he continues to nurse an apparent upper-body injury, Sportsnet reported. Tkachuk did not take the ice for warm-ups ahead of the game at T-Mobile Arena, meaning he won’t be available to face the Vegas Golden Knights in a must-win situation.

Tkachuk played just four shifts in the third period of Game 4 on Saturday, logging the bulk of his third-period minutes after the Panthers emptied their net to create a 6-on-5 advantage for the final 2:26. He played just 16:40 and took four shots without a point.

Left wing Grigori Denisenko takes Tkachuk’s place in the lineup, making his postseason debut and paying on the fourth line.

With Tkachuk out, Florida reshuffled its lines. The Panthers’ revamped top forward lines were Anton Lundell, Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair, and Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart.

The latest on Matthew Tkachuk’s status for Panthers’ must win Game 5 in Stanley Cup Final

Tkachuk’s injury seems to stem from an open-ice hit he took from Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar in the first period of Game 3 on Thursday, although he did score a game-tying goal to force overtime with 2:13 left in the third period after missing nearly a full period following Kolesar’s check.

The All-Star winger leads Florida with 24 points in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, tied with Vegas winger Jonathan Marchessault for the most in the entire postseason, entering Tuesday.

The Golden Knights had a chance to win their first Stanley Cup in Game 5 on Tuesday after taking 3 of 4 from the Panthers to open the championship series.

With Tkachuk out, Florida is missing two of its top five scoring forwards from the regular season, as forward Eetu Luostarinen will also miss his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury he sustained in the final game of the Eastern Conference finals last month. Tkachuk led the Panthers with 109 points in the regular season and is a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy, which will be handed out to the league’s most valuable player at the NHL Awards on June 26 in Nashville.