Tkachuk broke sternum, three other Panthers played with serious injury

LAS VEGAS — Paul Maurice was asked about a “sternum problem” that Matthew Tkachuk had in missing Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

“He broke it, that was the problem,” the Florida Panthers coach answered after a 9-3 defeat in Game 5 that clinched the Stanley Cup for Vegas. “And he came back and scored a goal.”

That was the game-tying goal in Game 3 with 2:13 left to send the Panthers to a win in overtime. But Tkachuk wasn’t alone. Maurice said four players suffered with serious injury and, like Tkachuk until Tuesday night, played through them.

Tkachuk suffered his injury on a first-period hit by Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar. 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.

“He‘s so smart, he can find his way around the ice,” Maurice said. “I think he had three of our best chances to score in that game. But he couldn’t’ do the things he needed to do to finish.”

Tkachuk sat out much of the third period in Game 4’s loss last Saturday before being ruled out for Tuesday’s Game 5.

“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.”

All the injuries added up to a Panthers team where depth was a concern.

“We’re swinging out of our weight class in the playoffs,” he said. “We hit four teams that had 110-points. One (Boston) had had 135.”

He added: “Everybody has injuries. I’ve never seen guys play with what these guys played with, the sheer number on them. You need luck for sure. We didn’t necessarily need puck luck. I think if you get to the final both teams have their fair share of bounces.

“But we needed health luck. And we needed that if we’re going to swing around 110-point (teams). You need your bodies.”

The Panthers will need the full offseason to recover.

“I’d guess guys will take four to six months to heal,” he said. “We’re going to look different at the start (of next season).”

He pointed to a Colorado team that was crushed by last season’s injuries this season.

“We’ll have some of that going on,” he said.