Panthers’ Maurice coy on plan for ailing Tkachuk

SUNRISE, Florida — The Florida Panthers face elimination in their Stanley Cup Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights and are grappling with uncertainty on what lineup will be available to keep their Cup hopes alive.

Florida fell to the Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 4 on Saturday and now trail 3-1 in the series. Vegas can earn its first championship in franchise history with a victory at home in Game 5 on Tuesday.

Saturday’s tilt was particularly costly for the Panthers injurywise. Florida’s scoring leader, Matthew Tkachuk (11 goals, 13 points), was limited to just 16 minutes, 40 seconds of ice time — his lowest of the postseason — due to an undisclosed ailment.

Florida coach Paul Maurice didn’t provide a postgame update on Tkachuk and had nothing further to share Sunday. What Maurice did share was the Panthers’ plan to maximize whatever Tkachuk could offer Florida when the puck drops Tuesday.

“It’s just situational right?” Maurice said. “There are players that will play just power play. There are guys that will stay on for offensive zone draws. There’s different styles of center and winger that you can play with to kind of put them in a position to be good at what they can be good at.”

Maurice revealed the plan for Sunday was for injured players — including Anthony Duclair, who left Game 4 with an undisclosed issue — to rehab before meeting the rest of the team at the airport. Further status updates were expected to come Monday.

The Cup Final schedule does give Florida some breathing room to rest and regroup. Having two days off between games can go a long way in helping injured players recuperate, but Maurice said down time is actually critical for the Panthers’ healthy skaters, too.

“It’s more important to get rest for the players that aren’t banged up because they’re going to have to drive this thing,” Maurice said. “Every team has got injuries at this time of year. But your healthy men drive the bus now. The injured guys have probably been dealing with it for a while, they know what they can get away with. When you get later into a series, and certainly in our situation, you’re not going to leave [top-line center Aleksander] Barkov on the bench very much. So for the guys that are feeling good, the two days will fill the tank for them.”

Florida’s current situation is hardly unfamiliar. The Panthers clawed their way back from a 3-1 hole against Boston in their Eastern Conference first-round series to eventually down the President’s Trophy-winning Bruins in Game 7. Granted, the team has endured weeks of wear and tear since that surprising upset. Internally, though, there’s plenty for the Panthers to pull from their previous success.

“You draw on your routine from the last time, your last experience with it,” Maurice said. “There is in some ways an advantage to the team at times that’s down 3-1 in terms of the freedom mentally that it can play with. At the same time, you’re down 3-1 for a reason, so clearly the other team has been good. But we have some experience with this, and we’ll draw on it.”

The Panthers will also look at the third period of Game 4 as positive momentum going into Game 5. Vegas took an early 3-0 lead on Florida, but the Panthers found their footing and were increasingly dominant in the latter half of Saturday’s outing to come within a goal of tying it. The Golden Knights had 30 shot blocks, however, and that hampered Florida’s offensive rhythm (both sides finished with 30 shots on net).

Maurice is hoping the Panthers learned some lessons that will translate to their advantage in Vegas.

“So much of it’s just speed-based, being able to move quicker,” Maurice said of Florida’s third-period improvements. “Attack with more of a singular mindset of what you’re doing so you have a better idea of where the puck is going to be. That’s a big thing. We put up a fair number of shot attempts in that game that didn’t get to the net between hits and blocks and when you want to talk about generating more offense, that’s the place. You’re not going to get a scheme that allows far more odd-man rushes or you’re going to loosen the game up. You just have to get the offense we have and that’s an awful lot of shot attempts. So we’ve got to find a way to get to their goaltender and in those scoring areas.”