On February 15, while Team USA was inching toward victory against Canada, The Athletic‘s Mark Lazerus made an ominous comment. “Matthew Tkachuk is obviously dealing with something, which has to send a shudder through the spines of every Florida Panthers fan,” the reporter wrote. Lazarus added scenes like this were exactly why NHL teams were so “reluctant,” about the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Unfortunately for Panthers fans, the reporter’s worries would come true, as Team USA announced that Tkachuk was out due to injury. However, the severity of that injury only became apparent later. Tkachuk only played for 6:48 minutes and sat out the crucial third period and OT. Now, over a month and a half and 16 missed NHL games later, the Panthers captain is practicing again. Yet, fans would do well to hold off their celebrations.

Why? Well, because coach Paul Maurice didn’t really have an assuring answer while discussing the possibility of Tkachuk’s return. “Yeah, I mean, is he still basically just out there touching pucks today… There’s no conditioning component to it cuz he’s not there yet. So he’ll probably just get out on the ice and move some pucks around for a few more days, probably another week or so,” added the coach.

That statement doesn’t really inspire confidence now, does it? Thankfully, the 27-year-old Florida Panther is fit enough to practice and travel with the team for their upcoming four-game road trip. The coach also explained that the Tkachuk is doing everything he can to get back to the ice. Once again, Maurice didn’t give the reporters any particular timeline for the NHL icon’s return.

However, one of Matthew Tkachuk’s teammates explained that just the captain returning to practice was a “huge” thing. “Hopefully, you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Panthers forward Sam Reinhart told The Miami Herald about getting Tkachuk back in the lineup. Unfortunately, time is a luxury the team can’t afford.

The clock is ticking for Matthew Tkachuk’s team

The Florida Panthers star is caught between a rock and a hard place. While the elder Tkachuk brother is getting close to full recovery, he is nowhere close to NHL-ready shape. “You can do off-ice things to try to mitigate some of the conditioning losses, but he’s going to have to get into some significant skates here, and I think we’re a ways from that,” said Coach Maurice.

Unfortunately, the NHL regular season or the playoffs won’t wait for Matthew Tkachuk to recover. With the regular season coming to an end and the playoffs slated to begin on April 19, the ice hockey athlete barely has three weeks left to recover. Yet, as the coach mentioned, not playing for over a month and a half has wrecked the Panthers’ captain’s conditioning.

Maurice emphasized that a player’s conditioning can’t be NHL-ready when sitting out so many games. And maybe that’s why the Panther head coach was so reluctant to give a timeline. What’s more? Tkachuk is far from the only key player absent from the roster. Unlike Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov’s return from injury is even more uncertain.

The defenseman got injured on March 13 and hasn’t returned since. Finally, we come to the third player, Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad earned a whopping 20-game suspension for violating the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. That means the defenseman won’t be available before Game 3 of the defending champions’ first-round series. That’s a lot of holes to fill for Coach Maurice, but he remains hopeful that Matthew Tkachuk will join them in the playoffs.