Stanley Cup Final: Healthier Panthers nearing full strength ahead of Game 4 ...Middle East

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The bumps and bruises and worse started to pile up midway through the Florida Panthers’ third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

Matthew Tkachuk only returned for the playoff opener after sitting out the final two months of the regular season with the injury he suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and seems to still be gutting through it. Sam Reinhart and Niko Mikkola each missed time during the Eastern Conference final, and A.J. Greer’s injury he tried playing through eventually sidelined him.

“It’s very hard to win a Cup with unhealthy bodies,” Greer said.

The Panthers found that out the hard way two years ago when they were the skating wounded. Tkachuk had a broken sternum, Aaron Ekblad had a broken foot, two shoulder dislocations and a torn oblique muscle, Radko Gudas had a high ankle sprain and they lost to Vegas in five games in the Final.

While the Edmonton Oilers looked to be in better shape going into this series with the notable exception of injured forward Zach Hyman, Florida has gotten healthier. Coach Paul Maurice said Reinhart is “back to full health,” Tkachuk, Mikkola and Greer are making a difference and the defending champions are two wins away from hoisting the Cup for a second year in a row.

“It’s always good to have a full team that’s healthy,” fourth-liner Tomas Nosek said after practice Wednesday. “It’s been good so far, and hopefully it stays that way.”

The Panthers will have their ideal lineup for Game 4 on Thursday night (5 p.m. PT, TNT, truTV) in Sunrise after that same group waxed Edmonton, 6-1, earlier this week to take a 2-1 series lead. Other than do-it-all defenseman Seth Jones, no one played more than 23 minutes in Game 3.

That balance, after so much overtime hockey early in what looked to be an evenly matched series, combined with an extra day between games, makes them rested and ready.

“We’ve been, I think, great the whole playoffs,” center Anton Lundell said. “It doesn’t really matter when we play. It’s always fun to play, so we don’t really care. But obviously now we have had a couple days off, so it’s fun to get the energy back and prepare.”

Reinhart scoring Monday night was his first goal since being out for two games in the Eastern Conference final, ending a drought that dated to the second round against Toronto. He had six shots in Game 2 and has been steadily progressing.

“I’m not worried about him,” Maurice said. “I think his game is getting stronger – quite a bit stronger.”

So is Tkachuk’s, even if it’s clear the tough winger is not moving as well as he does when 100%. But he had an assist and was noticeably better in Game 3, which Maurice called Tkachuk’s best of the playoffs.

“It took him a while to build out,” Maurice said. “The speed of the Carolina series was probably a really, really good thing. Some of these injuries I’m sure they’re dealing with it, you can’t condition them and rehab them at the same time. They need some time. And he was out for such a very long time that I would say the last month, but certainly the last three weeks, he’s back to form now.”

That spells trouble for the Oilers, playing without Hyman and with top-line forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dealing with an undisclosed injury that has him relegated him to game-time-decision uncertainty. Their longest-tenured player not being 100% is a major blow after Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Hyman were such an effective trio getting to this point.

Coach Kris Knoblauch foreshadowed a lineup change that might or might not be injury related. Either way, his team’s depth is being tested.

The same has been the case for the Panthers, who have used 22 skaters in the playoffs following 30 during the season. They’ve grown accustomed to shuffling players in and out and chugging along like some of the NHL’s best teams have to do.

“With our depth this year, even when guys are injured or guys are out of the lineup, there’s just so much depth on our team that guys can fill in seamlessly and it doesn’t change our lineup that much,” Bennett said. “That’s definitely a huge factor for us.”

OILERS’ CHANGE REMAINS A MYSTERY

Knoblauch said the Oilers are likely making a change in their lineup for Game 4, though the second-year coach would not reveal what it would be or who he plans to start in goal on Thursday night.

Stuart Skinner was replaced by Calvin Pickard late in Game 3 after allowing five goals on 23 shots on the way to a 6-1 defeat. Pickard allowed one more in mop-up duty.

Knoblauch, captain Connor McDavid and others defended Skinner’s play, insisting the team needed to be better in front of him.

“We’ve got to help him, for sure, and I think that he’s been playing unbelievable in the last, what, three, four, five weeks,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “I don’t know how long it’s been now, but it feels like a long time and he hasn’t had a bad game. Maybe last night was one of those when it was good to get it out of the system. Hopefully it’s one of those, a night off.”

Skinner has allowed 13 goals on 97 shots in the final, an .866 save percentage. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky has allowed nine on 125, a .928 save percentage.

“He gives us a chance every night,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “That’s all you can ask for, right? Some big saves, key saves at key moments and we’re not taking him for granted, that’s for sure.”

Edmonton started the playoffs with Skinner, went to Pickard after two losses to open the first round against the Kings and won six in a row. Pickard was injured in the second round against Vegas, so Skinner got the net back and has been the starter since. He allowed 10 goals on 132 shots in five games against Dallas in the West final, a .924 save percentage.

“Calvin was playing really well but I think, also, we’ve always felt confident in Calvin,” Knoblauch said. “Calvin’s always been a guy who (has) been able to come in and give us good, quality starts.”

The play in front of the crease is a bigger concern for the Oilers. Veteran defenseman John Klingberg is a team-worst minus-4 through three games.

“John’s been great through the playoffs: He’s gotten us through a lot of rounds,” Knoblauch said. “At this time of the year, you want depth. You know there’s going to be injuries and things you have to change up to your lineup.”

Troy Stecher, who played a handful of games earlier in the playoffs when Ekholm was out, figures to take Klingberg’s place if that is the move.

“Troy’s been very valuable to our team, through regular season, playoffs and probably one thing we as a coaching staff appreciate a lot from Troy is just how dependable he is,” Knoblauch said. “No matter if he’s playing big minutes regularly, hasn’t played for a long period of time, any time we’ve needed him he’s given us really good minutes and usually not making mistakes.”

Nugent-Hopkins did not skate Tuesday and is again considered a game-time decision with an undisclosed injury.

The Oilers had a (well-attended) optional practice Wednesday that included McDavid and Leon Draisaitl among the more than half-dozen players on the ice.

EKBLAD’S HIT

One of the most noticeable moments of Game 3 was Aaron Ekblad connecting with McDavid on a clean, hard open-ice hit. McDavid almost helicoptered down to the ice as Panthers fans cheered. McDavid went to the locker room not long after but with an equipment manager, not a member of the training staff.

Ekblad did not think much of it.

“I didn’t think it was that big hit, no,” Ekblad said. “I don’t even think I got him that good, realistically. So, I don’t know, I’m just trying to get in his way and separate man from puck and that’s all you can ask for against a guy like that.”

The body checks are piling up. Ekblad had three of the five on McDavid in Game 3, and the reigning playoff MVP has been hit nine times in the series.

Florida has outhit the Oilers, but not by much: 137-124.

MAURICE’S MEMORY

Only nine-time Stanley Cup champion Scotty Bowman – father of Oilers general manager Stan Bowman – has coached more games in the NHL than Florida’s Paul Maurice. With that comes some full-circle moments.

On the other bench in the Final this year and last is Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey, an assistant on Knoblauch’s staff. Maurice when asked about older players delivering in the playoffs in light of Brad Marchand and Corey Perry starring in this series told a story about making Coffey a healthy scratch for the first game of the first round in 1999 against Carolina in his “foolish youth.”

“He handled it great,” Maurice said. “He said, ‘I don’t agree with it, but I understand it.’ He went back and I think he rode the bike for about three hours. … And then he went into Game 2 and he was maybe our best player (and) one of the best players on the ice. And I always remembered that as these older players view the playoffs differently.”

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