There were times this summer when Matthew Tkachuk wondered if he would be ready for training camp, wondered if the fractured sternum that he tried to play through in the Stanley Cup Final would allow him to be on the ice when the season started.
With that, the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers have their first win of the season — their leading scorer is ready for Thursday’s start of training camp. The facial scruff is in place, the collar has been ripped off his team-issued T-shirt and he has pronounced himself ready to go.
That’s not the case with everyone on the Panthers’ roster. Top defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour remain out while recovering from offseason shoulder surgeries, with mid-December the current target for their potential returns. It’s a very fluid date, but if that time frame holds up they each could miss the first 30 games or so this season.
Including the playoffs, he finished his first Florida season with 133 points and 197 penalty minutes. That combination of numbers is almost unheard of in NHL history; the only other player to finish a full season, including playoffs, with that many points and penalty minutes was Kevin Stevens — who had 151 points and 282 penalty minutes for Pittsburgh in 1991-92.
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