{"id":418616,"date":"2026-01-20T11:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418616\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T11:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:40:13","slug":"tkachuk-makes-season-debut-for-panthers-against-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418616\/","title":{"rendered":"Tkachuk makes season debut for Panthers against Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> made his season debut for the Florida Panthers when they hosted the San Jose Sharks at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday.<\/p>\n

The forward, who had surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia Aug. 22, took to the ice in a regular jersey during the morning skate on a line with Mackie Samoskevich<\/a> and Evan Rodrigues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling great,” Tkachuk said after the morning skate. \u201cJust so excited to be back. It has been a little over five months since the surgery, so I have just been champing at the bit to come back. Really happy the day is finally here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to be a hockey player, not to cheer from the sidelines. I am here to be competing with the guys. It\u2019s not like I can dip my toe like it is the preseason or even the beginning of a season like past years. I told them I am coming back. Throw me in the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tkachuk traveled with the Panthers for their six-game road trip, which ended Saturday, but he did not play. It was the first time he traveled with them this season.<\/p>\n

His return is a boon for Florida (25-19-3), which has a long list of injured players, headlined by captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a>, who is out for the regular season because of a knee injury. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions entered Monday four points behind the Buffalo Sabres for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been incredible; it has been seven, eight guys at some point going down at the same time, which is never easy,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cThey have done a great job staying in the fight. With that being said, we have to go on a run here. We have got to get back into a playoff spot. We\u2019re not happy being out of the playoffs, but these guys have done an amazing job staying in the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers also are without defenseman Seth Jones<\/a>, who is week to week because of an upper-body injury sustained during the Winter Classic on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n

Forward Brad Marchand<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t played since Jan. 6 because of an undisclosed injury, also was on the ice Monday but missed his sixth straight game.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk, who was named to Team USA\u2019s roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 next month, initially was injured during the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, missing the final 25 games of the regular season. He returned for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning and played all 23 games of the Panthers\u2019 run to their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship. He had 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in, he\u2019s ready to play,\u201d Florida coach Paul Maurice said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re happy to have him back. The overall picture is very important; the dynamic of the power play changes, how we control the puck, the number of plays that we compete in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is his first game after 6 1\/2 months, so we\u2019ll see. But we know he will get back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Tkachuk made his season debut for the Florida Panthers when they hosted the San Jose Sharks at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-418616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}