The Florida Panthers are hit with a massive injury update on Matthew Tkachuk, who has been ruled out of Game 5 of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights due to an apparent upper-body issue.

Matthew Tkachuk's status for Game 5 of the series versus the Golden Knights had been a major talking point heading into Tuesday night's crucial contest. It can be remembered that Tkachuk was hit hard by Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3. He also played cautiously in Game 4 in which he did not attempt a single bodycheck while also missing a number of shifts in the final period.

For Tkachuk to miss such an extremely crucial game for the Panthers, who are a loss away from getting their Cinderella run in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs reach its end, suggests that his injury is a whole lot more serious than what most people think. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final could be the last one of the season for the Panthers, who likely would not have gotten this far if it weren't for the play of Matthew Tkachuk.

Tkachuk leads all Panthers players in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 24 points on the strength of 11 goals and 13 assists. The hope now for Florida is that it will be able to muster enough strength to defeat the Golden Knights in Game 5 and force a Game 6, which would be played in Sunrise, if necessary.

Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, and Sam Bennett are some of the Panthers expected to step up in the absence of Matthew Tkachuk, while Sergei Bobrovsky has added pressure to deliver a stellar play in front of the net with Florida facing elimination.