FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk skated with the Florida Panthers in practice on Saturday, a sign that he may be ready to rejoin the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs.
The Panthers, who won the Stanley Cup last season, open Round 1 at Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The team doesn't expect to make a determination about Tkachuk's status for the opener until at least Monday.
“Matthew looked like Matthew. He looked fine,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “But it wasn't a heavy enough day or from a duration point of view long enough to make a game assessment.”
The Panthers aren't practicing on Sunday — how Tkachuk is feeling is one of the things the team's medical staff will monitor on the off day — and the plan from there, Maurice said, is to have the whole team back on the ice on Monday before making the quick flight to Tampa.
Saturday, he noted, marked the first time this season that everyone on Florida's roster was on the practice ice together.
“Better late than never," Maurice said.
Tkachuk has not played for Florida since Feb. 8, the team's last game before the start of the 4 Nations Face-off event in which he participated for the U.S. He sustained a lower-body injury in the second game of that tournament, then tried to play in the final against Canada but didn't take any shifts for the third period or overtime of that contest.
The Panthers placed Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve. He missed the team's final 25 games of the regular season, yet still finished with 22 goals, 35 assists and 57 points — third-most on the team in all three categories. He was also second on the Panthers this season with 11 power-play goals.
When Tkachuk plays, it will mark his first time being teammates with Florida forward Brad Marchand — someone the Panthers acquired from rival Boston at the trade deadline.
“He's a competitor and he's there to win,” Marchand said. “You hear the way he talks and obviously his reputation precedes him. He's a very competitive guy, obviously very talented and one of the most gifted players in the league around the net. He's a presence out there.”
This story has been corrected to show that Game 1 is on Tuesday, not Wednesday.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
FILE - Calgary Flames' Matthew Tkachuk, watches drills during NHL hockey training camp in Calgary, Alberta, Friday, Sept. 23, 2016. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian traders and shopkeepers staged a second day of protests Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a new record low against the U.S. dollar.
Videos on social media showed hundreds taking part in rallies in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in the Shush neighborhood near Tehran's main Grand Bazaar, which played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy and brought Islamists to power.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders shut their shops and asked others to do the same. The semiofficial ILNA news agency said many businesses and merchants stopped trading even though some kept their shops open.
There was no reports of police raids though security was tight at the protests, according to witnesses.
On Sunday, protest gatherings were limited to two major mobile market in downtown Tehran, where the demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.
Iran's rial on Sunday plunged to 1.42 million to the dollar. On Monday, it traded at 1.38 million rials to the dollar.
The rapid depreciation is compounding inflationary pressure, pushing up prices of food and other daily necessities and further straining household budgets, a trend that could worsen by a gasoline price change introduced in recent days.
According to the state statistics center, inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same period last year, and is 1.8% higher than in November. Foodstuff prices rose 72% and health and medical items were up 50% from December last year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see the rate a sign of an approaching hyperinflation.
Reports in official Iranian media said that the government plans to increase taxes in the Iranian new year that begins March 21 have caused more concern.
Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program. That deal unraveled after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from it in 2018. There is also uncertainty over the risk of renewed conflict following June’s 12-day war involving Iran and Israel. Many Iranians also fear the possibility of a broader confrontation that could draw in the United States, adding to market anxiety.
In September, the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through what diplomats described as the “snapback” mechanism. Those measures once again froze Iranian assets abroad, halted arms transactions with Tehran and imposed penalties tied to Iran’s ballistic missile program.
FILE — A currency exchange bureau worker counts U.S. dollars at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
