BOSTON – Matthew Tkachuk will be out of the lineup for about a week, head coach Paul Maurice announced ahead of Monday’s game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.

“He’ll be gone for a week,” Maurice said. “I think we’ll be shooting home to Minnesota a week from tomorrow.”

Tkachuk initially had to sit out Saturday’s loss at Buffalo with an illness.

No additional information regarding his status is available at this time.

If Tkachuk is able to return to action on the target date of October 22, the superstar forward will fortunately have only missed five games. Before that game against the Wild, the Panthers will play the Bruins, Blue Jackets, Canucks and Golden Knights.

Entering his third season with the Panthers, Tkachuk has recorded 199 points (66 goals, 133 assists) in 161 games since arriving in 2022. In the first two games of this season he had two assists before falling ill.

Tkachuk joins Aleksander Barkov as key Panthers dealing with early-season ailments.

Barkov (upper body) is expected to miss two to three weeks.

Still, the defending Stanley Cup champions are confident in their next-man-up mentality.

“You might as well jump in early because the adversity is going to happen all year long,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “You might as well get it over with and hope this is the only thing you run into.”

The Panthers drop the puck against the Bruins at 1:00 PM ET.

With Barkov and Tkachuk out, they will field 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

To watch from home, visit FloridaPanthers.com/HowToWatch.