Matthew Tkachuk's status for Monday vs. Sweden confirmed.

In spite of the fact that he did his best to downplay the severity of the situation on Saturday night, there is no longer any doubt about the fact that Team USA forward Matthew Tkachuk is dealing with a not insignificant injury.

According to a report from National Hockey League insider Frank Seravalli, Team USA has made the decision to leave Tkachuk on the sidelines for Monday's game against Sweden in the hopes that the time off will allow Tkachuk to heal up from whatever is currently hindering him.

That however may be overly optimistic with Tkachuk pulling himself out of the game on Saturday night and doing so for a considerable length of time. Tkachuk rode the bench for nearly the entire third period and when he did test out his injury by skating during a television timeout, he clearly signaled to the coaching staff that something was wrong. Whether or not that is the kind of injury that Tkachuk will be able to recover from over such a short period of time remains to be seen.

Another factor that leads me to believe this may be a cause for concern when it comes to the championship game on Thursday is just how much this Four Nations Face-Off tournament clearly means to Tkachuk. The American star forward revealed after the game that the explosive start to the contest that saw 3 fights in just 9 seconds was a result of a plan orchestrated by himself, his brother Brady Tkachuk, and American forward J.T Miller.

Given how much this game meant to him, Tkachuk would not have rode the bench unless absolutely necessary and he did so for nearly 13 minutes straight including the final and most pivotal moments of the game.