TKACHUK PASSES NINE-GAME TEST, STAYING WITH FLAMES
‘They made me sweat it out a little. But it felt really good,’ rookie says
The decision had been made.
But the coaching staff, as cruel as they are, decided to have some fun with the teenager.
First, during their daily individual video session meeting, they showed Matthew Tkachuk an unflattering clip of him in action — one shift from Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss to Chicago which saw Artemi Panarin dance around the left winger. Ugh.
Then, they showed a few clips of him scoring his first National Hockey League goal and, in general, just doing his thing — his bull-in-a-china-shop, “I’m from the Show-Me State,” in-your-face style. Nice.
And then they told him he was staying.
“Gully said it just takes one mistake to be out of this league,” Tkachuk said, following Thursday’s morning skate at San Jose’s SAP Centre. “He showed a couple good ones of me and said, ‘But you’ve done enough good things to stay.’ A couple of the guys congratulated me. They made me sweat it out a little. But it felt really good.”
Prior to playing his ninth NHL game on Tuesday — that tell-all marker of whether or not a teenager gets sent back to junior or not — Tkachuk, who is rooming temporarily with fellow sixth overall pick Sean Monahan, got to the rink early and was sitting in the stands of the United Center. Taping his stick carefully and soaking it all in, he watched the Blackhawks practise.
After the 5-1 loss, the team flew to San Jose where they enjoyed a day off.
But whether it was coming that evening or Thursday morning, Tkachuk knew what was coming.
“Yeah, I was pretty nervous,” he said. “It’s obviously a bit of a hurdle you have to get over.
“It’s definitely something in my mind that I wanted when I was drafted. I wanted to play in the NHL this year. The good thing is, nothing changes in my mindset.
“It’s still a day-by-day process. There’s still a possibility that you may not be here. I just have to have that mindset ... I just have to keep it going.”
Because, as Tkachuk knows, an NHL career isn’t made in nine games. Or 10. Or in that 40-game span where he still could be sent back to the London Knights, so it doesn’t count toward the seven years required to become an unrestricted free agent.
Just ask his dad, Keith, who played 1,201 games in the league.
“He’s always in the fabric of the game,” said coach Glen Gulutzan. “He’s always around the net. He’s done a great job of managing pucks and getting pucks in deep. He’s done a lot of really good things and he has a really good small game. He’s really good in small spaces and can make plays in tight areas. “He’s done a good job of that.” In nine games, he scored one goal and added three assists while, like his dad, displayed his physical side. He was also a plus-three, playing with some of the team’s top players before recently settling on a line with Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik. He’s getting regular power play time on the second unit.
“He’s having an impact,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving. “He’s getting better each night out. And there’s always going to be bumps along the way with a young player. But he belongs here. He deserves to be here … and he’s helping our team.
“The right thing for him and the right thing for us is if he stays.”
It’s still a daily monitoring process for the 18-year-old who is, after Thursday’s 10th NHL game, officially in the first year of his entry-level contract. He’s the youngest player on the team.
It’s no different than it was with Sean Monahan back in 2013-14 during his first year in the league.
Or Sam Bennett, although a shoulder injury impacted his rookie season in 2014-15.
“Each one is different,” Treliving said. “And there’s two sides to it. There’s the playing side. And there’s the social side.”
Growing up around NHL dressing rooms and around NHL players sort of takes care of that.
“The one thing we knew right away, from before we drafted him, the stuff around the game — outside of playing — wasn’t going to be an issue for him,” Treliving said. “He’s been around the locker-room. He knows how to act. He knows when to keep his ears open and his mouth shut. And vice versa. He’s experienced in terms of the lifestyle around the dressing room and how to integrate.
“The guys love him. He’s respectful. So, he just gets that part of it.”
Yet that doesn’t mean the kid won’t face issues. An 82-game season in the NHL is a heckuva lot different than the OHL.
But he’s quickly becoming part of their future plan.
“You’re constantly watching him,” Treliving said. “It’s like your own child. You want what’s best for him. You don’t want to give him too much. But you don’t want him overwhelmed.
“There’s going to be times when it’s a little bit much for him. But, in nine games, he’s shown he can consistently have an impact.”
There’s always going to be bumps along the way with a young player. But he belongs here.