Tkachuk earns respect for ‘stepping up to plate’
Flames winger answers his critics by dropping gloves to battle with Kassian
During all of the bickering and buildup to this latest Battle of Alberta, Matthew Tkachuk insisted that, good or bad, he never pays a lick of attention to what is being said or written about him.
So Wednesday, in the early stages of a rivalry renewal that lived up to all that hype and then some, Zack Kassian made sure the Calgary Flames’ leading scorer and painin-the-you-know-what received the message.
These, for a change, were kind words.
“(Tkachuk) wanted to fight right away, but I wanted to keep him guessing a little bit,” Kassian said of the scrap that every fan in the Wild Rose Province — and countless other hockey-crazed locales — had been waiting for. “But I respect him for that, and I told him before we even dropped the gloves.” Respect.
That, really, is what Tkachuk was fighting for.
The 22-year-old isn’t quite a one-of-a-kind, but there are not many like him — not many guys as skilled at scoring and setting up teammates as they are at squirming under the skin and between the ears of their opponents.
The Battle of Alberta, which resumes Saturday at the Saddledome, seems to bring out the best of both.
Tkachuk became a curse word in Oil Country after a Jan. 11 meeting, when he irked Kassian with a hattrick of hits and then refused to engage when the veteran forward started wailing away, earning a double-minor for roughing and a two-game suspension.
That night, a seething Kassian called the Flames’ alternate captain a “young punk” — and something else not fit for newsprint — and told reporters at the Saddledome that he wasn’t the first NHLER to point out that Tkachuk needs to “answer the bell once in a while.”
Done.
As a result, there will be no more name-calling, no more bulletin board material, in advance of Saturday’s rematch in Cowtown (8 p.m. MT, Cbc/sportsnet 960 The Fan).
“Credit to a guy that stepped up and fought a big guy like Kassian,” Oilers superstar Connor Mcdavid said of Tkachuk, his Pacific Division teammate last weekend at the 2020 NHL All-star Weekend. “You have to give him credit for stepping in and standing in there. There are not a lot of guys that would do that against Kassian. Ultimately, he was running around, so he has to do that.”
The praise was not just coming from the home locker-room at Rogers Place.
Retired defenceman Kevin Bieksa, who had dozens of dust-ups during his career, wrote on Twitter: “You have to give Tkachuk credit ... he didn’t really have to fight but wanted to make sure things were square. I’ve fought Kass (off ice) and those are some heavy lefts!!”
Former Flames forward Brandon Prust, with 126 bouts on his resume, echoed that on his own social media account: “Good for Tkachuk for standing up for himself! Earned a lot more respect around the league.”
That’s a lot different than what some were saying 21/2 weeks earlier.
The 29-year-old Kassian, despite his credentials as Mcdavid’s sidekick on the Oilers’ top unit, has done his share of dancing at the NHL level.
Their measurements may be similar — according to the official listings, the gap is just one inch and nine pounds — but nobody considers these dudes to be in the same weight class as would-be brawlers.
That had many wondering: would one of Tkachuk’s teammates feel compelled to handle this handiwork?
Perhaps it would be Milan Lucic, who conveniently was skating as his linemate in the early stages of Wednesday’s contest.
Or maybe Zac Rinaldo, who had a chat with Kassian during warmups and was spotted telling him after his tussle with Tkachuk that he wanted the next waltz.
Turns out, it would be No. 19 himself.
With the adrenalin pumping, the Flames’ first-liner tossed one glove halfway to the roof at Rogers Place as he dropped ’em.
Kassian was swinging with his left, an off-balance Tkachuk hurling rights before falling to the ice.
“It had nothing to do with the hits or anything, I just didn’t like getting kind of pummelled at home like I did,” Tkachuk explained after his eighth career big-league bout.
“A lot of people didn’t want me to do it, but I wanted to. It was a way for me to stick up for myself. It wasn’t anything to do with owing anybody. I was just doing it for myself there.
“Every time that somebody said ‘Don’t do it,’ that made me want to do it more.”
The Flames will certainly tell Tkachuk, who will make more enemies along the way, that they don’t want him fighting too often. He’s too important.
He tops the team scoring charts with 41 points and was an all-star for a reason.
He is the sort of difference-maker opposing coaches always mention in their pre-scout meetings.
But Tkachuk also wants to be known around the NHL as a guy who will back up his abrasive style.
He wouldn’t — he couldn’t — admit it prior to Wednesday’s puck-drop at Rogers Place, but it was important to Calgary’s fan favourite and likely captain-of-thefuture to fight his own fight in this instance.
“Pretty gutsy by him to stand up and do it,” Flames interim coach Geoff Ward assessed.
Truth is, Tkachuk wanted to do the deed even sooner.
His preference was to scuffle on the first shift.
“But I kind of wanted to do it on my terms,” said Kassian, who considers this case closed. “Make him wait, think about it for a little bit … That’s the game within the game.
“I just told him, ‘It’ll come. Just wait for it.’ He wanted to get it over quick. I always said that he was a good player.
“I respect him for stepping up to the plate like that.”
Respect.
That’s exactly what Tkachuk was fighting for.