Tkachuk provides vital spark as Cats rally in third period and prevail in OT
Matthew Tkachuk was no different than the rest of the Florida Panthers for the first 45 or so minutes Friday and, quite frankly, it wasn’t nearly enough. The Panthers, after all, gave up Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and a first-round pick last year to get Tkachuk because the right wing is a superstar, and superstars separate themselves in the most important moments.
It wasn’t the plan, but Florida’s third period against the Chicago Blackhawks was one of those moments. The Panthers, desperate to get back into postseason contention, were down by two goals at home to one of the worst teams in the NHL and everyone was pressing, including Tkachuk, who admitted, “Frustration set in, until, in a flash and with two clutch plays by its best player, Florida was back in control.
“We’re looking for that one little spark we need to get us going,” Tkachuk said Friday, and he delivered it.
In the span of 29 seconds, Tkachuk handed out two assists — and he deserved the bulk of the credit on both goals — to turn a near disaster for the
Panthers into a tie game.
In one of the biggest moments of Florida’s season, Tkachuk lived up to his All-Star billing.
It’s hard for any one player to take over a game in the NHL and yet the winger came close. With 11:41 left in regulation, Tkachuk won a battle along the boards behind the Blackhawks’ net — a specialty of his — and teed up center Sam Bennett for the rally-starting goal.
Less than 30 seconds later, the Panthers were on a power play and Tkachuk shot from above the right face-off circle so forward Sam Reinhart could deflect in the gametying goal.
Tkachuk even delivered the primary assist on Florida’s go-ahead goal with 7:18 left in the third period, setting up forward Eetu Luostarinen in the slot for an uncontested snap shot.
“He makes those plays every night,” Luostarinen said Friday. “We needed him.”
It was a true superstar performance for a true superstar, and it paid off with a win as Brandon Montour scored in overtime to give Florida the 4-3 victory.
Tkachuk also led the Panthers with seven shots to go along with his three assists and Florida outshot
Chicago, 13-3, when the 26-year-old forward was on the ice for 5-on-5 action.
“He’s not going to be a guy who goes end to end or those highlight-reel plays from the weak side,” star defenseman Brandon Montour said Friday, “but obviously he’s a heck of a player.”
This unorthodox star profile — or maybe it’s actually entirely orthodox — is why the Panthers gave up so much to get him in the offseason.
Offense never came easy for Florida on Friday, even with a 43-24 advantage in shots and 38-22 edge in scoring chances, and Tkachuk is the type of player who can turn a muddled possession into a scoring play. He scores and creates garbage goals too often for it to be an accident.
At the same time, he’d like it to be easier for the Panthers, especially when they play a team like the Blackhawks. Florida’s last four losses, entering the weekend, all came against teams currently out of postseason position. A tight, low-chance game like the one the Panthers played Friday is understandable when they’re facing the best teams in the league, but they know they should be better when they play someone like Chicago.
“We talked about it in the beginning of the game, we talked about it after the Nashville game, after the Buffalo game — basically the games where we dominated most of the play, had the puck pretty much the whole game, but didn’t have like unbelievable chances,” Tkachuk said. “That was the way it was trending in the first half of the game and it switched.”
There’s a happy medium Florida is trying to strike. The Panthers don’t want to go back to playing as much of an up-anddown, back-and-forth style as they did last year. They also need to do more than focus on sustaining long possessions and peppering goaltenders with nonthreatening shots.
Tkachuk is the medium, capable of getting the puck out of crowded spaces and into open ones. He does it better than anyone else on the team. As long it’s going to play this way, Florida needs Tkachuk to carry it and he did in what was nearly the Panthers’ darkest moment.
“We’ve got to do a better job of just creating more,” Tkachuk said. “It’s the time of the year when chances are hard to come by, goals are hard to come by.”