Tkachuk’s scoring surge elevates Panthers
Matthew Tkachuk knew the Panthers’ first game out of the All-Star break was an important one, but he didn’t let it show before they routed the Tampa
Bay Lightning 7-1 on Monday.
Tkachuk, after a busy weekend around the 2023 NHL All-Star Game, skipped the Panthers’ optional morning skate, went through his pregame routine like he would for any other game and then went to work. For two and a half hours, he shredded the Lightning to get the Panthers their best win of the season.
“This was a big game,” center Eric Staal said Monday. “He knew it and he came to play.”
Tkachuk put up five points — his most in a single game this season — and now has 71 in only 50 games, breaking All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau’s mark, set last year, for the fewest games to reach 70 points in a season in franchise history.
A year ago, Tkachuk needed 60 games to reach the 70-point mark with Calgary and his pace is even more torrid since the start of 2023.
The All-Star right wing has 15 points in his past seven games, 18 in his past nine and 28 in his past 15 — a pace of nearly two points per game since the start of the year. In the middle of it, he took a break to win All-Star
Game MVP on Saturday in Sunrise, notching seven points across two 20minute, 3-on-3 games.
“It looks like it keeps getting better,” coach Paul
Maurice said Monday.
Tkachuk’s five-point performance Monday at FLA Live Arena presented the full package.
His final goal came on a power play, on a deflection, in the style he’s best known to play. The 25year-old winger set a career high with 42 goals last season, with five coming on deflections or tip-ins and about half of his 5on-5 goals coming from within 10 feet of the net.
He also handed out three primary assists, tapping into the component of his game left wing Carter Verhaeghe has found to be most underrated.
“I didn’t know how good of a passer and playmaker he is,” said Verhaeghe, who scored twice off Tkachuk assists.
Tkachuk’s first goal, though, might have been his most impressive play of the entire season.
Just as a power play ended in the second period, Verhaeghe fired a shot at All-Star goaltender
Andrei Vasilevskiy, hoping to create chaos around the net while Florida still had a numbers advantage. The puck caromed into the air and Tkachuk, perched on the right doorstep, tracked it, gathered it with his stick and swatted it into the goal before it fell back to the ice.
“You just don’t see that,” Maurice said.
Maurice had a deep familiarity with Tkachuk, even before both arrived in Broward County in the offseason. Maurice spent most of the past eight years coaching the Winnipeg Jets and Tkachuk spent the past six with the Calgary Flames before getting traded to the Panthers. He recorded 16 points in 20 games against the Jets, facing them frequently in the Western Conference.
It was no secret Tkachuk was good. Maurice didn’t quite realize, though, the full extent of Tkachuk’s ability, and he has spent most of this season raving
about how good the star forward’s hands are.
“You’ve got to see it every day before you really get a true understanding of what he can do with pucks in midair. He’s an elite, elite talent,” Maurice said. “It’s like the puck doesn’t matter whether it’s on the ice or in the air.”
Tkachuk, however, was humble about the play.
“I just tried to get a little piece of it and I got pretty lucky because it hit his skate,” he said Monday. “It’s hard to score on him, so anytime you’re around the net you have to just try to get a little piece.”
Tkachuk conceded his All-Star performance over the weekend might have helped — he was in a rhythm and on a roll — and then he finally admitted he was a little tired after a few nonstop days, which netted him a new car and a share of the Atlantic Division’s $1 million prize.
He’s fortunate, then, to have a few days to refresh before Florida plays another meaningful game Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. The Panthers’ win Monday moved them within a point of postseason position for the first time in more than two months, and every one of their 29 games remaining will be crucial if they are to make the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Tkachuk also has some logistics to work out during these couple quiet days. For winning All-Star Game MVP, Tkachuk took home a new Honda Pilot, which he’s planning to give to his grandmother — as long as he can figure out how to get it to Massachusetts.
“I’m trying to figure out how to get that to my grandma,” Tkachuk said. “It’s a work in progress.”