Tkachuk lived up to the hype in his Panthers debut. He looks like just what Florida needed
The visitors’ dressing room at UBS Arena was nearly empty when Matthew Tkachuk finally got his hands on the puck from his first goal as a Florida Panther and, before he got ready to pose for the customary milestone photo, he decided he needed to try to make it perfect.
“Let’s get Barky in it. We need the captain in it,” the All-Star right wing said. “Let’s get Bob, too.”
After scoring an empty-net goal in his first game as a Panther on Thursday, Tkachuk wanted to make star center Aleksander Barkov and star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky — the multi-year captain and opening-night hero, respectively — part of his celebratory moment.
“After one game,” Tkachuk said, “I feel like I’ve played with these guys for 10 years.”
The one game could hardly have gone better, even though he just managed one point on an empty-net shot in the final two minutes. The 24-year-old American attempted 16 shots — 10 more than any of his teammates — and generated 12 scoring chances. Most importantly, Florida (1-0-0) beat the New York Islanders, 3-1, on the road, winning exactly the type of game new coach Paul Maurice spent the entire preseason talking about.
The Panthers beat the defensive-minded Islanders with defense and shots around the goal, and no one exemplified the style Maurice is seeking better than Tkachuk.
In the first two minutes, the forward nearly scored on a through the legs goal on a power play. A few minutes later, he got out on the rush on the penalty kill and hit a post. By the end of the period, Tkachuk had seven shots attempts and about half a dozen scoring chances, and initiated a handful of post-whistle scrums.
He was everything the Panthers promised he’d be.
“That’s my game, so that’s easy for me to play,” Tkachuk said. “I don’t know any other way to play.”
For a team in search of a stylistic shift, Tkachuk was a one-man culture-setter in Elmont, New York, and he’ll be in the middle of everything once again in Game 2 on Saturday when Florida continues its season-opening road trip against the Buffalo Sabres (1-0-0) at 1 p.m. at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
At the same time, the winger is deeply respectful of everything the Panthers accomplished before he got to South Florida and it made the transition relatively seamless on the opening night of the season.
A big personality like Tkachuk’s could overwhelm. Instead, the Panthers believe he’ll ultimately augment what they already have.
“There’s the on-ice person and the off-ice person. He was here about a week and he had already taken all the trainers out for dinner,” Maurice said. “He’s a very giving person, if a kid wants an autograph. He’s a very kind and caring human being, and then he’s a pain in the [expletive] when he gets on the ice, but that’s good for the Florida Panthers fans to know.”
In the end, fans’ feelings about him will come down to what he can do in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s why Florida traded All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau — the franchise’s all-time leader in games and points — to the Calgary Flames to get him and a blockbuster trade like this one must yield tangible results to justify the sentimental toll.
One opening-night game against a postseason contender ultimately doesn’t mean much, but it was a strong starting point for what the Panthers want to build toward.
“All we have to do is look at what Tampa’s done the last couple years,” Tkachuk said. “Three, four, five years ago—very run and gun, lots of offense. But all of a sudden they change the way they play a little bit and their skill’s still allowed to come up, but the way they play — I don’t think anybody really talks about how hard they are to play against.”
With 1:15 left in his Florida debut, Tkachuk finally got one reward for all his hard work, scoring his first goal to help the Panthers sew up their victory.
He got to take the puck home, but he was in no mood to talk about his milestone after the win. He had a more important one to celebrate.
It was his first win for Florida and that is why the Panthers brought him there.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I’m past that point of caring about that stuff,” Tkachuk said. “It’s my first time in my career I won the first game. I guess that’s pretty cool. ... You can’t win all 82 unless you win the first one, right?”
