No matter what happens in Game 7, Tkachuk has fulfilled promise of transforming Panthers
The Florida Panthers’ top power-play unit shuffled off the ice after giving up a potentially season-ending short-handed goal to the Boston Bruins with less than 10 minutes to go in Game 6 and yet Matthew Tkachuk, he swore, never let any doubt creep into his mind.
The Panthers huddled up around the bench and, based on the eyewitness reports of the players who were there, nothing out of the ordinary happened, no matter how frustrated they were inside. Tkachuk stayed on the ice, as he always does as the bridge between the two power-play groups, and the game was tied again just 27 seconds later.
“It wasn’t the end of the world when they went up by one,” Tkachuk said Saturday.
It’s the Tkachuk effect.
The superstar right wing scored the game-tying power-play goal on the next shift, jamming the puck past All-Star goaltender Linus Ullmark on his second attempt around the crease, and Florida took the lead for good less than four minutes later to push the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins to Game 7.
His own play is only part of what he has brought to the Panthers, though. When Florida gave up a pair of stars and a first-round pick to get Tkachuk from the Flames in the offseason, general manager Bill Zito hoped Tkachuk’s attitude — his penchant for trash talk, his agitating style of play and, above all else, his confidence — would permeate the entire roster.
No matter what happened Friday at TD Garden in Boston, the Panthers have already gotten what they wanted out of the 25-year-old winger.
“If it was the first time we’ve seen Matthew do something like that, we’d say, Oh, what a great time to step up, except it’s just almost routine for him,” coach Paul Maurice said Friday. “He has the ability to stay focused in his game. He doesn’t come out of it now.”
It manifests in the All-Star forward’s own results. In his first six postseason games with Florida, Tkachuk already moved into the top 12 in franchise history in playoff points with 10.
It also manifests in the Panthers’. Florida only had three wins when facing elimination in a seven-game series in its entire history until last week and had never won a must-win Game 6; in one week, it added two more elimination-game wins and triumphed in the must-win Game 6 on Friday, even rallying from a pair of one-goal deficits to do it.
When Maurice went through the roster to make introductory calls after the Panthers hired him in the offseason, the coach was “surprised how they were in such a great mood.” The locker room has always been close-knit with All-Star center Aleksander Barkov as the captain and now Tkachuk, already alternate captain, has added an edge Zito felt Florida was missing.
“We’ve got a lot of very unique personalities,” Maurice said.
The third-period power-play goal in Game 6 was just the best embodiment of what Tkachuk has brought to the roster.
A coverage gaffe by Barkov and star defenseman Brandon Montour let the Bruins take the lead and left Florida 9:38 from elimination.
“I was frustrated,” Montour said, “because that’s a time when, obviously, big guys need to step up.”
There was no time to sulk, though — both because the Panthers never wavered from their confidence and because Tkachuk scored so quickly. They still had 43 seconds left on its power play, so Tkachuk hopped right back onto the ice with defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling, and forwards Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe.
Boston left Tkachuk alone on the right doorstep, Lundell found him and Tkachuk shot once into Ullmark’s pads to create a rebound, then wrapped his second attempt around the Vezina Trophy-contending goalie, who had drifted too far to his left to block the first shot.
“It happened so quick,” Barkov said. “Chucky got it back right away, so we didn’t have time to think about it.”
Through six games, this was already the best postseason series of Tkachuk’s career — he’d never even had a series with more than six points before — and he admitted he used to probably change his play too much in the Stanley Cup playoffs, trying to be too cautious and avoid the costly mistake.
Those instincts are all gone now and it has made him a perfect fit in South Florida, where Heat star Jimmy Butler has also become cult hero because of his feel for the big moment and his bravado.
As the final minutes winded away Friday, Tkachuk looked up at the sold-out crowd at FLA Live Arena and had “a pinch-myself moment” when he saw the rally towels spinning and a standing ovation starting at the end of a good, time-killing shift. There wasn’t a goal, but a recognition of its importance and the players who made it happen, and it made for “one of the cooler moments I’ve seen from a crowd in my whole hockey career,” Tkachuk said.
“I want to be the guy, and our team wants to be ... difference-makers,” the American star said. “It’s stepping up in a calm way.”
