Matthew Tkachuk heating up, Paul Maurice hits a milestone and more Florida Panthers notes
It’s safe to say Matthew Tkachuk is officially on a heater.
The star winger has put up 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) during the Florida Panthers’ past six games, a stretch in which they have gone 5-0-1 after having dropped six of their previous seven games.
For comparison, Tkachuk had just 15 points total through his first 17 games played.
His production has been particularly highlighted during the past three games.
Tkachuk had two goals and two assists in Florida’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, including the power-play goal that tied the score with 8:23 left to play to force overtime and allow the team to pick up a point after trailing by three goals early in the third period.
He followed that up with a five-point effort (one goal, four assists) in a 7-5 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday to become the first player in Panthers history with multiple back-to-back four-point outings after also doing so last season.
And then Tkachuk scored a pair of goals on Saturday to help Florida cruise to a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks.
“You’ve just got to keep working and prepare the exact same way, which I’m doing,” Tkachuk said postgame Saturday. “I got a couple fortunate bounces tonight, which is always nice. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re producing or not, you’ve just got to be as dialed in with your preparation as you can and help the team no matter what they ask.”
Another record for Paul Maurice
The number itself is modest — just 111 wins.
But it was enough to put Panthers coach Paul Maurice at the team’s record book.
Florida’s win against San Jose on Saturday made Maurice the winningest head coach in franchise history, surpassing the mark of 110 wins held by Jacques Martin.
“It’s been a fairly fun ride, eventful,” Maurice, in the early stages of his third season with the club, said after the game Saturday. “These two and a half years have been a lot of fun. The intensity, the ups and downs, and the success is what’s made it. These guys are fun to coach. We’ve been in some wild games, some incredibly difficult situations, found a way, and reached the summit together. I’ve enjoyed it.”
The Panthers have gone 111-65-16 in the regular season under Maurice for a .620 points percentage. They also made the Stanley Cup Final in each of his first two seasons, losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 and then beating the Edmonton Oilers last season for the Panthers’ first ever title.
This year, the Panthers are 17-9-2 and atop the Atlantic Division through 28 games.
“He knows how to prepare the team to win games and play the right way, and that’s the most important,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “He wants us to play the right way, and the wins will come.”
And Maurice isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He signed a multiyear extension with the club in October.
Panthers in 4 Nations Face-Off
The Panthers will be well represented at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the tournament that will be held in lieu of the NHL All-Star Game in February and serve as a testing of the waters as the NHL begins to let its players participate in international best-on-best tournaments in future years, including the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The tournament, which will take place from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston, consists of teams representing the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden. There will be a round-robin first round with each team playing each other before the top two teams play a one-game final to determine the winner.
The Panthers have a league-high eight participants: Tkachuk for the United States; Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett for Canada; Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola for Finland; and Gustav Forsling for Sweden.
In addition to their players, five other members of the Panthers organization will be involved in the tournament. Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito will be an assistant general manager for Team USA, while Florida’s head equipment manager Teddy Richards will be the United States’ equipment manager. Patric Hornqvist, who serves as a scouting and development consultant for the Panthers, will be an assistant general manager for Sweden. He’ll be joined by coach Myles Fee, who will serve as Sweden’s video coach. Finally, Panthers assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu will be an assistant coach for Finland.
Time for a road trip
The Panthers are set to embark on one of their longest road trips of the season, with five games over nine days.
It starts Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken (10 p.m., Scripps) and then continues Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks (10 p.m., Scripps), Saturday against against Calgary Flames (10 p.m., Scripps), Dec 16. against the Edmonton Oilers (8:30 p.m., Scripps) and wraps up Dec. 18 against the Minnesota Wild (9:30 p.m., TNT).
The matchup with Edmonton is the first since last season’s Stanley Cup Final, which the Panthers won in seven games.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 12:40 PM.
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