Tag: Matthew Tkachuk

The Tkachuk brothers’ grandmother went through the gamut of emotions watching them jaw at each other

The Tkachuks’ grandmother was going through it while her grandkids chirped at each other.

Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk caused all kinds of chaos on Monday night, in a Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators contest that included a referee handing out a 10-minute misconduct penalty to every player involved in a brawl on the ice.

That also included cameras capturing the Tkachuks jawing at each other, which is just delightful.

You know what else is delightful? Their grandmother was in the stands to watch this all go down, and cameras also captured her reactions, which are exactly how I would have reacted if I was her.

Check all of that out below and enjoy:

NHL fans were appalled Matthew Tkachuk played in the Stanley Cup Final with a broken sternum

Post-Stanley Cup injury reports are brutal, but Matthew Tkachuk’s is horrifying.

It feels like a miracle that Matthew Tkachuk didn’t end up in the hospital after playing Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final with a broken sternum.

Yes, you read that right. Tkachuk played Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final with a broken sternum after taking a gnarly hit the game prior. In fact, Tkachuk logged nearly 17 minutes of ice time during the game, all while nursing a broken sternum.

Tkachuk ended up sitting out the series’ deciding Game 5 due to the injury.

The news of Tkachuk’s injury came after the Florida Panthers lost to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night, ending their Stanley Cup bid. Tkachuk’s injury was so bad, in fact, that the forward couldn’t even dress himself for Game 4. Someone else had to help him into his gear to play!

Hockey players have a reputation of playing through pain and serious injury, but what Tkachuk and the Panthers did here was completely reckless. No hockey game — yes, even the Stanley Cup Final! — is worth risking your long-term health over, especially in a high-impact sport like this.

NHL fans were horrified to learn that Tkachuk had played Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final with a broken sternum.

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Jack Eichel doesn’t think Matthew Tkachuk’s dangerous hit on him was dirty: ‘It’s a physical game’

“You’re gonna get hit sometimes.”

Game 2 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final featured a hitting moment where it was hard to ascertain if the play was “awkward” or “dirty.” No, I’m not talking about a vicious high hit by the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ Ivan Barbashev on the Florida Panthers’ Radko Gudas — that seemed pretty clear.

I’m referring to a strange exchange between Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk.

As Eichel skated out with the puck toward his blue line, he tripped and made what probably would’ve been a routine check from Tkachuk look absolutely brutal from most angles. After the game, and after Las Vegas prevailed 7-2 to take a 2-0 series lead, Eichel clarified what happened on the play from his perspective.

The star Golden Knights center admitted he thought Tkachuk landed a “clean check,” chalking it up to the randomness of hockey.

Indeed, not every hit is made equal. There are sometimes some truly savage blows that shouldn’t belong in the game at any level. This Tkachuk blow on Eichel seemed just to be a case of poor fortune, making the routine seem a lot worse than it really was. Heck, even Eichel himself thinks so.

Jack Eichel awkwardly collided with Matthew Tkachuk and the resulting hit was so brutal

This was such an unfortunate hit on Jack Eichel.

This was just a case of some severe bad luck for Jack Eichel.

In a game that already featured a vicious hit on Radko Gudas early on, Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers was an incredibly punishing one. In the final moments of the second period, Eichel was rocked on a hit by Matthew Tkachuk, but the play wasn’t a dirty one at all.

In fact, the hit only looked so brutal because Eichel tripped into it after toe picking into the ice. The result was a really unfortunate collision between the two that looked absolutely nasty after Eichel was crunched into Tkachuk at an awful angle.

Tkachuk was given a two-minute roughing penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct in the scrum after the fact, but despite his reputation here, this hit is as clean as they come. It’s a hard one, but it turned so unfortunate only because Eichel lost his footing and fell awkwardly into it.

Thankfully, Eichel returned for the third period and even managed to help the Golden Knights score a goal in the final frame! Here’s how NHL fans reacted to Eichel’s unfortunate collision into Tkachuk.

Matthew Tkachuk hit Nicolas Hague with a dirty sucker punch in Game 1

You can’t do that.

Matthew Tkachuk has been an MVP for the Florida Panthers in the postseason with his OT heroics and his instant walk-off celebrations.

But what he did in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final as his team was losing to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday was absolutely dirty.

In the third period, with Tkachuk’s team down, his teammate Marc Staal held on to Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague after the whistle. With Staal’s arm around Hague, Tkachuk punched a defenseless Hague right in the face.

Is that suspension-worthy? Fans might be wondering. But it was a double-minor for roughing and a game misconduct, so he left the contest.

Either way, this was dirty:

Not good.

 

See Matthew Tkachuk’s stunning last-second goal to clinch a Stanley Cup Final berth

THE PANTHERS CINDERELLA PLAYOFF RUN CONTINUES!

The Florida Panthers are going to the Stanley Cup Final and Matthew Tkachuk is — of course! — the one that got them there.

The Panthers eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday in an unthinkable sweep of the Eastern Conference Final. Game 4 seemed destined for overtime after the Hurricanes tied up the game 3-3 late in the third period. Tkachuk, however, had other plans.

With less than a minute left in the third, the Panthers were given a rare power play opportunity to put the series away. And with just 4.3 seconds remaining in the period, Tkachuk cashed in to give the Panthers the 4-3 lead and the win.

While the NHL reviewed the play, Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen was not interfered with in his attempt to save the puck.

What a goal! Once Tkachuk saw the empty net in front of him with Andersen out of position, it was all over for the Hurricanes.

With the sweep, the Panthers now advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996, marking their second overall appearance in the final round. Florida will now have to wait to see which team will be their opponent out of the West, but what an exhilarating run this has been for the Panthers!

NHL fans loved Matthew Tkachuk doing another instant walk-off celebration after OT game-winner

He did the walk-off again!

Matthew Tkachuk did it again.

After the star forward for the Florida Panthers scored the game-winner in quadruple (!) overtime in Game 1 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, he put in the game-winner in the first OT of Game 2 on Saturday night.

Once again, we got to see the best new celebration in the NHL playoffs: Tkachuk signaled to the team to get right off the ice immediately, a walk-off of epic proportions like he did in Game 1.

NHL fans loved it, and rightfully so. If we get to see more immediate game-winners from Tkachuk or other Panthers, I want to see a walk-off:

Matthew Tkachuk scored yet another game-winning goal for the Panthers in overtime

Matthew Tkachuk won the game AGAIN in overtime for the Panthers.

Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk is having himself a heck of a 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

After closing out one of the longest NHL games of all time with a goal against the Carolina Hurricanes in four overtimes, Tkachuk scored yet another overtime goal to get the Panthers a second-straight playoff win over Carolina on Saturday.

It’s just stunning for a player, even one as talented as Tkachuk, to score two-straight overtime goals in a playoff series.

However, that’s exactly what the Panthers star did, and now Florida heads back to the Sunshine State with a 2-0 lead over Carolina in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals. A sweep feels like a distinct possibility at this point.

Tkachuk certainly will always remember the dramatic game winner after playing in four overtimes against Carolina, but this game-winning overtime goal won’t soon be forgotten, either.

Florida fans are probably exhausted after yet another playoff game against the Hurricanes went into overtime, but Tkachuk got things done much, much earlier than he did the other night.

In the end, whether it’s one overtime session or four, the Panthers are surely glad to have Tkachuk on their side when it counts.

Matthew Tkachuk had the perfect walk-off celebration after his 4OT game-winning goal

A perfect way to celebrate scoring in the fourth overtime.

That is most certainly not a typo. The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers played in four — FOUR — overtimes on Thursday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

And it was Matthew Tkachuk who FINALLY ended the sixth-longest game in NHL history with a goal, giving the Panthers a 3-2 win and a 1-0 series lead.

But let’s focus on his celebration. As soon as he scored, he pointed toward the locker room and skated right off, a walk-off (skate-off?) celly for the ages that was just perfect.

NHL fans loved it, too. Check out the celebration from a few different angles and some reaction to it:

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Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark nearly fought Matthew Tkachuk and NHL fans were so on board

LET THEM FIGHT!

The referees absolutely should have let Linus Ullmark and Matthew Tkachuk go at it here.

On Sunday, the Boston Bruins took a 3-1 series lead in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, putting the Florida Panthers one loss away from elimination in the first round. While early on in the third period, it looked like the Panthers were set to make Game 4 a close one, the Bruins scored three straight to put the game away 6-2 as the series pivots back to Boston.

Before the final buzzer sounded, however, tensions boiled over in a full on line scuffle between the two teams on the ice with a few minutes to play. And during the pandemonium, Bruins goaltender Ullmark threw down his gloves to tango with notorious Panthers pest Tkachuk!

Unfortunately, the referees stopped the pair from engaging in fisticuffs, but the moment was still awesome regardless.

Between this and the referees stopping a goaltender fight between Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Binnington not too long ago, hockey fans have truly been robbed of goalie brawls. Even still, NHL fans were so here for Ullmark wanting to throw down with Tkachuk in the heat of the moment.