Matthew Tkachuk Takes Over, Drags Florida Panthers Back Into Fight vs. Penguins
Matthew Tkachuk had his best game of the season in Pittsburgh, leading the Florida Panthers to a three-goal comeback in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Penguins.
After a slow start to the 2024-25 season by his standards, Matthew Tkachuk has caught fire.
Tkachuk has points in four straight games — tallying two goals and eight points — and capped it off with a two-goal, four-point effort to lead the Florida Panthers to a three-goal third period comeback in their 5-4 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
His play, both points-wise and through the physicality he brings to help bring out the emotional fire in the Panthers, have helped drag them out of a 1-6-0 stretch where they seemed to be lifeless to immediately get them back on track on this 3-0-1 run.
“In the three previous games, he and Sam Bennett got going and they are such a good line when they are together,” coach Paul Maurice said. “They compete real hard and he plays with a certain frequency. He has to have a little edge to his game, he has to have a little snarl, and when he does that, his hands are right on.”
It has been an up-and-down season for Tkachuk.
After he picked up assists in the first two games of the season, Tkachuk missed the next five due to a non-hockey related issue that required a procedure.
In the stretch since returning, he had games like Florida’s comeback victory over the New York Islanders where he put up three points, but also had games where he did not quite look like himself.
But that was the story for the team in its entirety, really, as it lacked the emotional fire and physicality it usually brought when it went through a major slump in mid-November.
Tkachuk led the way in breaking the team out of it, as he typically does.
“I don’t know about that,” Tkachuk said when asked if he is finally hitting his stride. “I felt good throughout the whole season. I wasn’t happy to be missing games when I was feeling really good at the beginning of the year. With the trip to Finland, we have been playing a lot of games condensed, so. I think we’re all trying to find our groove right now.”
When the Panthers looked to be falling into that same state against the Penguins — trailing 4-1 in the third period — Tkachuk had one of his trademark performances to help drag them back into the fight.
He got things started nearly seven minutes into the third period, digging a puck out of the corner and sending it around to Jesper Boqvist. He immediately found Sam Bennett in the slot, who teed up a wrist shot to bring the Panthers back within two goals.
Tkachuk then maneuvered his way around a clogged up slot with some slick mitts and found Adam Boqvist in the face-off dot. He wired a wrist shot past Tristan Jarry to make it a 4-3 game with 11:02 to go.
The Florida star then tied things up doing what he does best — deflecting an Aaron Ekblad point shot to himself and jamming it home with 8:33 to go.
Pittsburgh got the win in overtime, but Tkachuk turning it on like this could end up being an even bigger win in the long run for the Panthers.
“There is some hand stuff I don’t understand,” Maurice said. “He’s got such a gift. His ability to deflect pucks and knock pucks down. … His gift is that he is emotionally in tune with the game. He knows when we’re right, when we’re not right, when we need a hit, when we need a scrum to the net, when we need a play to be made.
“He has that sense of if there is a weakness on the other team, if there is a player struggling on the other team. He picks that up right away. And for us, when we need a little more, he’ll be barking up and down the bench, just tapping guys on the pads. He is very in tune to that intensity, emotional side of the game.”
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