Add Matthew Tkachuk to the group of Florida Panthers who came to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defence in the aftermath of Sunday’s Game 7 victory.
While Brad Marchand and Paul Maurice stepped to the podium Sunday and said the Maple Leafs get too much heat for their post-season track record, Tkachuk joined the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast on Monday to further the conversation.
“Sometimes you feel bad for them because they have some unbelievable players and a great team,” the star forward began. “I was actually saying this last night to some of the guys. If their team were not in Toronto, dealing with all the crazy circus stuff outside of it, they’d be an unbelievable team and such a hard team to play.
“They have so much to deal with. I feel bad, we don’t have to deal with that in Florida. I feel like that’s what makes me and my team so lucky. You almost use that against them.”
It’s something Tkachuk said earlier in the episode that the Panthers actively did in coming back from an early 2-0 series deficit.
“Going back home, we knew that the series was still on, even though we were down 2-0 …,” he said. “When you make it 2-2 and you’re coming back for Game 5, we kind of used the pressure that they were feeling up here in Toronto almost against them in a way.
“You know that they could not afford to lose (Game 5) and could not afford to lose that series after being up 2-0. So we kind of used that as a rallying point against them.”
Tkachuk, the son of long-time American NHL winger Keith Tkachuk and brother of Brady, was born and raised in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was drafted sixth overall by the Calgary Flames and played six seasons in the Canadian hockey market before indicating to management he wouldn’t stay with the team long-term and was traded to Florida.
Tkachuk wasn’t at his best throughout Florida’s seven-game triumph, registering just four assists in the series. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted during Monday’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast that Tkachuk is still “legitimately hurt” after returning for the post-season from an injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Even without the 27-year-old firing on all cylinders, the Panthers found a way to get it done against the Atlantic Division champion Maple Leafs.
But if you ask Tkachuk or any other Panthers, they’ll say the attention for the series shouldn’t be on Toronto coming up short again.
“I wasn’t surprised by how they played. They had stretches in those games where they played really well …,” Tkachuk said. “They definitely didn’t lay an egg at all. They played us well. They took us to Game 7 and ultimately played well.”
