Tkachuk ‘impactful’ in return for Panthers in Game 1 win in Eastern 1st Round

TAMPA -- Before the game, in an emptying hallway at Amalie Arena, Matthew Tkachuk stretched, his torso wrapped and his face focused. His teammates, having mostly finished their pregame soccer, had dispersed, but the face of the Florida Panthers worked on loosening his body, readying himself to return to the ice after an absence that had stretched on for two months.

Tkachuk’s injury at the 4 Nations Face-Off meant that he hadn’t played for the Florida Panthers since Feb. 8, a run that saw the reigning Stanley Cup champions wilt a bit in the final months of the season, with urgency lacking and lineup upheaval and availability unknowns.

It had made doubt creep in about the Panthers, questions about whether they might have played too much hockey in two straight trips to the Cup Final, about whether they might be in line for an early exit after their in-state matchup in the Eastern Conference First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Instead, there was Tkachuk in the series opener of the Battle of the Sunshine State, in all his mouthguard-chewing, scrum-starting, goal-scoring glory, his ability to lead the Panthers into any and every fight fully intact.

He scored twice and had an assist, picking up exactly where he had left off, as the Panthers defeated the Lightning 6-2 on Tuesday in Game 1 of the best-of-7 series.

“That’s what you miss,” Tkachuk said. “You miss competing, you miss the fans, the energy, the emotion, the battles with the other team, the chirps on your own bench. It’s just so much stuff that you miss. I was just super grateful to be out there and loved every second of it.”

It was, in fact, technically the seventh straight NHL game in which he’d scored a goal, having been on a six-game run when the League broke for 4 Nations. It was his fourth career multigoal game in the playoffs, passing Carter Verhaeghe for the most in franchise history.

It was a statement.

It was a statement by the Panthers. It was a statement by Tkachuk.

His were the knockout blows against the Lightning, with the Panthers having just gone up 3-1 on a goal by Nate Schmidt at 4:41 of the second that Tampa Bay challenged for goaltender interference. When the goal was upheld, the Panthers went on the power play.

It took Tkachuk all of 14 seconds to slide in the dagger.

He added a second power-play goal at 9:44 of the period, an unassisted tally, and had an assist on Schmidt’s second of the night, at 5:09 of the third. The three points added to the 46 points (17 goals, 29 assists) he had scored over the previous two postseasons, fourth in the NHL to a trio of Edmonton Oilers (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard).

“You see him be able to step into a game and be impactful,” Schmidt said. “That’s just the way he is. That’s the type of player he is. He’s a playoff player that comes into a game and does what he does tonight.”

It had been such a long time since Tkachuk had taken the ice, since a lower-body injury in the United States’ round-robin game against Canada on Feb. 15 had cost him all but 6:47 of the 4 Nations final against Canada five days later.

It was two months and three days until he would return.

“It feels amazing,” Tkachuk said. “I felt good going into that [final] game and felt that I could give a great effort. Just, I didn’t have much in me after the first period in that game in February. I wouldn’t change anything for the world, though. As sucky as it was the last two months, I was going to lay it all on the line in that tournament for your country.

“But I will say, the last two months, there’s been so many highs and lows. You have some down days, and you don’t know if this was going to be even possible -- even up until however long ago, didn’t know if this day would be possible -- so it’s just great to be out there.”

Asked if there was any doubt about playing in Game 1, Tkachuk said, “Yeah, for sure.”

“The last two months, even however many days ago, like absolutely,” he added. “Just super grateful to be back out. I’ve got a ton of people to thank for getting me ready to play in playoffs. It’s nice going out there and playing for them.

“I’ve got great support, at the rink, at home, everywhere, so everybody was really positive around me, even when I might have not had my most positive days.”

Although Tkachuk admitted there were some plays he wished he could have had back -- perhaps including the roughing penalty at 10:25 of the first period that led to the Lightning’s first goal -- he said he felt “great.”

And though Paul Maurice cautioned that Tkachuk’s game was “OK,” he noted that, even after two months off, there are some parts of the forward’s game that are simply magical.

“What was on display was the hands,” Maurice said. “Just an incredible set of hands. … When you put it in the context, he hasn’t played a hockey game in two months. You or I wouldn’t have any hands in that game. For him, he can still take that much time off and handle a puck the way he handles it.

“The rest of it was just smartly played by him, in that I don’t think he was in the rhythm of the game.”

And yet, even as he was getting reacclimated, even as he was reintroducing himself to the game, he scored twice, he provided the energy and the verve, a little bit of which had been missing in his absence, as the Panthers struggled, as they slipped into third place in the Atlantic Division and lost home-ice advantage.

He returned. The Panthers shifted.

“He’s not really a guy you can put a label on because he’s such a unicorn of a player,” Schmidt said. “But I think more than anything, just how he is in the room, getting the guys fired up for the game, you feel his energy, you feel his excitement in the locker room. I think it takes the edge off of guys quite a bit.”

They were happy to have him. Tkachuk, for his part, was overjoyed to be back.

“It makes you realize how great of a game it is and the best thing in the world is [to be] out there competing,” Tkachuk said. “Being around the guys. Just, everything. I’m loving it.”