By David Dwork
Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk has been on one heck of a heater lately.
The 26-year-old who will be skating for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February has been scoring like hotcakes, and his team has been reaping the benefits.
“His hands are just on fire right now,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “He’s done some great things with the puck, but it’s the other parts of his game that really drive us.”
Tkachuk is currently riding a six-game point streak in which he’s accumulated 15 points, but it was over the past week that he took things to another level.
During Florida’s three games last week, Tkachuk put up an eye-popping five goals and 11 points.
That’s why it came as absolutely no surprise to see Tkachuk named the NHL’s First Star of the Week on Monday.
Nobody in the league had more goals, assists, points, power play goals or power play points than Tkachuk did over the past seven days.
“Sometimes the puck finds you, sometimes it doesn’t,” Tkachuk said after scoring twice in Saturday’s win over San Jose. “You just have to keep working and prepare the same exact way, which I’m doing. I got a couple fortunate bounces tonight, which is always nice, but at the end of day, it doesn't matter if you're producing or not. You’ve just got to just be as dialed in with your preparation as you can, and help the team, whatever they ask.”
Florida went 2-0-1 during the three games last week and are 5-0-1 during Tkachuk’s six-game point streak.
They hit the road on Monday and will begin a five-game, 10-day road trip on Tuesday night in Seattle.
We’ll see if Tkachuk can stay hot while out on the western side of the continent.
The Florida Panthers have won back-to-back games against the Carolina Hurricanes over the weekend, which is no small feat. They outscored the Hurricanes 12-3, and they had a 6-0 shutout on Saturday. So now with the Panthers winning both of those games, they're now back at the top of the Atlantic division. Do you think that there is still a big competitive gap between the Panthers and the rest of the teams in the East? Because my opinion is that in the Atlantic division, yes, but in the East as a whole, not so much. But I'm curious about your thoughts on that. Well, people often say that they love hockey because of how competitive it is, and I'm one of those people. But at the same time, if you look at a league like the NBA, when the Golden State Warriors were so good for many years, the Cavaliers, and now the Celtics, well, it's kind of becoming a thing in the NHL again for these teams to be great again and again and again. You look at a lot of these teams that go to the Stanley Cup Finals and lose, they go back the next year. And even when they go to the Stanley Cup Finals and win, it's not like you have to just sell off half your team and you can't go back to it once again. So we're starting to see, even with the salary cap and kind of getting tight financially, they're still able to maintain a successful team. And I feel like this Florida team right now, they're so deep. They're so deep. They've got great defensemen. But what I love about them is not just their top six, but their bottom six. And that's what really makes them a great team. But if we think they're doing good now in the regular season, this team is still built for the playoffs. Do I think there's competition? Of course. I mean, the Maple Leafs have looked a ton, a lot better. The pieces they've added defensively will help them. I think this could be the year for the Hurricanes to really compete. I like what I'm seeing out of them, but this Florida Panthers team, it sounds like they're primed to go right back to the Cup Finals. Yeah, they look like they have not missed a beat at all. I think that the other teams like the Hurricanes, those back-to-back losses aside, but teams like the Hurricanes and the Devils, and you mentioned the Capitals earlier, those teams are starting to close the gap, I think. But I would pick the Panthers over any of those to make the Cup Final. I think they're just too good, like you said, too deep. They lost some pieces in the offseason, but they still have Barkov, they still have Kachuk, they still have Bobrovsky. I mean, there's just so much talent on that team and so much experience that I think there's no reason to think that they would be taking a step back. I actually thought Carolina would be taking a step back this year, and I have absolutely been proven wrong. I did too. Yeah, I think a lot of people did. I mean, they lost their top defensive pairing, and they lost some other pieces as well. They lost Tabo Tarravinen, but with what Martin Natchez has been able to do for this team, and you've got Sebastian Ajo is still himself, and Andres Feshnikov, and Seth Jarvis, and players like that. So they've been able to remain competitive, and I think that, like you said, this could be the year for them to actually challenge the Panthers. Now, this regular season showing was maybe not the best indicator of that, but it's still a possibility because we see that happen all the time. Teams get swept in the regular season and then go on to just crush the opponent in the playoffs. So definitely, it'll be maybe a little rivalry heating up between those two teams. Could be fun.