Matthew Tkachuk’s Playoff Performance Should Feel Familiar to Penguins Fans
Matthew Tkachuk's playoff performance mirrors one of the Pittsburgh Penguins runs to the Stanley Cup.
The Florida Panthers' current run to the Stanley Cup Final is littered with ties to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It's their first time back in the Final since defeating the Penguins in the 1996 Eastern Conference Final. They eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs, which led to the firing of Penguins general manager front-runner Kyle Dubas. Let's not forget which team had to lose to the Chicago Blackhawks in the final week of the regular season to get the Panthers into the playoffs.
Those are simple connections, but one less prominent parallel is that of Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk and Penguins center Evgeni Malkin.
Tkachuk's status has blown up throughout this postseason. His three dramatic game-winning goals in the conference finals, the last of which clinched the series, have catapulted Tkachuk into the conversation of being one of the top five players in the world.
His path and play style is eerily similar to Malkin's back in 2009, the Penguins' first Stanley Cup-winning run of the current era. Malkin took over in the East Final against the Carolina Hurricanes, scoring six goals and nine points in the Penguins' sweep over the Hurricanes.
Malkin and Tkachuk's aggressive and antagonistic play style mirror each other. Both showcase impressive stick-handling abilities and a knack for scoring goals in big moments.
Malkin's performance in 2009 netted him the Conn Smythe Trophy and a place in the conversation about the best players in the world in the decade since. Tkachuk's performance in these playoffs could net him a similar ascension.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ4Lt5u20pU[/embed]
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