FORT LAUDERDALE — The playoffs were about to begin, and among the many reasons Paul Maurice had to feel good about his Florida Panthers was the one variable coaches can’t control.
“We were healthy,” Maurice said.
Check that.
“Matthew was the only question mark,” he said.
Forward Matthew Tkachuk, it turns out, was a bigger question mark than some thought. He suffered a groin injury in the Four Nations Face-Off that ended his regular season in February — but revealed on the eve of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against the visiting Edmonton Oilers just how close he came to not being available at least when the playoffs began.
“I did not think I was going to be playing,” Tkachuk said before correcting himself. “I shouldn’t say that. I thought there was maybe a 50 percent chance I wouldn’t be playing as close to about a week or five days before the playoffs.”
Matthew Tkachuk on hot line with Sam Bennett and Evan Rodrigues
If the Panthers clinch their second consecutive Stanley Cup with a victory, it would not be because Tkachuk played a minor role. Tkachuk has two goals and three assists in the past three games, playing on a red-hot line with Sam Bennett, who leads the NHL in playoff goals with 15, and Evan Rodrigues (15 points). Tkachuk and Bennett are tied for fourth in postseason scoring with 22 points in 22 games.
Of course with Tkachuk it’s more than statistics. He’s a big part of the heart and soul of the Panthers. He gets under opponents’ skin with his spunk.
Spunk is what it took for Tkachuk to get back to form. He was limited to less than 12 minutes in his first game back, in the playoffs vs. Tampa Bay.
“Nowhere close to what I expected out of myself,” Tkachuk said.
“Because he played the game with a broken collarbone,” Maurice said.
Although Tkachuk had two goals and one assist in that 6-2 victory, Maurice figures it wasn’t until the second and third rounds, against Toronto and Carolina, that Tkachuk was Tkachuk.
“He had come to full health but there’s still the mental part about how far do you want to stress that, taking hits and giving hits and things like that,” Maurice said.
Panthers have had mixed luck with close-out games
Close-out games like this haven’t been kind to the Panthers. They lost three straight close-out opportunities against the Oilers in last year’s Cup Final before closing the deal at home. This year, they needed two tries to finish off the Maple Leafs and Hurricanes, losing the first close-out game at home before winning both Game 7s on the road.
“When you’re playing a team that their backs are against the wall, it’s important to come out with a good start both sides,” Tkachuk said. “ … They’re in a different situation right now. I think this is their first elimination game of the playoffs. So that’s a different wrinkle for things. And for us, we’ve played one Game 7. So maybe we have a tiny advantage with knowing the desperation that they’re going to come out with. But we have to match that desperation.”
Maurice sounds understanding as to why Florida needed multiple tries to close out those series, although he could do without flying back to Edmonton for another Game 7 on June 20.
“So you’ve played well and you’ve put yourself in a position to eliminate the other team,” Maurice said. “It’s not guaranteed, because the other team is pretty darn good. So there’s nothing learned where you’d say, ‘OK, now we’ve figured it out,’ because if you figure that out, you’d win next year — you’d win 16 straight, right? It doesn’t work like that.”
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch has pushed every button in this series, flip-flopping goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard and mixing up his lines. Some of it worked. Some.
Oilers star Conner McDavid has played 12 playoff games against the Panthers these past two seasons. He has scored in only three of them, a total of four goals. He has one goal and six assists in this series.
“He’s probably the best player of our generation,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “So you have to be aware of him every single time he’s on the ice and you have to try and take the space away from him.”
But even when McDavid isn’t scoring, the Panthers see the Oilers as a threat. Florida took a quick 3-0 lead at home in Game 4 but ended up losing 5-4 in overtime on a goal by Leon Draisaitl, who joins him atop the NHL postseason scoring list with 33 points.
Maurice called the Oilers “the most dangerous team in the National Hockey League” under normal conditions. So if they should find themselves trailing in what could be the final game of the Stanley Cup Final?
“Their risk profile changes,” Maurice said. “When they’re down a goal or two, they are incredibly hard to handle.”
One more victory would give Tkachuk the option of repeating one of the more unique Stanley Cup celebrations. Last year he took the trophy for a swim off Fort Lauderdale Beach.
“There’s no secret the Cup’s in the building,” Tkachuk said. “It’s going to be the toughest test, the biggest game.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Stanley Cup Final: Florida Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk can repeat with 1 more win vs. Edmonton
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
