"He's kind of become the face of the Florida Panthers," said Wayne Gretzky, hockey's all-time points king and now a TNT analyst. They ousted Toronto in five games, and now have a Carolina team that Maurice calls hockey's best club in terms of analytics squarely on the ropes. They eliminated Boston after the Bruins had the best regular season in NHL history and took a 3-1 lead over Florida in that series. The Panthers had an up-and-down regular season and had to rally just to make the playoffs. The messages were clear: Regular-season joyrides aren't what the Panthers are seeking, and Tkachuk - the son of former NHL star Keith Tkachuk and brother of Ottawa forward Brady Tkachuk - would make them a much tougher out in the playoffs. The Panthers made a huge splash by trading Jonathan Huberdeau, the leading scorer on a team that had the best regular season in the NHL a year ago, to Calgary for Tkachuk, who signed an eight-year deal in that process. It all started with a confident move by general manager Bill Zito last summer. "We're a confident group no matter where we're playing," Florida forward Sam Bennett said after Saturday's 2-1 OT win at Carolina in Game 2 - the eighth consecutive win on the road for the Panthers in these playoffs, the second-longest such run in NHL history. They're just 2-3 at home in the playoffs, but 8-1 on the road - with five of those road wins in OT. Karl B DeBlaker/AP Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov celebrates his goal with teammates Carter Verhaeghe (23) and Radko Gudas (7) as Carolina Hurricanes left winger Jordan Martinook skates by during the second period of Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference final, Saturday, May 20, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. And goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has been absolutely unflappable, going 9-1 in his last 10 games and stopping 94.9% of the shots he's seen in his last eight outings. Brandon Montour has six goals to lead all NHL defensemen in the playoffs.
Carter Verhaeghe has three game-winning goals in the playoffs for Florida. The Panthers have a lot of heroes right now.īarkov pulled off an all-time goal in Game 2 at Carolina. I guess, it's just 'Let good times roll.' It's just fun to come to the rink every day and it's fun to be at the rink every day. "We're just kind of riding the wave right now. "I don't really know if it has sunk in or if we're allowing ourselves to let it sink in," Tkachuk said. It's a great problem to have, with four home conference final games - Heat Sunday, Panthers Monday, Heat Tuesday, Panthers Wednesday - in a span of four nights. South Florida is a basketball town right now. This is how big a star Tkachuk has become in his first postseason run with the Panthers: Jimmy Butler, who's a bit busy right now leading the eighth-seeded Miami Heat as they - like eighth-seeded Florida - chase an improbable NBA championship, let the world see he was wearing a Tkachuk jersey for an off-day shooting workout a few days ago.
He also plays a very highly skilled game so he can connect with everybody in the room."
But he's just grown into that leadership role and he's one of those guys that can touch everybody in the room, whether it's the fourth-line guy or the extra guy. "He's an exceptional guy and even over the course of the year, he's kind of matured," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
#Just roll with it season 2 episode 9 series#
Michael Dwyer/AP Florida Panthers players Sam Reinhart, left, and Matthew Tkachuk celebrate after the tying goal by teammate Brandon Montour during the third period of Game 7 of an NHL first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins, Sunday, April 30, 2023, in Boston. There's still going to be ice on the floor of FLA Live Arena into at least the last week of May that's never needed to happen in the quarter-century of the Panthers calling that building (which has had five different names in that span) their home.
Oh, and Florida is up 2-0 in the East final.
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