Las Vegas – 2-0 loss in the Stanley Cup Final, Florida panthers forward star Matthew Tkachuk He did not lose his confidence. Instead, he doubles down on his strength.
“(the Vegas Golden Knights) halfway there and hopefully they’ll think about that a little bit when they get back to Florida,” Tkachuk said following his team Losing 7-2 in Game 2 Monday night.
While the eighth-seeded Panthers, who qualified for the postseason by just one point, lost back-to-back road games for the first time since March, Tkachuk noted that Vegas “runs the table at home” in most of the playoffs.
And despite the score in Game 2, Tkachuk didn’t think his team was out of it.
“Maybe they thought the match was a little out of reach, maybe in the second half,” Tkachuk said. “But we certainly haven’t. We’ve scored seven goals in a period before. You never know in the playoffs.”
It was an eventful night for Tkachuk, who got into a fight with the Vegas goalkeeper Aden Hill In the first period and it didn’t calm down from there. In the second period, Tkachuk threw a crushing open ice forward Jack Eichel That sent the Vegas star straight to the dressing room.
“I just came off the bench and saw him in the middle of the ice with his head down. It doesn’t matter who you are, you shouldn’t go through the middle with your head down, you’re going to get hit too if I drop my head in the middle,” Tkachuk said. It’s not a big deal. He’s a really good player. Really good players can get hit too.”
Eichel agreed that the hit—which was not penalized—was clean, and told reporters he took some of the blame on himself, as he “picked up his toe a little bit and saw it at the last minute.”
Eichel returned to the game for the third period and grabbed an assist on his first running back.
However, the blow was a turning point for the parties on both sides. A huge shout ensued, causing Tkachuk and the Golden Knights to attack Ivan Barbashev Each received a 10-minute match misconduct penalty.
For his role in the mess, Tkachuk was suspicious.
“I was surprised,” he said. “I went to the bench thinking I was going to get some rest before playing hard.” “And then I got fired for it.”
Tkachuk also received a 10-minute misconduct late in the third period – his third of the series after he was also ejected at the end of Game 1.
It was a shootout-filled series through two games. The Panthers total 130 penalty minutes, and the Golden Knights 72 minutes.
“I don’t think there are physical teams like us,” Tkachuk said. “So maybe you guys (in the media) think it’s overrated, but at the end of the day, that’s how we play. If we’re playing physical and we’re in the game, you guys will say that’s the recipe for success.”
