George Richards, FHN Publisher
Just over a week ago, Keith Tkachuk — the father of Ottawa captain Brady and Florida MVP candidate Matthew — went on a Toronto radio station and ripped into the Florida Panthers calling them a ‘soft team’ among other things.
The Panthers were coming off a 5-2 loss in Ottawa, the fourth consecutive defeat for a team seemingly on the verge of missing the playoffs.
How things have changed since.
The night of Keith Tkachuk’s radio hit, Florida rolled out Alex Lyon in goal against the powerhouse Maple Leafs and pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory.
Florida has not lost since that game in Ottawa, rattling off a season-high five consecutive wins.
They appear to be hitting more, playing a lot more physical — and, on Thursday against Brady’s Ottawa team, standing up for one another.
Coincidence?
“Don’t give him that much credit,’’ Matthew Tkachuk said after Thursday’s game, one in which both he and his younger brother left the game early due to separate fights.
”We know how important these games are right now. After that (losing) streak, we just buckled in. Decided we didn’t want to waste anymore games.’’
Not long after Keith Tkachuk’s radio interview, the Panthers opened their game in Toronto with a couple big hits and a few punches.
Then, they went into a bit of a slog.
In the second period, their frustrated coach ripped into them on the bench using the kind of language Keith Tkachuk would have been hung up on had he used similar verbiage hours before.
Although the team did not immediately respond, Paul Maurice had more choice words for his team during the intermission. They responded by scoring in the final minute with Brandon Montour winning it in overtime.
Did the elder Tkachuk’s words have a lot to do with Maurice going off on his team?
”I don’t think anyone knew anything about it,” Maurice told FHN on Friday morning. “Someone from the media told me about it and then I saw it. I heard about it days after. The stuff that happens outside the room really doesn’t affect what happens inside of it. We did not like parts of our game in Toronto. We discussed it and we fixed it.”
Regardless, the Panthers have not looked very soft anymore.
Thursday night, the Panthers and Ottawa met up again and a pro wrestling match broke out at FLA Live Arena, the two teams combining for 166 penalty minutes with what amounted to nine ejections.
It all started when, as according to Maurice, Ottawa bumped into Alex Lyon twice in the opening period and nothing was called.
When Brady Tkachuk did it a third time just before Claude Giroux scored in the second period, the team decided to start doing something about it.
”We were watching them, but we had a lot more on the line,” Maurice said Friday. “We kind of had to take it a little bit due to where we are. Then it got to the point where we had to take care of our guy. We had to take care of our own, and we did.”
With 13:29 left in the period, Patrick Brown chased down a puck deep in the Florida zone and made a quick stop in the crease, showering Lyon with ice shavings.
This is done in fun during practice; seeing it done to a teammate during a game can lead to a fracas.
And that is what happened Thursday as Radko Gudas jumped Brown and quickly, the only two players on the ice not throwing punches were the two goalies.
“There are some codes in the league and they were going after him,” Gudas told FHN.
“They could not score on him, so they were trying to get him out. The boys stepped up and made sure nothing happened to him. We didn’t want him getting crashed or sprayed anymore so it was a great response.”
Added Lyon: “That was them doing their job. I take pride in the fact they felt they needed to do that and good on them. … It doesn’t surprise me. There aren’t as many cameras in the AHL and stuff like that takes place on a nightly basis. It’s just part of the game and part of the mental warfare that goes with the physical play.”
With the Panthers scoring five goals in the second period to take a 7-1 lead into the third, this game was over — and was played loose and fast.
More big hits were delivered, more punches thrown. Even Ottawa’s coach got tossed.
”I thought we showed great team toughness there,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “Everyone stuck up for each other and that is great to see.”
The Panthers, despite being outshot 58-30, felt good about themselves following the game.
With three games left and the team controlling its postseason destiny, there’s something to be said for that.
Just don’t thank Keith Tkachuk for lighting that fire.
Or do so.
It’s a free country.
“I don’t think many guys even knew about that although some of us were told about it later,” Gudas said. “We ended up hearing about it and none of us liked it, Chucky was the main guy who didn’t like it. But we responded.
“I don’t think we were soft or playing soft. I have full confidence everyone is playing their hardest. Not everyone is going to be as physical as say, well, me, but everyone is a different kind of player. Not everyone is going to have four or five hits in a game. But games like (Ottawa) make us better. We have each others back. Everyone saw that, for sure.”