It was fitting that Matthew Tkachuk scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal when the Florida Panthers finished off their second consecutive championship Tuesday with a 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the Final against the Edmonton Oilers.
Tkachuk is the heart and soul of the Panthers. His addition prior to the 2022-23 season has fueled a run of three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final, and now back-to-back titles. He’s an elite offensive talent, wrapped in the persona of a relentless pit bull.
But it was even more special that he scored the winning goal in this year’s Final because of what he had to overcome just to be on the ice in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I tore my adductor off the bone and I had some hernia thing, all on the same side,” an emotional Tkachuk explained when interviewed postgame on the ice by TNT. “I wanted to throw in the towel a bunch of times … I really didn’t think I’d be playing [in the playoffs] or at least playing to my capabilities.”
The 27-year-old was injured playing for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He somehow helped Team USA finish second in the midseason tournament, where they lost to Canada in overtime in the championship game on a goal scored by Oilers superstar Connor McDavid.
Tkachuk didn’t play during the remainder of the regular season, and the Panthers dropped to third place in the Atlantic Division, meaning they did not have home-ice advantage in any of the four postseason series they played this year.
The bigger concern was whether Tkachuk would or could play once the postseason started with a first-round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored two goals and had an assist in Game 1 of that series and the Panthers won the best-of-7 in five games. Tkachuk said he didn’t begin to feel healthy until the Stanley Cup Final, though he played in all 23 playoff games this spring, including a seven-game win in Round 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and a five-game victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.
“The longer the playoffs went, the better I felt,” he said. “I owe that to the guys for giving me some wiggle room.”
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Tkachuk finished strong for the Panthers, who won the final two games after the series was tied 2-2, and four of five after losing Game 1 in overtime on the road in Edmonton. He had three goals, four assists and seven points against the Oilers, recording at least one point in five of the games. He scored two power-play goals and assisted on Sam Reinhart’s goal in the dying seconds of regulation in Game 4 before the Panthers lost that one in overtime.
On Tuesday, Tkachuk wired a shot past Stuart Skinner with 46.4 seconds remaining in the first period to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. It was a period that Florida dominated, yet led by only one goal until Tkachuk’s crucial tally signaled that this wasn’t going to be Edmonton’s night nor series.
“This one is more rewarding to me. Just everything I had to overcome,” he said. “I didn’t know if I’d be playing. And it just shows how unbelievable our group is, the depth that allowed me to get my footing early in the playoffs. I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks yous — our doctors, our trainers, all of our support staff that don’t get enough credit. I would not be here without them.
“I owe them this one.”
Reinhart scored four of Florida’s five goals Tuesday to become the sixth player in Stanley Cup Final history to have that many in one game. It appeared for much of the night that Reinhart would score the Stanley Cup winning goal two years in a row, after doing so in Game 7 last season against the Oilers.
But Edmonton’s Vasily Podkolzin tapped one in at 15:18 of the third period, setting it up for Tkachuk’s tally to be the decisive goal.
After it was all said and done and he’d paraded around the Amerant Bank Arena ice once again with Lord Stanley’s chalice over his head, Tkachuk had one final message to share.
“It’s so emotional because it’s a dream you have as a child to win the Stanley Cup, and to do this back-to-back times, go to three straight Finals, win two of them, I mean we’re a dynasty. And I can’t believe that this is what’s happened in the last few years.”
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