Brady Tkachuk turned Tuesday night into a family showcase, and Matthew had a hand in every bit of it.
Against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Florida Panthers forward ripped off a natural hat trick in the second period, and his older brother assisted on all three goals. It was the kind of sequence that doesn’t show up often, let alone from siblings on the same team.
Florida entered the second period trailing 1-0, but the brothers wasted no time changing the script. Matthew set up Brady after a turnover to tie the game just a few minutes into the frame. A few minutes later, the connection struck again on the power play, with Matthew finding Brady in the slot for a tap-in that put Florida ahead.
The third goal came just past the midway point of the period, and it finished the trick in familiar fashion. Matthew started the sequence by feeding Sam Reinhart for a one-timer, Cam Talbot turned that initial shot aside, and Brady was right there to bury the rebound.
That gave Tkachuk the third hat trick of his NHL career and the 69th three-goal regular-season performance in Panthers history. It also marked his first three-goal night since joining Florida.
The two brothers weren’t done there. Later in the game, Matthew and Brady helped set up Carter Verhaeghe to complete a four-goal second period, and Matthew picked up his fifth assist of the night on Reinhart’s goal early in the third.
The Tkachuks working together in live game action has been something Panthers fans have been waiting to see ever since Brady came over from the Ottawa Senators this past summer. Over the last few days, Florida has had the brothers on a line with Sam Bennett, giving the club a dangerous group up front.
In Other News...
Panthers Fans Finally Got The Kind Of Blowout Night They Wanted
The kind of night Panthers fans had been waiting for finally showed up against Columbus, and it came with plenty of offense attached. Florida rolled to a 7-3 win, got goals from Brady Tkachuk in a steady burst, and saw Matthew Tkachuk keep the puck moving with four assists as the Panthers kept pressing on multiple power plays and stretched out a few productive runways against the Blue Jackets.
Akira Schmid also had a clean first win in a Panthers sweater, stopping 22 shots and giving the lineup a dependable backstop behind all that scoring. For a team that had been looking for a true blowout to match the mood in the building, this one delivered the full package, even if the bigger takeaway may be how many Panthers left with their personal streaks still rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkin Trade Talk Now Hinges On One Massive Detroit Decision
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From the Panthers side, the appeal is obvious if a player of Larkins caliber actually becomes available, but the cap math would not be simple. A deal would likely force Florida to move a significant contract to create enough room, the kind of transaction that could involve a core piece or a key roster regular rather than a simple depth shuffle. For a team with championship ambitions, that is the real tension here: the fit is easy to imagine, while the path to actually making it work is anything but. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Got Some Payback After That Ugly Hit On Balinskis
The Panthers came out of their 7-3 win over Columbus with more than just two points, because the league stepped in after Mathieu Oliviers slash on Uvis Balinskis. The Blue Jackets forwards night ended early, and the aftermath brought the kind of postgame attention that usually follows a particularly ugly sequence rather than a routine penalty.
Oliviers first supplemental discipline in the NHL career ledger now sits alongside a major penalty and an ejection, a sign of how quickly the play crossed the line. For Florida, it was a welcome bit of payback in the broader sense, with Balinskis still at the center of the story and the Panthers able to move on knowing the league took a hard look at what happened. [Read more 🡒]