Tkachuk brothers are key to Panthers’ success amidst injuries
The Florida Panthers made the marquee blockbuster trade of this past offseason, acquiring winger Brady Tkachuk from the Ottawa Senators to unite with his brother Matthew. Heading into Tuesday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, it might’ve been hard for Panthers fans to see what all the fuss was about, as Brady had registered just one assist in six games.
Down 1-0 to the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, Brady finally scored a goal off an assist from Matthew, knotting the game at 1-1. On the power play a few minutes later, he scored again, and again off of Matthew’s primary assist. Just over midway through the second, Brady scored again on the power play, completing a natural hat trick en route to Florida’s 7-3 win. He tacked on an assist later in the period, giving him a respectable five points through seven games. The Tkachuk brothers finding their groove would be an ideal development for the Panthers as they deal with injuries to key forwards Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discussed the importance of the Tkachuks finding their game for the Panthers.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Last night it clicked, and it showed why they paid as much as they did for Brady, why that fanbase is so excited to have the brothers together, because the two of them, when they click, they really click.
Carter Hutton: They do click, and they’re a lot to handle. You think about Sam Bennett being up the middle and Matthew Tkachuk having five assists to go along with his brother’s natural hat trick. It was the first time that all three of a brother’s goals had been assisted by another brother, which is a pretty cool stat that they flung out there last night.
For me, it was the pressure of the situation, Ty. The fact that he asked for the trade out of Ottawa, and then you get there and it’s been crickets from him, so I think that was an added pressure for him. We knew what Brady Tkachuk was, this is an Olympic player, this is a guy that plays at the biggest stage and he can get the job done. It was the fact of the way this trade went down, he pushed his way into Florida, and then to get nothing from him early in the season, you started the question some things with Barkov out and with Marchand out. Now, is this something that has momentum? Now it starts to look like a pretty dangerous lineup as we wait for Barkov and Marchand to come back. It’s a scary thing they have going on in Florida. I know it’s an aging squad, but if they get things rolling it’s going to be real dangerous.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…
