Finally, accompanied again by his dangling mouthpiece, he shuffled the puck back and forth in front of Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, as if performing hockey’s version of the three-card Monte.
He acted in so doing like he had all the time in the world — like he’d waited more than two months for this moment and wasn’t going to rush putting the puck through Vasilevskiy’s legs into the net.
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Welcome back, Matthew Tkachuk.
Welcome back, playoff hockey.
Good to see you defending Stanley Cup champs, too, as the Florida Panthers brushed aside any health concerns or recent trends by drubbing the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of this first-round series, 6-2.
“It was just nice to be out there again,” said Tkachuk, who had two goals and an assist after only being cleared to play before the game. “Been missing it again the past two months. Just terrible, not being able to play. Didn’t know if this was possible so I’m very grateful.”
It was all back in a big way Tuesday for everyone to see. The full Panthers arsenal. The playoff intensity. There was the opportunism as Sam Bennett bunted in the first goal, and the depth as Nate Schmidt scored two goals.
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There was the physicality as Carter Verhaeghe knocked Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak temporarily out of the game, and the moments where goalie Sergei Bobrovsky changed the night like his early stop on Tampa’s Brandon Hagel.
Finally, there was Tkachuk on the ice again. Looking the same as always. The energy. The smarts. The night couldn’t have been scripted any better with his two goals and the easy win meaning he only played 11 minutes and 43 seconds (and Bennett only 11:50) to not over-tax his body.
Tkachuk hadn’t played in a Panthers game since Feb. 8 due to his groin injury suffered while playing for the U.S. team in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. It wasn’t certain he’d be ready Tuesday considering he hadn’t practiced hard until the last few days.
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How would he play, too?
Could he return after months away and be his normally abnormal self?
The Panthers aren’t the Panthers without him. Not really. It’s not just the tangible stuff like how they were 31-19-2 and average 3.3 goals with him this season and 16-12-2 and averaged 2.5 goals without him.
Those numbers are why when coach Paul Maurice had a simple answer at season’s end when asked why the Panthers averaged the fewest goals in the league since the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Tkachuk, he said, was, “worth about a goal a game.”
Finally, they had him back in the lineup, too. It took Tkachuk half a period to remind everyone what he brought. He sent the NHL’s top scorer, Nikita Kucherov, a did-you-miss-me message with a loud hit and took a roughing penalty in the process.
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If it wasn’t a flagrant penalty as roughing goes, it also wasn’t the optimal way to announce his return. Tampa’s fifth-ranked power play used that penalty to tie the game, 1-1.
It was as close as the night got. Sam Reinhart tipped in a shot to make it, 2-1, in the first period. Then Schmidt scored his first goal and, as if on cue, Tkachuk put his by Vasilevskiy just 14 seconds later.
Later in the second period, there was Tkachuk again taking an odd-angle shot that ba-da-binged off a skate or two into the net. You want style points, go to the Olympics.
You want efficiency, watch what the Panthers did in Game. They got those six goals on 16 shots. Vasilevskiy was second in goalie wins and fourth in save percentage in the NHL this season, too.
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Not Tuesday. Not in Game 1. The Panthers are 8-1 when winning the first game of playoff series. For that matter, Tampa Bay is 13-3 when winning the first game of series, too.
So, no one was discounting Tuesday’s win. The question now is if the Panthers are as greedy as a year ago on their Stanley Cup run. They didn’t just win games. They went on three-game win streaks in each of their four playoff series.
Can they repeat that on their way to a repeat?
No need to get ahead of anything. What mattered Tuesday night was Tkachuk was back for the Panthers, and the Panthers looked back to making a strong defense of their title.
Welcome back, playoff hockey.
