Evander Kane further slams Matthew Tkachuk as the battle goes beyond Alberta

When Matthew Tkachuk was welcomed as the new member of the Florida Panthers earlier this summer, he made it clear how he was already focused on the rivalry in his new state. Tkachuk was asked about what the future held for him with the Panthers and he couldn’t help but send a message to a pair of rival teams, the Edmonton Oilers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I hate Edmonton,” said Tkachuk before adding “I hate Tampa more now.”

Tkachuk then made another comment that was shared on social media, to which Oilers’ Evander Kane couldn’t help but laugh at with a huge LOL when the former Calgary Flames forward said:

“There is a team in the same state here that’s had a lot of success recently. I’m here to change that.”

Kane was not impressed by Tkachuk’s promises, and it well documented that these guys do not like each other. During Game 1 of the second round series between the Oilers and Flames, Tkachuk appeared to use Kane’s reported money troubles as a way to get under his skin. In that game, Tkachuk visibly asks Kane if he “wants some money,” all while making a little pay me gesture towards the upset Oilers forward.

On Tuesday, it was Kane’s opportunity to further slam Tkachuk in an interview with Oilers Nation, saying that the latter’s antics never got under his skin.

“He’s a guy who likes to talk and yip and yap and make gestures,” Kane said about Tkachuk. “Nobody can say anything to me that I haven’t already heard, so it’s no skin off of my back. Sometimes when the shoe is on the other foot, people have a tough time handling it. I think that the mental aspect of maybe us competing against each other deterred him a little bit.”

Kane is in Edmonton to stay as he inked a four-year extension with the Oilers on the opening day of NHL free agency, while Tkachuk, was traded in a monster move to Florida in order to sign an eight-year contract extension with a cap hit of $9.5 million per season.

The Oilers won’t face the Panthers as much as they did the Flames last season, but they will meet twice, and early in the campaign: once in Florida on Nov. 12 and again in Edmonton on Nov. 28.

Let’s see how the Kane-Tkachuk battle lives beyond Alberta.