Matthew Tkachuk didn’t win the Stanley Cup, but earned huge respect across the NHL when he revealed how he fractured his sternum in the first period of Game 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights, but returned to score scoring the game-tying goal late in the third before assisting on the overtime winner by teammate Carter Verhaeghe.
The next day and ahead of Game 4, he struggled to get our of bed and needed the help of his younger brother Brady — the captain of the Ottawa Senators. On top of that, his teammates had to get him dressed and his skates laced up to play. Yes, he played.
While the pain of broken bones and the ongoing recovery is excruciating, nothing compares to the emotional scars from losing the series in five games. Tkachuk confided to Matt Larkin of Daily Face-off, describing the feeling as “still so fresh, still so frustrating.”
Tkachuk also has to deal with the fact that he’ll “definitely be on the shelf for a while”, though he might be able to get back to some training at the end of the month.
For someone who had a crazy 2022-23 season : being traded to the Panthers from the Calgary Flames, signed a huge contract in Florida, posted a career-best season in which he racked up 109 points and helped the Panthers upset the league-best Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, all the way to the Stanley Cup - now having to rest up doesn’t seem natural for Tkachuk.
That won’t stop him however from visualizing about the upcoming season, and going back to the Stanley Cup final, this time, with a different ending.
“The best part about us is not really thinking too far ahead with anything,” he said. “We just kind of enjoy it, come to each game and try to win it. We never had an expectation all year about what we were going to do. We just came in and tried to win each game, and it got us to the Stanley Cup Final. So we’re gonna try to do the same next year.”
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