Life couldn’t get any better at the Florida Panthers and Matthew Tkachuk isn’t afraid to say it.
Florida is in full control of the Eastern Conference Semi-Final against the Toronto Maple Leafs with a virtually insurmountable 3-0 lead. In National League history, only four teams in 201 chances managed to come from behind after losing the first three games of a series.
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“There’s no pressure on us,” Tkachuk said Tuesday after Panthers practice. Why play if you can’t enjoy it?
There therefore seems to be a fairly strong confidence in the camp of the Florida club, just over 24 hours before the fourth and possible last game against the Leafs.
Tkachuk is currently playing his first season with the Panthers. He had his most productive regular season with 40 goals and 69 assists for 109 points. The Scottsdale native has also had tremendous success since the start of the playoffs, having tallied five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 10 games.
Not as much depth
For his part, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice praised the work of his third line, made up of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell and Sam Reinhart. The pilot claimed that this unit “changed the dynamic of the team”.
“We don’t have the depth of clubs we’ve played against,” said the man whose roster surprised the mighty Boston Bruins in the first round. However, we have some really great stories of guys whose names don’t come out a lot who are really important to us.”
Since the start of hostilities against the Maple Leafs, the Panthers’ third line skaters have collected five points. Reinhart also scored the winning goal in overtime last Sunday, in the third game.
“I’m really happy for him,” Maurice said of Reinhart after the game. He’s a high-end player who happily accepts what you might call a third-line role: he’s developed two youngsters with him, egoless, and has never talked about ice time this year. We love when these guys get a win for us.”