Tkachuk says Panthers will need ‘layers of support’ to defend likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl

When Matthew Takchuk first arrived in South Florida, he made a statement that resonated with fans from one end of North America to the other.

“I hate Edmonton, but I hate Tampa more now,” Tkachuk said during his introductory press conference in Sunrise.

His tongue-in-cheek comment wasn’t to be taken overly seriously.

The guy had just played his first six NHL seasons in Calgary, and the rivalry between the Flames and Edmonton Oilers is one of the fiercest in the league.

Florida’s rivalry with cross-state rival Tampa Bay was nowhere near as explosive or exciting, but the Lightning are the biggest rivals of the Panthers, both divisionally and geographically.

As irony would have it, for Florida to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history, they’ll have to defeat both Tampa Bay and Edmonton to do it.

On Tuesday, Tkachuk was asked if he still feels the same hatred toward Edmonton now that he felt two years prior.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said through a smile. “Anytime you’re playing any opponent in the Stanley Cup Final, you don’t even have to have a rivalry with them. Right when the puck drops, it’s going to be very intense, like you’ve had a rivalry for years.”

Tkachuk’s final games in a Flames sweater were against Edmonton during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Calgary took down Connor McDavid and the high-flying Oilers 9-6 in Game 1 of that second round series before losing four straight games and heading home.

“It was intense,” Tkachuk recalled. “We definitely ran into probably the best McDavid has ever played. He was on fire, and their other offensive guys had a great series, and they played us very hard defensively as well.”

Tkachuk recorded a hat trick in that Game 1 victory but only logged a single assist in the following four games.

During his career, Tkachuk has played 32 regular season games against Edmonton, including four since joining the Panthers, accumulating 10 goals and 26 points while racking up 69 penalty minutes, none of which have come while playing for Florida.

Now he’ll face the first NHL team he hated on the game’s biggest stage with the Stanley Cup on the line.

If nothing else, it should be great hockey entertainment.

On Tuesday, Tkachuk was asked to give an evaluation of the Oilers and he admitted it’s a bit of a different team that what he remembers.

Here’s his full quote:

“There’s been actually a little bit of turnover just the last couple of years since I’ve been there,” Tkachuk said. “I think that I really haven’t played against (Stuart) Skinner that much, so I’d say that’s the one new thing. I think that they defend better as a team than they get credit for. I think everybody still thinks about McDavid and company and the all-out offense, run-and-gun, but that’s not really what they’re like. They obviously have that super high-end offense, but I would say they’re more complete now than maybe they were even two years ago when I was there. A very, very, very skilled team. On defense, they have more defensive guys – other than Bouchard, who’s unbelievable offensively – and their forwards have a lot of speed. I played against them a lot up in Calgary, but I haven’t seen them a lot the last couple of years. We haven’t seen them in six months, so both teams aren’t really too familiar with each other, but I’m sure after the first period we’ll get a good feeling of each other.”

With a week off between the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final, both teams will have had plenty of time to break down tons of film on their opponent.

Between all the studying that the coaches are doing and the familiarity that many of the players will have with each other, it shouldn’t take long for things to heat up in this series.

“It’s a group effort, never one person,” Tkachuk said of defending the Oilers. “We’ve got a really good defensive team here. I think that just speaks to how 20 guys have bought into it. It’s got to be group (defense). We’ve got guys that can skate just like them. McDavid is probably the fastest guy in the world, so we’ve got to be in front of them at all times and have layers of support.”

Game 1 between the Panthers and Oilers is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. from Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.