Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice spent part of his postgame media session Saturday afternoon discussing Matthew Tkachuk’s presence in the lineup.
Tkachuk did not score in the 6-0 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes, but his actions on the ice bring a certain level of intensity that Maurice seems to like.
“Our whole game is better on some emotional level, and he’s the driver of that,” Maurice said. “They all are, but Matthew brings intensity to the game every night. He’s just connected to it. He doesn’t fake it. That’s how he is when he drops the puck, and that’s contagious.”
If Tkachuk is contagious, the rest of the team will certainly catch what he has. The Panthers scored 12 goals in their consecutive wins against the Hurricanes, and the improved offense came at a time when Florida needed it most.
The Panthers needed to give their offense more strength and get back to winning ways.
“It’s not about almost fixing it. Okay, the problem is identified. The challenge is that it’s a really difficult game to play,” Maurice said. “Playing that way every night is very, very difficult. And we’ve been searching for a little bit of that emotional well of where we get the energy to play like that. We haven’t had it. I’m not blind. But part of it is that there is a 10-day block leaving Finland. But we weren’t bad.
SPECIAL TEAMS BECOME SPECIAL ONCE AGAIN
Maurice commented Saturday on his special teams units. The special teams are playing the type of hockey the Panthers played before the spell against New Jersey. They are taking advantage of the power plays and scoring goals in short supply once again.
On Friday night in Carolina, Anton Lundell was a goal short. On Saturday against the Hurricanes, the Cats were 3-for-6 on the power play as Mackie Samoskevich, Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues scored on the man advantage. The Panthers and Spencer Knight also defeated the Hurricanes on both of their power play attempts.
“We took the penalties very well and Spencer was very strong,” Maurice said. “The power play changes the game for you.”
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