All friendships will be put on hold when the puck drops Sunday night, but Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk raved about Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews.
Matthews and Tkachuk were teammates on Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year, where their friendship continued to grow. It’s been a roller-coaster of a series for Matthews, who delivered his first goal of the series in Game 6, a pivotal moment as the Leafs were on the brink of elimination.
“I think he’s been playing really well this whole series,” Tkachuk said of Matthews prior to the Panthers’ morning skate. “He’s a force at both ends. And I got to see his leadership at the 4 Nations and how he leads by example. I wouldn’t say he’s the most vocal in the room, but when he says something, everyone’s listening. He’s a big presence in the room, that’s one thing I learned a lot. He’s obviously one of the best players in the world, and I think he’s been great this series. It’s tough to shut down a player like that, so it’s going to take all five guys, all four lines, all six D. We’re playing on the road, so it’s going to take everybody tonight. He’s one of the best in the world, so we have our work cut out for us.”
Matthews and Mitch Marner were subject to plenty of criticism following a Game 5 no-show, as the Panthers rolled to a 6-1 victory. It was only fitting that the Maple Leafs’ headlining stars combined for a crucial goal in Game 6, where Marner intercepted an errant pass, got the puck over to Matthews, who beat Sergei Bobrovsky cleanly along the ice.
“It’s a great opportunity for everybody. It’s going to be a great showdown between two amazing teams. This is one of the biggest games in probably the last however many years here in Toronto. We’ve been through these before, we know this opportunity is just as big for us. There’s five teams left, so we have a chance to be one of four after tonight.”
We could be in for an instant classic between the defending champion Panthers and a Maple Leafs team that is firmly in win-now mode, looking to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2002. Until the game concludes, it will be a battle to the end, even if both teams have been complimentary of each other off the ice.