Florida Panthers

Matthew Tkachuk played Game Four of the Stanley Cup Final with a broken sternum and had to be dressed by Panthers teammates

The Vegas Golden Knights took home the 2023 Stanley Cup on Tuesday night. That means that no competitive advantage remains to be gained and all of the playoff injury horror stories can now be made public.

Perhaps the biggest of all those stories pertains to Florida Panthers superstar Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk played sparingly in Florida’s Game Four loss to Vegas and missed Game Five altogether and now we know why.

He had a broken freakin’ sternum.

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By Chris Cerullo 3 months ago

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Adin Hill does his best Braden Holtby impression with unbelievable stick save in Game One of Stanley Cup Final

The Vegas Golden Knights won Game One of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final 5-2 over the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Vegas was powered to the victory by a three-goal third period and a 33-save effort from goaltender Adin Hill.

One of those 33 saves was more important and more impressive than the others. Hill made an unbelievable desperation stick save on Nick Cousins in the second period that kept the score knotted at 1-1. The second period would end 2-2 and Hill’s save allowed the first of those three third period goals to go down as the game-winner.

Hill’s diving reach with his stick drew parallels to Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby‘s similar save against the Golden Knights in Game Two of the 2018 Cup Final.

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By Chris Cerullo 4 months ago

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Rod Brind’Amour says Hurricanes did not get swept after getting swept: ‘We didn’t lose four games’

The Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 27 years after eliminating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final during Game Four on Wednesday night.

The Panthers, by virtue of winning the first four games of a best-of-seven series, completed what is called a series sweep. As in, the Hurricanes did not win a single game. They got swept.

But don’t tell that to Hurricanes’ head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Rod understands his team’s season is over, but during his post-series press conference, he revealed that he did not believe Carolina was swept or lost all four games in a classical/moral-victory sense.

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By Chris Cerullo 4 months ago

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Florida Panthers sweep Carolina Hurricanes after Matthew Tkachuk scores game-winner in final five seconds of the game

The Florida Panthers continued their reign of dominance Wednesday night, sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Eastern Conference. To say the Cats have outperformed expectations is an understatement–the same team that barely squeaked into the playoffs will now move on to the Finals for the first time in the 21st century.

Carolina was in the game right down to the wire, managing to tie the game 3-3 with 3:22 left on the clock. But Matthew Tkachuk came in just before the buzzer, scoring perhaps the most important goal of his career with just 4.9 seconds remaining in regulation.

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By Katie Adler 4 months ago

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Panthers defeat Hurricanes 3-2 with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime – the sixth-longest game in NHL history

The Florida Panthers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in the fourth overtime to take a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final.

Game One lasted a marathon 2 hours and 19 minutes and 47 seconds. It was the sixth-longest game in NHL history — replacing Game Four of the Capitals-Penguins from 1996 as the longest four-overtime game.

“That’s the worst way to lose,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour admitted. “There’s no way around that.”

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By Ian Oland 4 months ago

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How a series of plays from Radko Gudas eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs from the playoffs

The Florida Panthers finished off the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game Five of their second-round series on Friday night. The Panthers got an overtime-winning goal from forward Nick Cousins to send the Leafs packing in front of 20,000 very sad Torontonians.

Cousins may have gotten the final glory as the scorer of the eliminating goal, but it was a series of plays from defenseman Radko Gudas that created the opportunity. And, no, it didn’t involve The Cheese Wheel sitting on anyone.

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By Chris Cerullo 5 months ago

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Mitch Marner laughs after getting punched directly in the face by Matthew Tkachuk: I ‘don’t really give a flying f’

The Toronto Maple Leafs avoided being swept by the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. Not only did the Leafs beat the Panthers 2-1, but they also appeared to beat them at their own game.

As the final horn sounded of Game Four, a fracas broke out between the two teams. Matthew Tkachuk, who is essentially human sandpaper, punched Mitch Marner directly in the face twice as a referee tried to separate the players.

Marner responded by laughing, appearing to enjoy and crave more violence.

This is what the NHL playoffs do to people, folks.

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By Katie Adler 5 months ago

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Radko Gudas uniquely scolded for some of his rough postseason play: ‘I don’t like when you try to sit on people’

The first round of the 2023 NHL playoffs has been incredibly physical and officials have doled out a whole bucketload of penalty minutes in response. One of the more rough and tough defenders active in this year’s postseason is Florida’s Radko Gudas.

Gudas is definitely not shy when it comes to throwing his weight around and trying to get under his opponent’s skin. That has been on full display in the Panthers’ first-round series matchup with the Boston Bruins.

So much so, that Gudas had to be warned by an official during Florida’s Game Five win on Wednesday to cease some of his behavior. It was an interesting and unique request from referee Frederick L’Ecuyer, to say the least.

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By Chris Cerullo 5 months ago

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Angry goaltender alert: Linus Ullmark tried to fight Matthew Tkachuk, chucks blocker and glove

It’s been a week of unexpected truculence during Round One of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The latest example came in Game Three of the Bruins-Panthers series during a net-front battle with less than five minutes to go. A fracas broke out and it almost led to a fight between Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk and Boston’s Linus Ullmark.

Ullmark didn’t want a piece of Tkachuk, he wanted the whole dang pie.

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By Katie Adler 5 months ago

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Trent Frederic says he was almost choked out on the ice by Ryan Lomberg: ‘The lights were going to turn off for a second’

The Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers were involved in a very heated and rough Game Two of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday. The drama stemmed from a high elbow headshot from Bruins forward Tomas Nosek on Panthers forward Eric Staal.

That play resulted in a lengthy, expletive-filled argument between the two benches during a stoppage in play.

The raucous conversation only served to raise the temperature in the final minutes of the game and that was most on display when Florida’s Ryan Lomberg put Boston’s Trent Frederic into an almost MMA-style choke submission.

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By Chris Cerullo 5 months ago

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