Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice spent part of his postgame media session Saturday afternoon discussing Matthew Tkachuk’s presence in the lineup.
Tkachuk didn’t score in the 6-0 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes, but his on-ice performance brings a certain intensity that Maurice likes.
“Our whole game is better on some emotional level and he’s the driving force behind that,” Maurice said. “Everybody is, but Matthew brings intensity to the game every night. He’s just into it. He doesn’t fake it. That’s who he is when the puck drops, and it’s contagious.”
If Tkachuk is contagious, the rest of the team is sure to catch what he’s got. The Panthers scored 12 goals in the wins against the Hurricanes, the improved offense coming when Florida needed it most.
The Panthers needed to pack more offense and get back to winning ways.
“It’s not about some kind of near-fix. That’s fine, the problem is identified. The challenge is that it’s a really hard game,” Maurice said. “To play like that every night is very, very difficult. And we were looking for a little bit of that emotional well of where we get the energy to play like that. We didn’t have it. I’m not blind.” but some of it is about a 10-day block leaving Finland, but we weren’t bad.”
SPECIAL TEAMS WILL GET SPECIAL AGAIN
Maurice commented on his special teams units on Saturday. Special teams are playing the kind of hockey the Panthers played before the spell against New Jersey. They use power play and again shoot short.
On Friday night at Carolina, Anton Lundell scored a short-handed goal. Against the Hurricanes on Saturday, the Cats were 3-6 on power plays as Mackie Samoskevich, Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues scored while on the man advantage. The Panthers and Spencer Knight also shut out the Hurricanes on their two power play attempts.
“We did extremely well on the penalty kill and Spencer was really strong,” Maurice said. “The power play is kind of a game changer for you.
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