It looks like Matthew Tkachuk can expect a lump of coal from at least one National Hockey League insider this Christmas after the insider in question took to calling out the aforementioned Tkachuk on Christmas Day of all things.
NHL insider Larry Brooks published a column over the weekend in which he publicly called out Tkachuk for his actions in what was one of the final games before the Christmas break for the Florida Panthers. The game in question was contested between the Panthers and the New Jersey Devils this past Wednesday, and it was Tkachuk’s actions towards the end of that contest that rubbed Brooks the wrong way.
There was some controversy coming into the game after an incident that occurred between Devils star Nico Hischier and Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in their previous meeting, an incident that left Barkov with an injury to his knee.
Instead of challenging Hischier throughout the game however, Tkachuk would look to exact his revenge in the final moments of Wednesday’s game. Not only did Brooks take exception and call Tkachuk out for his behavior, but he compared him to another highly controversial figure from the NHL’s past.
From Brooks:
But no. Of course not. While a number of his teammates took multiple cheap shots against Hischier throughout the remainder of that game, Tkachuk waited until Tomas Tatar scored an empty-netter with 39.1 seconds to go in the rematch at Sunrise on Dec. 21 to pull his weasel act and jump Hischier from behind in a scrum.
Page Six believes that would have made Sean Avery proud.
Here is the incident in question:
Was this an Avery-like situation on the part of Matthew Tkachuk? Is Brooks right for calling him out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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