The one good thing that has come out of Matthew and Brady Tkachuk’s prolonged absence from the NHL is their podcast. “Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk” offers fans a window into the brothers’ candid conversations with each other. Two episodes in, and it is already a treat for hockey fans.
The Florida Panthers may have defeated the Edmonton Oilers to keep the Stanley Cup in the Sunshine State, but playing against a generational talent like Connor McDavid ought to be unnerving. As for Matthew, he bluntly put his opinion forward about managing a player of McDavid’s caliber: you need reinforcements.
Matthew Tkachuk On What It Means to Play Against Connor McDavid
Once you are on the ice, playing against the Oilers, how do you contain a player like McDavid? His speed and infinite hockey wisdom are enough testimony to why he is considered larger than life in the community. But as an opponent who needs to win, how do you tackle the Oilers captain, who is just as hungry to lead his team to a victory at any point in time?
The topic arose in the latest episode of the Wingmen podcast. Brady shot a question to his brother, asking what Matthew would do if he ever came face-to-face with the lethal shot that McDavid had deployed against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which enabled the Oilers to win 5-4 in overtime.
Tkachuk, a winger with a notorious reputation and an indelible part of the Panthers, was at a loss for words. Tkachuk believed that Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and blueliner Gustav Forsling have played crucial roles in containing McDavid on ice.
“I mean, I guess, to answer your question, like how do you stop that? I don’t know. But every time he was out there, Barky [Barkov] and Forzee [Forsling] would be out there,” Tkachuk stated on the podcast. The Panthers winger added that to increase the chances of containing a shot like that, perhaps every team needs Barkov and Forsling in their roster.
“So maybe if every team could get Barky and Forzee out there, that’s maybe how you could attempt to stop it. But his hands are so quick and he is that fast and that smart.” According to Tkachuk, charging against McDavid all alone without reinforcements is just an exercise in futility.
“So you just got to make sure that there’s at least two or three guys. Like in a one-on-one situation with that much speed and that bad of a gap, like he is going to make you look silly. I just don’t think you can buy it. Maybe just back up and hopefully shoots it through you and try to get a block. I do not know,” Tkachuk added.
Tkachuk fails to offer any foolproof plan to contain McDavid on ice. Eventually, the brothers joke about relentlessly interfering with the Oilers captain’s sleep the night before a game to ensure he doesn’t get any rest at all, wondering if that is the only way to get the better of McDavid: just another silent nod to the standout center’s mettle.
