When St. Louisans talk about stuff that they’re proud of from our city, there are a few things that you will typically here. Toasting our ravioli, the self-proclaimed best baseball city in America, and the occasional joke about how we’re a perennial #1 seed in the annual “Which City Has the Most Murder” tournament (some people might even say we’re the Duke University of murder, but that’s neither here nor there). But right now what Matthew Tkachuk is doing in the Stanley Cup playoffs is absolutely something that St. Louis can stroke ourselves off to.
Through 16 playoff games this year he is at 21 points with 9 goals and 12 assists, putting him 2nd in scoring out of all skaters left in the playoffs behind only Roope Hintz (who has 2 more games played than Tkachuk as of now). That stat line alone is more than enough to get him the Conn Smythe if he keeps up this pace and the Panthers finish off this run with a Cup win. But what makes this not just a Conn Smythe-level playoff performance but one of the greatest playoff performances in NHL history is when he is scoring those points.
I mean has one guy single handedly won a series for his team more than that in any of the 4 major sports? To add onto that insane stat line above 9 of his assists are primary (for you non hockey people that means his pass was the one that directly led to the goal), and when Matty is on the ice 5v5 these playoffs the Panthers are outscoring their opponents an asinine 14-5.
When David Freese did what he did in the 2011 World Series I just assumed that we would never see a guy from St. Louis put on another legendary post season performance like that, but what Tkachuk is doing this year is the stuff of legends. Oh and by the way, Matty has been keeping the receipts from any fan bases or media that doubted the Panthers going into the post season and coming to collect in his post game pressers.
Right now the hockey world is in the palm of Matthew Tkachuk’s hand. You see debates online on who is going to grow the game more, McJesus or Matty. A lot of the NHL media is stating that he is cementing himself as the best American born hockey player on the planet in today’s game.
……..and the Blues almost got brought him home last year.
Last summer in St. Louis it almost felt like a guarantee that we were bringing him to his home town until you got the news on his trade to FLA. It felt like emotional castration, the chance at the Blues having their first legitimate superstar in almost a decade. But you can’t really blame him for wanting to play in South Beach to the sweet tune of $9.5 million a year.
It would have been incredible to see him rocking the Blue Note for the foreseeable future. We’ll just have to settle for him winning the Cup with Florida knowing he’ll be bringing the Cup to OB Clark’s sometime this summer.
Matthew Tkachuk.
Captain fucking America of hockey.
The St. Louisan.
The Morning Skate 