Tkachuk caught on hot mic with wicked chirp of Draisaitl
This in from the USA vs Germany game, multiple reports and video of Matthew Tkachuk of Team USA chirping German star Leon Draisaitl.
Reported ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski: “Matthew Tkachuk to Leon Draisaitl, on mic: “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.”
Said St. Louis hockey commentator Thomas Welch: “Chirps like this backed up with the high end skill he possesses is why every hockey fan absolutely loves Matthew Tkachuk.”
And former Dobber hockey writer Chris Pudsey: “Leon couldn’t hear him. He had his Hart, Rocket Richard, Art Ross, & Ted Lindsay trophies plugging his ears.”
And New York hockey blogger Joe Fortunato: “The Rangers need this attitude so bad.”
And Oilers fan Kevin Jamieson: “Love to hate Chucky.”
And Chicago Blackhawks beat writer Vinnie Parise of the Hockey News: “This is a good chirp for Matt Tkachuk, but it’s completely false. Leon Draisaitl has a little bit of Evgeni Malkin in him. Whenever McDavid is out, Leon rises even more. The year McDavid missed the back half of the season, Leon won the Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Art Ross. He has also won the Rocket Richard in another year. Side note: Tkachuk’s Panthers are not playing well without their bride: Sasha Barkov.”
In late June, after the Florida Panthers beat Draisaitl and the Oilers for the second year in a row in the Stanley Cup Final, Tkachuk was filmed taunting Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid at a Stanley Cup celebration party.
“Connor McDavid who?!” shouts Tkachuk into a mic, igniting the crowd into a profane chant about McDavid.
On his 32 Thoughts podcast at that time, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman referred to such incidents during the Panthers’ current celebrations: “I think the rivalry between Tkachuk and the Oilers is very real, very real. And it goes back to that Battle of Alberta, that playoff series where the Oilers won in five games… When Calgary lost to Edmonton in that playoff Battle of Alberta… the Oilers felt that they broke the flames. They ended that group, right? Like, that team was pretty much broken up after that… I’ve talked before that the Oilers had kind of discussed that. And the Flames knew the Oilers felt that way… One of the flames players from that team told me the worst thing about it is, like, ‘We have to eat it because they’re right. They beat us so badly that we were never the same team again.’ Right? The team was gone. And so I think the feelings between Tkachuk and those Oilers are very real.
“And some of the other players who were on that flames team and those Oilers are very real. So Tkachuk beats them twice in a row and it’s a little bit of revenge for him. And, you know, don’t forget in that series, the Battle of Alberta, Kane got the better of him. He took him right out of the series. This time, you know, Tkachuk gets the better of Kane. And I would bet, like, seeing those Pink Pony Club videos and things like that, it grinds on the Oilers, that Tkachuk got them again. It’s hard enough to lose the Stanley Cup Final, but I would bet it grinds on those guys, that Tkachuk got them again. I’ve heard between the players on those teams, it’s very real, very real.”
In the 2022 playoffs, Evander Kane of the Oilers famously got in the face of Tkachuk.
Asked by the Journal’s Jim Matheson in March 2022 about jousting and verbally sparring with Tkachuk after a face-off, Kane said of the player: “We know what he’s about. There’s never a lot of back-up to that talk.”
My take
1. If Leon Drasaitl needed any more motivation the next time Edmonton plays the Florida Panthers in the playoffs, he’s now got it.
2. Matthew Tkachuk has mastered the role of Ugly American. But if he was on the Oilers, we’d all love his game and his big mouth, right?
