You may either love or hate Matthew Tkachuk but you sure can’t keep him out of the news. Recently, when injured Matthew Tkachuk made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, many wanted just to listen to the superstar player but some couldn’t hold themselves from criticizing him. And as for Sportsnet’s Eric Engels, he thinks the latter group should shut up.  

The NHL analyst did not mince his words as he bashed fans who have flooded X with their criticism of the Florida Panthers star. “Perhaps the worst takes on this website full of awful takes are from the people going after Matthew Tkachuk for doing the @FallonTonight. This kid and his brother are doing wonders for elevating hockey right now—a sport that has desperately needed this buzz for decades.” 

Matthew Tkachuk was at the Jimmy Fallon Show and fans called out the Florida Panthers star for attending the show despite a lower-body injury he had sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off — an injury that has not allowed him to return to the NHL yet. But when asked about the same at the show, “Yeah, I’m feeling better. Just recovering right now.” But fans think the injury and the recovery are just part of a scheme to ensure that Tkachuk is at his best going into the playoffs. As for Matthew, he is still on cloud nine after getting to represent his country in a best-on-best competition.

“Last two weeks I was representing my country. Was something that I’ll never forget,” he said, steering away from the topic of his injury. He also expressed his excitement about the 2026 Winter Olympic games, which, he hopes will end his country’s gold medal drought.

But wait, let’s move on from Matthew Stafford’s Jimmy Fallon appearance and talk about both the Tkachuk brothers. What exactly was Engel referring to when he said that Matthew and his brother Brady Tkachuk are doing “wonders” for the sport of ice hockey?

Matthew Tkachuk and his brother took 4 Nations to a different level

The 4 Nations Face-Off turned out to be more successful than anyone expected it to be. Yes, the political tensions between the USA and Canada did play their part, but Matthew Tkachuk and his brother Brady made sure that they created their own buzz as well. The USA’s round-robin game versus Canada in which the brothers decided to literally take the fight to the neighbors was witnessed by an average of 10 million people across North America. For perspective, that far exceeded the viewership of any non-Stanley Cup Final game since 2014.

The fights that the Bash Brothers engineered and the constant media attention they justifiably attracted only increased the hype for the much-awaited finals with the average viewership in North America reaching 16 million. Yes, you read that right. It became the second-most watched hockey game in the past decade since Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals which attracted 16.3 million viewers. The common thread between the two games? Matthew Tkachuk. No brownie points there.

This shows that Engels had a point. The vibe Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk have created, and the energy they generated in the hearts of Americans were insane. As for Matthew Tkachuk’s injury and return, there are still some question marks on that. Question marks that only time will be able to address.

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