“My experience, from the time I started getting off the phone [for introductions after being hired], was ‘This team is different.’” We don’t know how it happened. But somehow, the Panthers-Paul Maurice combination has worked wonders every time. Is it because of the locker room culture that everybody keeps talking about? Is it the adept team building by General Manager Bill Zito?

Well, it seems like everyone in the organization has had a part to play in this sustained success. And maybe Matthew Tkachuk was just acknowledging that with his gesture following the Eastern Conference finals (ECF). As for Paul Maurice, he shared with the hockey world why his alternate captain did what he did. So, what’s the story you might be wondering about? Let’s dive in.

The Panthers head coach, Paul Maurice, was doing the presser on May 31, before the Stanley Cup finals started on June 5. And one of the reporters mentioned the Matthew Tkachuk incident. “There was a moment after game five (of the ECF), where you (Maurice) ask him (Tkachuk) who should get in the team photo, and he says everybody, all the staff. Just what does that mean?”

The Panthers HC had a story to share, which tells why this organization has been the most consistently successful team in the last 3 years. “There’s a story there, and it goes back three years. So, the first one, when we were kind of on the ice, I only wanted the players in that picture. So, I don’t think that the players get enough time alone with each other … that’s why I feel so strongly about the handshake line. That’s not my place. I didn’t play.”

Fair enough. What he was talking about was the 2023 ECF when they had beaten the Hurricanes to qualify for the 2023 Stanley Cup finals. “The next year, we win, and we’re getting together, and Matthew says, “Everybody’s in the picture.”” The Panthers head coach continued, “And that seemed right at that point because there’s all these other guys, right? And it’s almost more the trainers, the guys that you know … who don’t get that time. So, he did that last year. So, there was no way we were changing from last year. Everybody’s in, come on.”

It was quite thoughtful of the Panthers forward to think of the guys behind the scenes, who, as the reporter earlier mentioned, constituted the “heroes behind the scenes”. There are so many cogs moving together to make an entire team successful. The coaches, the players, the trainers, the physios, the management, the data analysts, and so many more departments are interconnected, which makes the success happen.

And Maurice shared how Matthew Tkachuk himself is. “He’s very aware of all the people around him. That they all are made to feel special.” And it’s not like a duty that Tkachuk writes down in his notebook, which he has to carry out. “It’s real. That’s who he is. It’s not like, ‘Hey, the right thing for me to do is make sure all these guys get in.’ It’s, ‘I really want all these people in this. I want to, we’re connected like that’ … ‘I want them to feel what we feel because they’re a part of this’.”

The Panthers HC explained that his players, one way or the other, in their own way, have made sure everyone in the organization shares the good times. And that starts with having a principle that promotes ‘no-star culture’.

Matthew Tkachuk also helps Aleksander Barkov in the locker room

The narrative of the Florida Panthers’ success in the 2024-25 postseason has been their amazing locker room bonhomie. Brad Marchand, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad – so many big names in the roster, but when it comes to being a Panther, their stature is the same. And Captain Aleksander Barkov takes it upon himself to ensure this. “I think that’s all Barkov,” Paul Maurice had said in a pregame presser on May 21.

The HC shared how it worked for their locker room: “If you didn’t know the face and you walked into that locker room or walked onto the airplane or watched him, you couldn’t tell who the star was in that room.” And Matthew Tkachuk would also take the lead for the cause. “Matthew’s like that, too. I know, like Matthew and Brad, some of the older kind of the guys … who make the media more, and I understand why they do. They’re one of the guys in the room.”

And people are seeing it in their game. A former Stanley Cup winner, Pat Maroon, had the know-how to realize what the Cats are doing on the ice; it’s because of what they are doing in the background. Coming on the Pat McAfee Show, the, the former NHL forward mentioned, “I’m a firm believer if you have those relationships inside, uh, it’s going to carry over on the ice … you’re going to, you know, stick up for your teammates, you’re going to play for the guy beside you.”

In front of the whole world, Matthew Tkachuk showed that they all celebrate their wins together, the whole Florida Panthers family. Will this philosophy help them cross the finishing line in the 2025 Stanley Cup finals?