Matthew Tkachuk made a huge splash with his return in Round 1 Game 1 against Tampa Bay. The Panthers’ alternate captain scored two goals and notched one assist. “You see him be able to step into a game and be impactful,” said teammate Nate Schmidt. Yet since then, Tkachuk has had a goal-scoring drought in the playoffs, finally scoring a goal since Game 3 against Tampa.

While his impact is still undeniable, with 8 assists and 12 points, he hasn’t significantly contributed to the Panthers’ recent goal-scoring frenzy. The defending champions have scored 18 goals in the last four games. Naturally, the media have been asking questions. However, the 27-year-old referenced none other than Alex Ovechkin to clarify his stance on scoring goals, hopefully for good.

“We’re up 2-0. I do not care how we get there,” said Matthew Tkachuk after Florida thrashed the Hurricanes 5-0 in Game 2. “I’ve never cared. Sometimes it’s nice to go in, but it is what it is sometimes. I’m not Ovechkin, so they’re not always going to go in,” the Cats’ star added, saying he’s not hungry for goals like the NHL’s all-time goals leader, who broke Wayne Gretzky’s record this season.

And for a while, the ‘Gr8 Chase’ was all the NHL world could talk about. While Matthew Tkachuk certainly doesn’t dislike scoring goals, he doesn’t want the spotlight solely on himself, especially at this stage of the NHL playoffs. After all, they’re in the Eastern Conference finals as the defending champions, and the Cats don’t want this one to be as nail-biting as last season’s conference finals against the New York Rangers.

Instead, Tkachuk and Co. want a clinical and decisive victory over the Hurricanes. That was apparent when the Cats’ alternate captain took a cheeky jab at their Conference Final adversaries ahead of the series. “We packed for three games,” Tkachuk told Paul Bissonnette. While the Panthers will need to win 4 games before they make it to the finals, it was the 27-year-old’s sly way of saying they would like to sweep the Canes. And it seems the Cats’ star doesn’t need to score goals to beat Carolina.

Panthers praise Matthew Tkachuk’s leadership

Matthew Tkachuk last scored in the postseason during Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Although not contributing to Florida’s high scoring run since then, the alternate captain’s impact has been substantial. Tkachuk has left his indelible mark by dishing out hard hits, creating opportunities, and overall technicality. Don’t take our word for it, the Panthers’ captain himself praised his teammate.

“He always plays well,” Cats’ captain Aleksander Barkov said about his teammate. “He’s one-of-a-kind player and we’re lucky to have him on our side. He does it all for us. He’s huge for us,” Barkov told the media after Game 2. Matthew Tkachuk earned this praise despite not scoring a single goal in 10 straight playoff games before finally scoring one in Game 2 against the Canes.

The NHL forward himself avoided talking about his goal and instead drew attention to his team’s performance. “It was an unreal start for us. Now the goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets,” the Scottsdale, Arizona, native told the media. Cats coach Paul Maurice also shared Tkachuks’s views about the game.

The Stanley Cup-winning coach explained that he didn’t care about the stats or who scored the goals. “I don’t care who scores, I really don’t,” said Paul Maurice. Instead, he focuses on how the team plays and what’s going on during the game. In fact, Maurice already proved that when he challenged Carolina’s only goal in the match, to be an offside. And guess what? The Eagle-eyed coach was right. So whether Matthew Tkachuk scores goals or not, things are not looking good for the Canes.