You don't have to tell Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk to set a physical tone whenever he hops over the boards for a shift, and he did exactly that late in the second period of Monday night's Game 2 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas.
Jack Eichel was carrying the puck out of his own zone with his Vegas Golden Knights leading 4-0 when Tkachuk came out of nowhere and lowered the boom on the superstar center. The Golden Knights quickly rushed to Eichel's defense and surrounded Tkachuk.
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Eichel, when asked about the hit after the game, said it was clean.
Eichel also admitted after the game he had the wind knocked out of him. He returned to the ice soon after and assisted on Jonathan Marchessault's goal 2:10 into the third period that put the Golden Knights up 5-1. Eichel tallied two assists on the night and has four in the series overall.
The Golden Knights cruised to a 7-2 win in Game 2 and will take a 2-0 series lead to Florida for Game 3 on Thursday night.