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.
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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.
