Tkachuk, Panthers have fans, celebrities buzzing with run to Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. --Matthew Tkachuk was in the midst of a friendly embrace with NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal on Saturday when a handful of fans started chanting "Let's Go Panthers, let's go Chucky!"

The Florida Panthers forward had just finished a spot on the award-winning "NBA on TNT" pregame show with Shaq, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and host Ernie Johnson in the stands of Kaseya Center in downtown Miami before Game 6 of Eastern Conference Final between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. Now here was Tkachuk, bidding adieu to the larger-than-life, 7-foot-1, 325-pound O'Neal, and it was the hockey player's name that was being called out by admiring supporters.

It was yet another reminder of the good times the Panthers are enjoying these days.

"There's no doubt it's cool to be a Panthers player and a Panthers fan right now," longtime Panthers broadcaster Steve Goldstein said.

Very cool, as Paul Maurice acknowledged.

Having been behind the bench in Canadian hockey hotbeds like Winnipeg and Toronto, the Panthers coach understands the hoopla surrounding his team is nothing like the frenzied vibe in those markets. When he coached the Winnipeg Jets, for example, thousands of fans, all clad in white, gathered in a four-block radius surrounding Canada Life Centre to party prior to playoff games before entering the arena for one of the famed Winnipeg whiteouts.

It's nowhere near as crazy as that here. Chances are, it might never be.

But Maurice, like his players, can't help but notice how the Panthers' Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final -- where they'll face the host Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS) -- has captured the imagination of sports fans and celebrities in South Florida and beyond like Barkley, golfer Brooks Koepka, Heat star Jimmy Butler and Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel.

And Tkachuk has been the poster boy for spreading the brand.

Ten months after being acquired in a blockbuster trade from the Calgary Flames for forward Jonathan Huberdeau, defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, forward prospect Cole Schwindt and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, the 25-year-old has become the face of the franchise. Indeed, his impact has gone beyond the ice, where he's followed up his 109-point regular season (40 goals, 69 assists) and being a Hart Trophy finalist as NHL MVP with a magical playoff run that's featured four game-winning goals, three in overtime.

He was omnipresent when the Panthers hosted the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star weekend Feb. 3-4, mingling with fans, doing countless interviews and winning the event's MVP honors with seven points (four goals, three assists). Earlier that week he was front and center for a boisterous family gathering that included his dad, former NHL player Keith Tkachuk; mom Chantal; brother Brady, captain of the Ottawa Senators; and his 75-year-old grandmother, Geraldine, at a famed Fort Lauderdale watering hole called the Elbo Room.

Maurice said he watched the TNT broadcast where Matthew, acting like an unofficial member of the South Florida chamber of commerce, was wearing an Elbo Room T-shirt. He said the exposure the forward got on that national stage is great for the Panthers and the sport in general.

"It's a great tie-in to expose some people [to the sport]," Maurice said Sunday. "It's not a traditional hockey market ,so it's the people, the personalities, that's really important.

"To see someone like Matthew, he's good, right? He's good at it. It's natural. That's him. There's no act there. It's just good for the fans and the new fans to get to know the players a little bit."

Whether it's Tkachuk doing his thing or goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (pronounced "Sir-jay Bo-bov-ka" by Barkley during a recent broadcast) winning 11 of his past 12 starts, it's easy to see how fans are embracing the entire team, not just Tkachuk.

"You just know that the people you do know that you run across, and a lot of other people that work here, like the security guards, everyone's having their own playoff experience, right?" Maurice said. "Their neighbors are excited about the Panthers because you work there.

"Those are the great stories, the number of people who know someone who's baked a cake every game day since the start of the playoffs."

As of Monday, it had been 42 days since the Panthers opened up their postseason against the Boston Bruins on April 17.

"That's a lot of cakes," Maurice said with a laugh.

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Count Barkley as one of those who has bought into the Panthers' postseason run and jumped on the Florida bandwagon, one that started when Florida squeezed into the postseason by one point as the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"The Florida Panthers are gonna wrap it up... the Panthers are gonna win tomorrow... GUAR-AN-TEE," the former NBA star said on a TNT broadcast Tuesday, one day before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Panthers ended up winning the game 4-3 on a Tkachuk goal with 4.9 seconds left in the third period Wednesday, clinching the four-game sweep that put Florida in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996.

In the building to watch it was McDaniel, decked out in a Panthers jersey. He'd started off the evening by beating on the ceremonial Florida drum, a pregame ritual, and leading the crowd in cheers.

Koepka, who lives 53 miles north of Sunrise in Jupiter, Florida, was also in the house, cheering for his beloved Panthers. During his press conference after winning the PGA Championship on May 21, he said he'd be tailgating at FLA Live Arena the following day before going to see the game.

True to his word, the 33-year-old brought the Wanamaker Trophy, which goes to the PGA champion, to a suite to watch Game 3. Hanging out with him was Brady Tkachuk, who drank from the trophy and even jokingly put it on his head as if it were a hat. Two days later, Koepka was back for Game 4.

For Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, such fun and frivolity is a welcome sight.

The 27-year-old forward, the No. 2 pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, is the longest-serving player with the Panthers; he has 631 points (243 goals, 388 assists) in 664 games with them. He remembers the days when the team had issues filling the stands, a byproduct of a franchise that missed the playoffs five of his first six seasons.

"It's cool to be a fan and a player here right now, for sure," he said. "It's amazing right now, one of the best times of our lives. And we're enjoying every day, every moment, every second of this. We're excited.

"We know ... it's going to be a hard, hard series coming up and we're ready for it, we're getting ready for it. And obviously to see people doing that and talking about us and stuff, it's great."

For Barkov, the key to attracting public interest is simple: Have team success on the scoreboard and in the standings. He said four consecutive playoff appearances by the Panthers have helped in that regard.

"'It's an obvious thing," he said. "If you win, people are going to come to the games and are going to watch you."

People like Koepka, who Barkov saw on the center-ice video board in Game 3. And like Butler, who he saw on TV wearing a Panthers jersey during a recent practice.

"We've always had great fans here," he said. "But obviously, like right now, it's been insane the whole playoffs, how much they support us and how loud the building is.

"It's been great. So, we're enjoying every second."

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If anyone has experienced the roller-coaster ride of the Panthers, it's Goldstein. And after a lot of lean years, he's enjoying the buzz the Panthers' success is creating in the community.

On Saturday he made the 45-minute drive north of Sunrise to meet his mom for breakfast at a bagel joint in Delray Beach. Even there, people wanted to chat about the hockey team, something that might have been unheard of not so long ago.

"Two different sets of random people recognized me and wanted to talk about the Panthers," he said. "It's everywhere. Sometimes I'll go to my gym, it's not even 6 a.m. yet and I'm not even awake yet, and people are coming up to me and saying, 'How about that game last night?' Whether it's at the gym, the gas station, the supermarket, people want to talk about it."

Goldstein began broadcasting Panthers games midway through the 1996-97 season. The Panthers had had a similar Cinderella run to the current one the previous season, culminating in their only other Cup Final appearance. They ended up being swept in four games by the Colorado Avalanche.

"There was a lot of excitement then too, but it was different," he said. "The franchise was only in its third year. It was new to people. They played in downtown Miami at the Miami Arena, almost an hour from where they are now. And the whole thing about tossing rubber rats on the ice, that just exploded."

Prior to a game against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 8, 1995, a rat appeared in the Florida locker room in the old Miami Arena. Former Panthers captain Scott Mellanby immediately used his stick to smack the rodent against a wall. When he subsequently scored two goals in the game, teammate John Vanbiesbrouck told reporters that Mellanby "scored a rat trick." The next night, fans began chucking rubber rats from the stands.

The excitement and momentum quickly subsided.

Though the 1996 Cup finalists were a hard-working team, they didn't boast star players on the level of Tkachuk or Bobrovsky. And after reaching the playoffs again in 1997, they missed the postseason 12 of the next 13 seasons. In a sports-crazed region that includes the NBA's Heat, NFL's Dolphins, MLB's Miami Marlins, University of Miami football and basketball and a number of high-profile tennis and golf tournaments, the Panthers became an afterthought for many.

Now, with the team's recent success, the franchise is attempting to build up a cache of new fans.

"Look, this is a franchise that had some dark times," Goldstein said. "There was a span where it made the playoffs just twice in 20 years. That's a hard way to cultivate fans.

"But it's changed with them making the playoffs the past four times. The hardcore fans, they've been with the team through it all. And now you see all the new ones. It doesn't matter if they don't know all the intricacies of the game yet. The important thing is, they can relate and want to learn."

Eric Staal can relate.

The 38-year-old Panthers forward won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes during his rookie season of 2005-06 and played his first 11 seasons there in what was considered a nontraditional hockey market. As such, he understands the trials and tribulations that can arise for a Sun Belt franchise, especially when it's struggling.

"I think any time there's this time of a run and experience with a team, it's only going to benefit the market and, for that matter, the game in general," Staal said. "I think in Carolina, there were a couple of runs and then obviously a Stanley Cup championship. And the game just grew. There's more kids playing. There's more rinks being built.

"I think that's only going to be the same in this situation. There's going to be kids that have watched this whole run we're on that will fall deeply in love with the game and want to play. It's only going to grow the game and be beneficial for the game in general. So, I definitely see similarities there."

The coup de grace: winning the Stanley Cup in the coming weeks.

"Hopefully we can cap it off the right way," he said. "Then, talk to me in 10 to 15 years and see where the game is at here.

"It's one of those things that will only grow and benefit the game here."

Staal and his teammates are only four wins away from making that happen.