Tkachuk caps 'extra special' weekend as MVP of 2023 NHL All-Star Game

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Matthew Tkachuk had barely been handed the MVP award for the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game and was already trying to give it away.

Maybe, he joked, it should have gone to someone else. Like, say, Atlantic Division and Florida Panthers teammate Aleksander Barkov, who made up the only non-Tkachuk on their line.
"For him to be able to deal with
Brady
and I, he should have won MVP, just dealing with us," Tkachuk quipped.
Barkov seemed to agree.
"It was actually fun," Barkov said, deadpan. "I wasn't expecting that."
He added, "All my passes were just like give the puck to them. I don't think I touched the puck in the offensive zone at all."
But no, the award and the weekend belonged to Matthew Tkachuk, the player who has made South Florida his home after the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Calgary Flames to the Panthers on July 25, 2022, for forward Jonathan Huberdeau, defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, forward prospect Cole Schwindt and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
By the time the Atlantic defeated the Central Division 7-5 in the final at FLA Live Arena on Saturday, Tkachuk had seven points (four goals, three assists) in two games, including three goals and two assists in the Atlantic's 10-6 semifinal win against the Metropolitan Division, finished off with a breakaway goal with 3:11 remaining to complete the hat trick.
He had gotten a chance to show off not just his city, but his skills. And even his brother, Brady of the Ottawa Senators, was in awe. They had always dreamt of playing together, thinking the best chance might be with Team USA, given they were in different divisions until this summer.
And then it happened.
"I can't imagine how many hours I've spent watching him, so just to be on the same ice, know a little bit of his tendencies, but I don't realize how good he is until I'm on a line with him," Brady Tkachuk said.
Matthew said, "It made it extra special."
Tkachuk was a star during All-Star weekend, showing off what hockey is like in South Florida. He hammed it up in the Great Clips Breakaway Challenge with his beach-themed shot at the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKIngs Sportsbook, though he ultimately lost to the tandem of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
"To be honest, I really didn't care about anything other than just representing my team," he said. "It's a big honor to be one of the representatives, along with 'Barky,' to be the host city. Without everybody saying it, it kind of revolves around us a little bit with having the home crowd on our side, doing the big skills and starting the game, having the fans basically just cheer for us. It's a big deal.
"So, no pressure with it, but we definitely felt that we had to do our part throughout the weekend to show what a great place and what great fans we have."
The season might not be going as the Panthers or their fans had expected or predicted -- they're three points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference -- but it was as though Tkachuk could do no wrong Saturday.
"I'm going to get some grief for continually heaping praise on the guy," Florida general manager Bill Zito said. "As talented a player as he is and as dynamic a personality, he's that good a guy. And that, I think more than anything else, is what at the end of the day is going to make him not just a fan favorite, but a franchise driver."
He certainly drove the weekend and, especially, an Atlantic Division team that was trying to live up to expectations as the "home" team in South Florida.
"He brought the energy to an All-Star Game," Zito said. "The Tkachuk brothers were the ones that were rah-rahing everybody, let's play hockey."
It wasn't only that that made this an All-Star weekend for Matthew Tkachuk. He was the one ushering the kids in the locker room around to other All-Star players, exhorting them to not just get autographs from the hockey players, but also pictures with them. Matthew, after all, had once been one of those kids, trailing at the heels of Keith Tkachuk, himself a five-time NHL All-Star.
Zito sighed, amazed.
"He's just a great person," he said.
There was one sour note for Tkachuk in the weekend, though. When asked what he might change for next year's All-Star Game to make it even better, Tkachuk had a ready quip.
"Probably just a better judge in the
Breakaway Challenge
," he said.