Brady Tkachuk was never broken, and the Canucks are next
Twelve shots and no points through five games, then five points in two: the Bennett line was built for exactly this.
Brady Tkachuk never had a scoring problem. He had a finishing problem, and finishing problems usually correct themselves when a player keeps returning to the same ugly real estate in front of the net.
Through his first five games as a Panther, Brady put 12 shots on goal and got nothing for them, by our count. In the two games since, he has five points, with the same habits, the same address at the top of the crease and very different bounces.
Anybody who spent last week wondering whether Bill Zito paid three first-round picks and a second-rounder for a glorified hitter can sit down now.
What changed (not much)
It wasn't his minutes. He's averaging 17.1 a night, per NHL data, and he played 16.3 in the hat-trick game, which is less than the 19.6 he got in San Jose on Oct. 1. His power-play deployment has drifted downward as well, from 6.6 minutes that night to 5.4 in Columbus.
What changed is the line. Paul Maurice put Sam Bennett between the Tkachuk brothers late in the home-opener loss to Minnesota, then kept them together through a 5-3 loss in Buffalo.
"They brought a little juice," Maurice said. "They're all heavy, they can all forecheck a puck and hang onto it."
That's the whole design: three forwards who'd rather go through defenders than around them, plus a coach patient enough to let the line lose a game before it won one.
The Columbus night
Brady scored three times in 8:03 of the second period on Tuesday, two of them on the power play. He's the eighth Panther ever to score a natural hat trick. Matthew had five assists on one shot. Florida's power play, a punchline through the opening week, went 4-for-6 after arriving at 3-for-32.
The night before in Buffalo, before any of the goals, Brady threw seven hits and made the first pass on Sam Reinhart's tying goal. That was his first point as a Panther. I'll take that version every night, goals or no goals, because that's the guy who wins you a series in May.
Lineup watch:
With Sasha Barkov and Brad Marchand both out, this line isn't a fun experiment anymore. It's the top six.
Matthew has a point in six straight games and 10 points through seven, by our count, while Brady has five, all of them in the last two. Bennett has gone three games without a point, so he's the one who owes the room a little something.
Tonight's opponent is the right one for it.
Vancouver comes into Sunrise on the fifth game of a road trip. The Canucks are 0-5 in their last five with a minus-14 goal differential, and their penalty kill sits at 57.1 percent, per NHL data. Put a heavy forecheck that draws penalties against a kill that can't stop anything, and you can do the math yourself.
Pabs' read: Brady scores again tonight, and Maurice doesn't touch this line until Barkov is back. Dale.
