MONDAY COMMENTARY: THE RETURN OF CHUCKY
Photo: Pedersen Media
(Listen daily for the RP Commentary on Cat Country 98 & LTD Radio)
There’s always a reason to tune in. Sometimes you just have to look a little harder for it than others.
And with all due respect to the Canadiens and Jets who will meet Monday night in Winnipeg, tonight’s marquee NHL game of the night on a 5-game slate is the Florida Panthers at the Calgary Flames.
It marks the return of Matthew Tkachuk to the Saddledome.
It doesn’t come with the fire and brimstone of last season, when Johnny Gaudreau and Tkachuk made their first returns to the city where they cut their NHL teeth, after spurning the team the summer before.
No, they’ve already been back once and in the case of Tkachuk, he was met with a lighthearted smattering of boos in an eventual Flames victory over an uninspired Panthers lot.
But a year later, a lot has changed. At least for Florida.
Tkachuk led the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final and is hands-down credited for scoring the biggest goal in franchise history; the Eastern Final clincher to eliminate Carolina in a sweep.
Regrets? None for Tkachuk, who clearly needed a change of scenery and is thriving in South Florida, even if his stats this season are lagging behind expectations.
That’ll come.
The Cats are tied with Toronto for second in the Atlantic Division and are well ahead of last year’s pace.
As for the Flames, unfortunately, not a lot has changed.
They’re three points out of a playoff spot and although Saturday’s 4-2 win over Tampa gave them signs of life, the Cowtown hockey pundits are actually cheering for a tailspin. That way they can sell off whatever assets at the trade deadline and kickstart the long-awaited rebuild. Not too inspiring.
But as for tonight, the two points are the most important thing.
And we still are left wondering how Chucky will be received.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, YouTube Live & Podcast)
The series clinching goal against Carolina wasn’t in Overtime.
Oh? Which was the part where he played hockey with a cracked sternum and had to be lifted out of bed just to get helped to be dressed and problaby should have been in an intensive care unit? He’s Keith Tchuck’s kid and both of them play with an edge. Here is why he left Calgary – there was a time that Calgary/Alberta they could talk the talk and walk the walk, and they dreamt big. – they are as woke as anything and the pandemic made him and a lot of them proud to be Americans. So to quote… Read more »
Calgary … and then they elected a immigrant as mayor part of the master plan to totally take over 🇨🇦