{"id":464007,"date":"2026-02-09T16:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/464007\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:12:09","slug":"matthew-tkachuk-panthers-teammate-bennett-upgrade-on-point-for-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/464007\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Tkachuk: Panthers teammate Bennett ‘upgrade’ on Point for Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may be the Winter Olympics, but it still feels like Florida in Milan.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the NHL’s Sunshine State rivalry has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, with none other than Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> at the centre of it.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk’s Panthers teammate Sam Bennett<\/a> was a late replacement for Team Canada after Tampa Bay Lightning foe Brayden Point<\/a> was forced to withdraw due to injury.<\/p>\n

“Definitely an upgrade for their team,” Tkachuk quipped on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Panthers and Lightning left North America on a sour note after a brawl in their final game before the Olympic break resulted in 13 penalties, with Tkachuk at the centre of it.<\/p>\n

Lightning and Team Canada forward Brandon Hagel \u2014 who famously fought Tkachuk at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February \u2014\u00a0was also involved.<\/p>\n

“This is so good for the game,” Hagel said post-game, per\u00a0ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski<\/a>. “If you look back in the day, the rivalries were insane. It needs to get back into the game. It\u2019s good for the players, shows a lot about the character of guys on your team. They\u2019re fun. They\u2019re playoff games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the Canada-U.S. rivalry is also alive and well. But the combatants are in different groups at the Olympics, meaning a matchup would have to wait for the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

The men’s hockey tournament begins Wednesday, while Canada’s opener comes Thursday against Czechia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be the Winter Olympics, but it still feels like Florida in Milan. Indeed, the NHL’s Sunshine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-464007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}