Connor McDavid is preparing for his first Stanley Cup Final appearance. The Edmonton Oilers superstar is captaining his team into the Final against the Florida Panthers. But two Florida players — Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett — are players that McDavid knows all too well.
McDavid has known Bennett since they were little kids. Meanwhile, he knows Tkachuk from their battles years ago. Tkachuk once played for the Calgary Flames, a geographical and divisional rival of the Oilers. Both players joined the Panthers in recent seasons.
Tkachuk and Bennett have helped Florida carve out an identity as one of the more physical teams in the NHL. And it's worked. The Panthers have made the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last two seasons. But McDavid's history with those two means they are unlikely to catch him off guard. “They’re both very familiar to me,” the Oilers forward said Wednesday, via NHL.com. “There are no surprises. They both play hard.”
Connor McDavid, Matthew Tkachuk meet again
This is not the first postseason meeting between McDavid and Tkachuk. The two met during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Oilers took on the Flames. A highly anticipated Battle of Alberta in the second round. In the end, McDavid scored 12 points to help Edmonton defeat Calgary.
Things have certainly changed since then. Tkachuk now plays for the Panthers, and he has emerged as one of the game's more complete power forwards. But McDavid is confident his previous experience with the Florida star will help in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
“I would expect the same guy,” he said on Wednesday, via NHL.com. “The same guy. He’s a great player. Smart, effective, understands the, you know, gamesmanship side of the game. He’s good at it.”
The Oilers got a leg up on the Flames, but couldn't go all the way in 2022. Edmonton fell in the Western Conference Finals that season to the Colorado Avalanche. However, McDavid has a chance to make up for that by the Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
Friends turned enemies
Connor McDavid and Sam Bennett played mini-stick games as children a little bit outside of Toronto. They were also teammates throughout their childhoods. Bennett, like Matthew Tkachuk, also played for the Flames in the NHL but joined the Panthers through trade in 2021. Now, a near-lifelong friendship is put on hold in the Stanley Cup Final.
“Yeah, it’s pretty wild to think about,” McDavid said of playing his friend, via NHL.com. “I grew up with Sammy. We spent a lot of time together, whether it was hockey, mini-sticks, whatever. We were linemates for a long time. Definitely, like I said, a guy I know well.”
“It’s kind of funny to go up against him in a Stanley Cup Final. We played a lot of mini-stick games against each other, I guess. Maybe not as big as stakes as there are today. It’s going to be a really good test. He’s very competitive. He plays hard,” the Oilers superstar continued.
McDavid believes his team is ready for a physical series. This is not the first team they've faced that likes to throw their weight around. McDavid pointed to his team's second-round series with the Vancouver Canucks as an example. Edmonton defeated the Canucks in a tightly contested seven-game series.
Overall, the physicality increases in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now that the Oilers and Panthers have reached the Stanley Cup Final, it'll only increase even more. Game 1 between these teams takes place on Saturday night in Sunrise, Florida.
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