He is back. On Saturday, Dec. 27, Matthew Tkachuk had to watch his team being outmatched. Literally! Not-so-friendly neighbors from Tampa and Sunrise exchanged “presents”, recording 136 penalty minutes. The Lightning earned 87 of them and won 4-2. A quiet emotional meeting took place at Amerant Bank Arena right after a mini-Christmas break.
The National Hockey League tried to stay game-focused by requesting both teams “to behave” ahead of the big Saturday night. It wasn’t as perfect as the first two meetings this season. But at the same time, it wasn’t as bad as the last pre-season matchup between the Florida rivals, when they collected 322 penalty minutes, 13 game misconducts, some suspensions, and fines.