The Florida Panthers are out living their best lives right now, enjoying the summer as Stanley Cup Champions.
For many of them, they’ve had a little practice.
This weekend is the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament, which takes place in beautiful Lake Tahoe.
Among the amazing group of athletes and celebrities who received an invite to the tournament was Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk.
It’s his second time playing at the ACC after making his debut last summer.
On Friday, Tkachuk and rest of the golfers will play their respective opening rounds at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort.
Tkachuk will be in a group with actor Miles Teller and NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and they’re set to tee off at 11:30 a.m. ET or 8:30 a.m. local time in Lake Tahoe.
After shooting a practice round on Wednesday, Tkachuk sat down for a quick interview with Stugotz and Taylor Vippolis, where he mentioned some interesting interactions with some suspected Canadian hockey fans.
“I’ve got gotten a few here today that I’m sure are from western Canadia, like, can you just let Edmonton get it? Do you feel bad for them?” he said. “I’m like, you don’t feel bad for anybody, because at the end of the day, we lost to Vegas a few years ago, and nobody gave a shit about us.”
After back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, the Panthers appear poised to continue raking in the championships.
They have a stacked roster that’s locked up long term and look to have plenty of additional financial freedom to continue building up the team in the coming years.
Even with the success they’ve had the past few years, don’t think that’s going to lessen the motivation for any of the players in that locker room.
“It would crush me to have this good of a team, that we have for the next however many years, and waste the opportunity,” Tkachuk said. “That’s kind of the motivation now. We have such a good team and such great people that you just want to keep winning it for them.”
Speaking of great people, Tkachuk was quick to defend Panthers fans when Stugotz said most of them only showed up recently.
“What I’ve seen from my time in South Florida is they care a ton, so much about hockey, more than I could have ever pictured,” Tkachuk said of Panthers fans. “I’ve love playing there. It’s been the time of my life, the best thing that’s happened to me in my hockey career, and I’m looking forward to hopefully another (Stanley Cup).”
