Multiple MAJOR Panthers updates

There are multiple major updates regarding Alexander Barkov, Brad Marchand, and, yes, Jakob Markstrom. Big time updates on their return coming up on this episode, as well as a look at the Kachuk brothers. How have they done this season? Where are they on track in terms of goals and assists for this season, if they can keep up this ferocious pace that they've pretty much got into in the last several weeks? Guys, this is Panther's Digest. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Comment, like, share, subscribe, hype up the video. I appreciate all you guys tuning in, supporting me, the channel, and the Florida Panthers. So, a lot of really good news coming in from the Florida Panthers and from the insiders there, because Brad Marchand and Alexander Barkov started skating yesterday. Marchand is out about three weeks away from returning, and Alexander Barkov around four. So, that sets us up for a late November return for both of them. I'm not going to get into. What game do I think they'll be back in? We're too long away from that. I think we still need to wait and see. How are they skating? How do they feel? Maybe they feel better. God, I hate the cars that come by right near my house. It's ridiculous. Sorry about that, guys. But I don't want to go and put any thought into when do I think they will return. Let's just stick to the three to four weeks for each one because maybe they come back a little earlier. Maybe it's a little later. That's what they said earlier when they first got injured. Hey, look, here's the timeline, roughly that. Maybe it's sooner, maybe it's later, who knows. But they started skating yesterday. That is the great news. So, gonna show you what the head coach had to say. And this is what he had to say about that. He said, we're happy, our head coach, Paul Maurice, that is, we're happy with where they're at. Typical kind of easy does it from our head coach. And when he says that, that usually means pretty much on track. So, three weeks for Brad Marchand, four weeks for Alexander Barkov. Now, on to Jacob Markstrom. He is also skating. Maurice says he's not far off. Now, what does that mean? I don't know. I mean, maybe we see him back in a week. I think, yeah, with Schmidt playing the way that he's been playing, he's been looking very solid in the last couple of games. The last one he played in was great, but also going against a Winnipeg team that had just lost, technically their starting goaltender, but really wasn't their starting goaltender because he was holding out and not playing. Got traded, kind of a gut. punch to that team so I could see why their balloon was pretty deflated and we just literally handed one to them and just took that one easily. But I think the team also played very, very well. All right. Yes, Winnipeg is not the greatest team, but they're also not the worst team in the NHL. So let's not discount the fact with what has happened to that team. They still have some great skaters, great players on there. So I'm not going to take away anything from the talent that is still there. Power play looked great. Schmidt looked great. But it's good to have Markstrom be on the way back. Let's hope it's in the next week or so. Because we're right in that timeline when he should be returning. So, all good news there. Just to go back on it. Marchand, three weeks out. Barkov, four weeks out. Markstrom, I would say any day now. Let's not say in the next game or two. Maybe we see him in the second game of being at home. But I don't know. Maybe they'll rest him and get him going when we get back on the road. Yeah, it's still a tough road ahead for us because the NHL put us on a really, really hard schedule for being on the road a lot for the first about six weeks of the season. Then it becomes a little bit more of that, okay, some games at home, some games away. Instead of four on the road, then one at home, then three on the road, then two at home, then four on the road again. It's been ridiculous. But anyways, no excuses. They're playing great. I like the start of the season. Especially as hard as it's been, they've fought through a lot of things, but good, looking great. Let's just hope they have a really solid follow-up game at home tomorrow night against the Winnipeg Jets that we just played the other night. So, hopefully they dominate again. Power play numbers are up, looking awesome. Team feels good, looks good. I like it, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Got some hard games coming up, especially with Boston in about a week and a half or next week, I believe. Don't quote me on that. I'm not really sure exactly what the schedule is for that, but I know they're coming up in the next about 10 days. Anyways, Matthew Kachuk and his brother, Brady Kachuk, have been on a tear for the Florida Panthers. Numbers have been ridiculous, that brotherly chemistry is there, some of the guys on the team are joking, Carter Verhagen says something like, well, I think it's that brother chemistry that's there that, you know, they can just feel each other out and what's happening on the ice and they're finding each other and they're lighting the lamp a lot and hooking each other up pretty much. We're going to talk about the numbers so far this season and kind of looking ahead at what can we expect if they can keep this pace up of play, finding each other. Power play has been tremendous, especially for Matthew Tkachuk. He is on a pace like we've never seen in his career. Here's what Paul Maurice had to say about Matthew Tkachuk. One thing about Matthew is he's better this year than he's ever been. He's faster than he's ever been, so he's improved. It's also the first summer in four where he's actually got to train because he was injured on the two others. He rehabbed, but he didn't train. He continues on to say this. I want to break this up for you guys. Well, actually, here's Matthew Tkachuk's numbers. Sorry, I skipped one there. Here we go. Here's the second half to that. There you go. He put a lot of good work in this summer, a little quicker. And in hockey, we're talking about five or six inches. If you can create that, if you can find it, you make that. These guys can make that play. And that's what we're seeing from him. So he's been putting that little bit extra effort in and it's showing. He wants it. And with his brother here, I think he knows they can get there. Here's Brady Kachuk on what it's been like playing with this team so far this year. I've been having a blast. It's just been so much fun being down here. Just a great group having the time of my life. That's awesome to hear. He's not saying Ottawa fans, don't take this the wrong way. He's just calling it like he sees it. Somebody asked him, how do you feel about being on this team right now? This is what he had to say. Okay? Don't get your panties in a twist. Chill out, guys. He's not bad-mouthing your team. Don't take this out of context. He's having the time of his life. He's playing with his brother. He's playing with world champions. Stanley Cup champions, guys. Of course he's having the time of his life. He's scoring. It's like pond hockey, in a sense, at certain games. Now, don't be like, we'll look back at the Ottawa game. I don't care. It's so early on. The team's going to have its ups and downs. It was an off night. That crowd was ferocious, and by the way, shame on you guys for booing him during the tribute. That's disgusting to do. You can boo him for the rest of the game, but don't do it during the tribute video. My God. My goodness. So anyways, moving forward with that, here are Matthew Tkachuk Tkachuk's numbers on the season. Four goals, 16 assists, plus one, 20 points on the season. The one thing I want you guys to see, power play points. He's got 11 of them. One game-winning goal. He has been on a tear, and I'll show you his numbers for the season in just a moment. Awesome numbers. And he's 1.54 points per game right now in the season. Better than a point and a half. Here are the numbers throughout his entire career. Put it up here so you can see a little bit better. There you go. I highlighted the 22-23 season because you can see 69 assists the year before 62 and the year after 62. Back-to-back 100-point seasons. He's on pace to do better than that this year. Look at the power play assists he had in 2023. He had 22, then 26 in 23-24. This year, he's got 10. I mean, the power play points there because of the goals, but those are power play assists. He has 10 assists, one goal on the power play. He has been key to the success of our power play. And Sam Reinhart, by the way, has five power play goals leading the team. He is on pace to hopefully get to where he was a couple of seasons ago, where he was just dominating and finding the back of the net consistently on the power play. So for Matthew Tkachuk's numbers, if you want to look at that 2022-23 season, compare it to today. We've played roughly 15% of the season with 13 games out of the way. Four goals, 16 assists. If you're going to do the math and you say, all right, if we do multiply his goals and assists by six, then that takes us to about 90% of the season done. So he's still got 10% left. He's going to score somewhere between 24 and probably 32 goals on the season, but have 96 or more assists. He's going to be on track for 120 points season. That's remarkable. He looks phenomenal. He's finding his teammates five on five or on the power play. He's finding it. He's grooving. He's feeling it. I love it. So I just want to throw that out there. He's on pace for that. I don't think he's going to be stuck with this mediocre goals for average right now. I think he's going to have more than that and he'll slow down the assist category. But right now, I think he's more about finding his teammates than he is about actually scoring goals. If he's open, he's going to throw it at the net, but he'd rather find his open teammate for the higher chance shot, the better shooting percentage. Get the assist, man. That's, I think, a harder thing to do than it is to actually throw the puck at the net. Finding your teammate. Now let's take a look at the opposite end of this. His brother, Brady Tkachuk, who he's been finding left and right to simplify the numbers. 15 points on the season, 8 goals, 7 assists. Minus 2 rating, that will go up. Shooting percentage has been great, 20%. 9 power play points. I'll show you all of his stuff. He's averaging better than a point per game. One game winning goal. Time on ice, 16 and a half minutes. He has been solid as well. Here are his numbers throughout his career. I didn't highlight most of this because he's been pretty consistent through everything. What's remarkable is last year, only 60 games under his belt, 22 goals, 37 assists. Right now, like I said, multiply his stats by six, he's going to have 30-plus goals on the season and between 35 to 42 assists, maybe more. I say that because we still have 10% after you add in that, you multiply that six in there, and he's got three power play goals and six power play assists. He's been great. Both of these guys have been nothing short of fantastic this season. Got to give them credit where credit's due. They've been grooving. They've been feeling it. The brothers have found the connection. I think that line with Bennett is dynamite. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Barkov and Marchand both come back. How are the lines going to change? Are we going to see the good old Barkov-Verhage-Reinhardt line be the top line, and then the Tkachuk brothers with Bennett be the second line, and we already know the third line and the fourth line? Is that what we're going to see? Let me know what you think down below. Is that what we're going to see when they come back? Do you like what you're seeing from the Kachuk brothers? Do you think they'll keep up this crazy pace of play, scoring and assisting, doing all that? Or do you think they're going to cool off? I know there's some tough games coming up. I still think they got it. I still think they're going to be throwing them at the net, putting up goals, putting up assists, big numbers this season for both of those guys, and hopefully for years to come. Anyways, that's it. Comment down below what you think about that. While the guys coming back from injury, Jacob Markstrom coming back, Schmitz to play, all of that, comment down below, guys. Until next time, go Cats.