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Matthew Tkachuk hopes there won’t be a fire alarm at his New York hotel
Credit: Getty Images
Last night, two teams took a big step forward in the National Hockey League playoffs, reaching the Final Four.

The Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers (the two teams I’m seeing in the finals, by the way) officially emerged from their divisions as winners.

Both teams are now at the halfway point, having closed to within eight wins of the Stanley Cup.

On the Stars’ side, it’s still unclear whether those first four wins will have to come against the Edmonton Oilers or the Vancouver Canucks.

But on the Panthers’ side, we already know they’ll face the New York Rangers in the conference final, starting Wednesday at 8pm in New York.

The first two games of the series will take place at Madison Square Garden, where the atmosphere will be all the crazier.

Mathew Tkachuk himself can’t believe he’ll be playing in the conference final at Madison Square Garden.

However, he’s hoping that his hotel in New York won’t sound the fire alarm, as it did in Boston yesterday.

As I explained yesterday, the fire alarm went off in the middle of the Panthers’ players’ nap at their hotel, clearly disrupting their pre-game preparation.

There’s clearly something fishy about all this, but in the end, karma will have struck the Bruins, given that the Panthers won Game #6 and thus eliminated the Bruins.

Tkachuk preferred to laugh about it after the game, but had he lost, he clearly wouldn’t have been happy about the situation.

In the end, Tkachuk and the Panthers find themselves in the conference finals for the second year in a row, and it’s clearly not a simple fire alarm that will stop them.

The Rangers had better not pull the wool over their eyes, as this could further cringe Tkachuk, who is already pumped up.

He showed his excitement and joy to Bruins players and fans in the final seconds of yesterday’s game…

Also of note from the end of yesterday’s game, the beautiful handshake between Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand.

Bennett had hurt Marchand earlier in the series, but from what we can see, Marchand doesn’t seem to hold a grudge against Bennett.


En Rafale

– It was indeed an excellent series.

– Charlie Lindgren changes his mind and joins the United States at the World Championship.

– Without him, the Bruins never get this far, even though he should have stopped the Panthers’ winning goal last night.

– Read more.

– To be continued.

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