The Stanley Cup playoffs can be excruciating. The tension and the pressure are unrelenting, and your mind is unable to wander freely for up to two months at a time. The physical demands are unfathomable, your battered body crying out for sleep that it won’t let you have. It’s a battle of attrition and a test of will. Just how badly do you want your name on that silver chalice? Just how much are you willing to endure?

That’s playoff hockey. Pain. Suffering. Sacrifice. An exquisite torment.

So what is Matthew Tkachuk’s problem?

Everywhere you look in these playoffs, the Florida Panthers star is smiling. He’s smiling in the team photos on the scoreboard, where everyone’s supposed to look all mean and scowly. He’s smiling in the middle of post-whistle scrums, laughing off facewashes and grinning through the cross-checks he gives and takes. He’s smiling during his scrums with reporters. And he’s sure as heck smiling when he’s darting out the door, orchestrating his now-patented “Bus in 10” celebration after scoring overtime winners.

This guy’s out here enjoying himself. During the playoffs! Is that even allowed? Maybe everyone was right when they tried to paint him as the “villain” of these playoffs. How dare he.

“Why play if you can’t have fun?” he said before Monday’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. “We’re enjoying each and every minute of it. The banter in the locker room before overtime, the pregame skate, just being able to be together and continue to be together a month and change after some teams have been out — we’re just having such a great time right now, just having fun each and every day at the rink.”

No, no, no, no. That’s not how this works, sir. You’re supposed to be talking in military cliches and occasionally wincing dramatically and using “grind” nine times in a five-minute scrum, not “fun.” This is war. This is history. This is legacy. Man, hockey isn’t some kind of game.

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