from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

If Matthew Tkachuk really wants to hurt the Vegas Golden Knights, all he has to do is play hockey. The evidence was in the Florida Panthers’ desperate 3-2 overtime victory Thursday in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Florida coach Paul Maurice said before the game that discipline was a “touchy” subject for his team, which was like a climate scientist saying global warming is a touchy subject for the Earth.

If only global warming were as easy to fix (or at least acknowledge for some) as discipline. In the two days between the second and third games of the National Hockey League final, Maurice seems to have fixed the discipline problem with Tkachuk.

Florida’s best player, a Hart Trophy finalist this season and one of the best players in the world, Tkachuk spent more time in the penalty box (36 minutes) than on the ice (34 ½ minutes) during the first two games against the Vegas Golden Knights when the Panthers looked a little like 18 Hanson brothers from the Johnstown Chiefs and lost both contests by an aggregate score of 12-4.

No wonder discipline was a touchy subject on which Maurice, at least with reporters after the morning skate, did not much wish to elaborate. Presumably, his discussions with Tkachuk and the Panthers were exhaustive.

In Game 3, Tkachuk’s only timeout was in the quiet room, where he may have felt pain but no shame when tardy concussion-spotters from the NHL ordered him off the ice in the first period after the Panthers’ biggest star absorbed a hellacious-but-legal hit from Keegan Kolesar.

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The game highlights are below.