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The Muzzin incident was probably just the tipping point for Tkachuk.

He has not had a lot of support while he's been here from his teammates.

You look at how the Capitals support Wilson, and it's day and night compared to the Flames and Tkachuk. Or even how the Canucks supported Burrows and Kesler and Torres, etc.

Tkachuk has pretty much had to fight his own battles while here. I can only recall about two times where a Flame has had Tkachuks' back:

1) Engelland standing at the line in warm up talking #### to the Kings during the Doughty incident;

2) Ferland stepping in to take on Bieksa when he went after Tkachuk.

Both of those guys are gone and both were good buddies of Tkachuk's.
That's it, all the other times, he's had to fight his own battles. There was no reason for him to fight Kassian. Lucic should have hunted Kassian down at the opening faceoff and beat his face in and if Tkachuk decided he wanted to answer the bell, then Lucic should have had his back and picked a fight with Nurse, an equally important player to the Oilers.

Over the past few seasons, every time a Flame player takes a bad hit, it's Tkachuk who goes after the guy and fights him. Last year, the obvious one was Gaudreau taking the big hit from Holl.

I've long noticed the lack of support from his teammates so I don't think this is a "one time" thing and reaction to the Muzzin incident. He simply does not have the support of his teammates in that dressing room, maybe that's his fault, maybe he is a prick in the dressing room, who knows, but I don't get the sense his teammates like him very much and I don't know if it's all about the on ice.

Maybe there's fault everywhere. Tkachuk is at fault for not picking his spots, but his teammates haven't really been there to support him either.