Matthew is a master manipulator. He tells fans and media exactly what they want to hear and sells it well. I think he enjoyed his days in Calgary but his plan was always to leave for greener pastures as he played chess with Treliving who thought they were playing a friendly game of checkers in getting exactly what he wanted and planned from the day he was drafted to a Canadian team. I don't hold it against him. If I was an American I would probably do the exact same thing.
The one thing I will hold against him is that he's played pretty small against the Oilers and in the playoffs in general outside of last season. Guys like Bennett (played 5 less games) and Rodriguez scored more goals in this playoffs for the Panthers so it's not like he willed the team to the cup. It was a team effort with some heroics from Bob and Barkov but when the Panthers really needed Tkachuk to step up in the finals, he really couldn't and that was kind of his story in Calgary. Still an excellent player that now has his name on the cup and loves where he's playing so you can't really argue with any way he's handled his career and his issues against the Oilers are a minor thing playing in different conferences.
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