THE SERIES ON HIS STICK

Patience is an underappreciated virtue in a goal scorer, especially when nearly 20,000 fans are yelling “SHOOT!” When Matthew Tkachuk scored his game-winning goal with under five seconds in regulation in Game 4 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Final, he waited an extra second and allowed traffic to clear in front of the net while he moved to a more advantageous scoring position before netting the now-iconic goal. “I wouldn’t say it was easy, but not too many guys have the patience he had at the end,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “It was so loud, there was so much excitement, it was great.”