Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk made a bold statement about former Washington Capitals winger TJ Oshie and his shootout skills ahead of the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament last week.
Tkachuk told podcaster Jon “Stugotz” Weiner he would choose Oshie over Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky to score a shootout goal to save his life.
“That’s so tough,” the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion contemplated. “I feel like I saw somewhere once Gretzky said he didn’t like breakaways, which I find that that’s not true, but one of my favorite moments in sports history was watching Oshie in the four-shootout-goal game, so I’m going to take Oshie.”
Tkachuk was, of course, referencing the immortalizing moment of Oshie’s career where he practically single-handedly led Team USA over Team Russia at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The then-27 year old scored four times on Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, now Tkachuk’s Florida teammate, in the shootout of the two nations’ group stage match.
It is, indeed, tough to compare the two in a shootout context. Oshie tallied 49 such goals in his 16-season career (tied for the third-most in NHL history), but the shootout was not introduced until the 2005-06 NHL season, long after Gretzky had retired. He did, however, notch a single penalty shot goal and many, many scores from breakaways.
