(The Department of Player Safety announced that Zack Kassian will face a Monday hearing.)
Following their violent exchange and the Flames taking advantage for a 4-3 win vs. the Oilers, you’d wonder if Zack Kassian and Matthew Tkachuk settled down. Instead, the two added more fireworks by trading barbs after Tkachuk delivered hits and Kassian cascaded punches on the “young punk.”
A quick recap of the events
- During the first period, Tkachuk leveled Kassian with a hard hit. It looked like Tkachuk made contact with Kassian’s head, but no penalty was called.
- Late in the second, the big moment happened. Watch in the video above and you’ll see that Tkachuk landed another borderline check on Kassian. Kassian reacted with vengeance and furious anger, ragdolling Tkachuk around and delivering a vicious attack.
- Tkachuk once again avoided penalties for his hits. Kassian received a misconduct, and most importantly, a double-minor for roughing.
- The Flames ended up scoring the game-winning goal during their ensuing power play opportunities.
Kassian, Tkachuk trade trash talk after the game
If you want to cut to the chase and just see some of the main comments, the tweet below captures the gold. Just be warned: the language is a little, maybe, blue from Kassian in particular? You may smell wafts of toxic masculinity, or at least “locker room talk.” Earmuff your kids, in other words.
Zack Kassian and Matthew Tkachuk continue the hatred in the post-game pic.twitter.com/f6MmgNiPrb
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 12, 2020
Glorious, glorious, mutual disdain.
If you’d rather not click on video:
- Kassian called Tkachuk a “young punk” and then a-not-family-friendly p-word. Kassian then accused Tkachuk of dodging fights with him, claiming that the old excuse of Kassian being “a fourth-liner” no longer applies.
- More fun talk from Kassian revolves around how much he wishes this was a playoff series where the two teams would just keep bashing heads in a compressed period of time. Allow me to request more Battles of Alberta, please.
- Tkachuk gets the check and mate, though. First, Tkachuk said that if Kassian doesn’t want to get hit, “stay off the tracks.” Tkachuk wondered why Kassian didn’t “learn” after the first time.
- Tkachuk turned the knife big time at the end of his statement, saying that if Kassian reacts and takes a penalty, “we’ll take the power play, we’ll take the game-winner, and we’ll move on to first place.”
- Ouch. Tkachuk’s barb was so good it needed a reactionary bullet point.
It wasn’t just those two flapping gums, either. Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg reports that Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson razzed Kassian after the game.
“They’ve got a lot of pretenders out there. It’s really nice to beat those guys,” Andersson said during Steinberg’s postgame show.
“That’s one of the biggest coward moves I’ve ever seen from Kassian. We make guys like that pay. That was a coward move…that’s the kind of player he is.”
Comments spicy enough to burn your tongue.
Kassian can get a swing at Tkachuk soon enough
Feel free to disagree, but I chalk this up as either Tkachuk 2 or Tkachuk 1, Kassian 0.
Tkachuk correctly stated that the Flames are now in first place in the Pacific, and they’ve won five in a row. The Oilers, meanwhile, sit as the West’s first wild card.
Kassian gets something reasonably close to his wish. While the two teams don’t face off again in the next week, they do lock horns again soon. The teams end January and begin February with a home-and-home set. Then they finish the 2019-20 regular season with a game in Calgary on April 4.
The Flames won the first two games in the season series in 2019-20, so they’re thriving by the metric of “Living well is the best revenge.” Will Kassian get the best of Tkachuk yet? I have no clue, but I’m ordering up as much popcorn as I can find for their future meetings, either way.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.