reminds me of his dad back in the day. when he first came up and we faced him in the playoffs he looked like he had limitless potential as a future power forward with lethal motor.
but then when winnipeg/phoenix built around him as their leader, made him captain at like 21, chose him as the dude over selanne, that set the foundation for a pissy immature and ultimately me first team where established vets, including our coach, went to take late-career two year resort vacations.
look at roenick, unhinged warrior everywhere he ever went other than phoenix, where he wore flip flops and bermuda shorts everyday and was golfing by the time the second round started. look at tverdovsky, whose holdout tkachuk openly cheerleaded in the press, leading eventually to the khabibulin saga. those teams always had decent talent, even in the context of the mid-to-late 90s western conference arms races, but they took on daddy tkachuk’s personality and there was no there there.
licked my chops everytime we faced a keith tkachuk team. it always starts off with him puffing out his chest but you apply a little resistance and he starts taking dumb penalties and disappearing.