Brady Tkachuk turns first Florida Panthers goal into memorable hat trick

Brady Tkachuk finally scored his first goal as a Panther tonight in Columbus, then kept going until he had a hat trick.

Spittin' Chiclets shared the moment with a simple warning: don't let Brady get hot.

The clip shows the Columbus goalie sprawled in his crease as Panthers sticks pile in around the net.

He came into tonight with one assist and a -5 rating, though he'd made his presence felt with a big check on Kirill Kaprizov that touched off a scrum.

Earlier this week, this column said Florida's patience had a shelf life. Turns out it only needed one more game.

It's like a writer stuck on a blank page who suddenly fills three chapters in one night.

Florida pays him $8,208,714, and nights like this are exactly why.

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Brady Tkachuk scores first Panthers goals with hat trick against Blue Jackets

The Panthers came in having lost two straight, including Monday's 5-3 loss in Buffalo.

Tonight is the back half of a back-to-back, so the timing couldn't have been better.

Florida is still without Aleksander Barkov until at least Nov 27 and Brad Marchand until at least Nov 21.

Matthew Tkachuk came in leading the team with 3 goals, and his brother matched that in one night.

Sam Reinhart has 2 power-play goals of his own.

Florida had scored just 12 goals through six games before tonight.

Columbus came in at 2-2-0 after a 5-3 loss in St. Louis on Saturday.

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Adam Fantilli carries a $13,750,000 cap hit and had 2 points coming in for the Blue Jackets.

Rick Bowness will be looking for answers after one player did that much damage to his group.

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The Panthers visit Ottawa on Oct. 21, and that crowd now gets a much hotter version of the player who spent last season there.

Florida hosts Vancouver on Thursday and Seattle on Saturday before that trip.

Is this the start of a real run, or just one big night?

Don't let Brady get hot, they said. Too late for Columbus, and Ottawa might be next.

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