The internet owes Panthers forward Brady Tkachuk a big apology after his second consecutive hat trick

After a scoreless start, Brady Tkachuk scored back-to-back hat tricks for the Florida Panthers, becoming the first player to do so since Auston Matthews in 2024.

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When the Florida Panthers acquired Brady Tkachuk in a trade with the Ottawa Senators over the summer, hockey fans and pundits everywhere bemoaned the fact that an already established champion was slowly becoming a super team.

And who can blame them? After all, the Cats won back-to-back Stanley Cups just 12 months prior, and the only reason they missed the playoffs in 2026 was largely due to historic injuries to some of their biggest stars.

The addition of Tkachuk seemed to make the rich get richer as Florida returned to full strength while adding one of the game's best young players to its roster.

For the first few weeks of the season, the addition of younger brother Matthew appeared to be all smoke and mirrors, with Brady holding zero points through the first five games of the year.

Rival fans were quick to move past this fact, given that both the Panthers and the Tkachuk brothers were seen as polar villains throughout the NHL.

The internet had a field day, but just as fans began to lap up their victory, Brady took heat.

After snapping the streak three games earlier with a shutout in a 5-3 loss at Buffalo, the younger Tkachuk brother had back-to-back hat tricks in wins over Columbus on Tuesday and Vancouver on Thursday, becoming the first since fellow American Auston Matthews in 2024.

His three goals against the Canucks also proved to be the difference, as the Cats needed some of Brady's offensive prowess to pull out a 3-2 overtime victory.

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Matthew became the first player in NHL history to assist his brother on all three of his natural hat tricks.

In short, the Tkachuk brothers are on fire, and if they can carry water for Florida -- along with other Panthers like Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Seth Jones -- while Brad Marchand and captain Alexander Barkov are out with injuries, the Cats could be a dangerous team entering the new year.

There's still almost a full season of hockey to play, but there are plenty of Eastern Conference teams looking under their beds at night now that Florida seems to have gotten its mojo back.

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