The NHL gets a handful of “you have to see this” goals every season, but not many arrive with the full package: breakaway pressure, a defender closing, a goalie set, and a finish that still looks like it belongs in a video game.
That’s what Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk delivered Saturday night in Elmont, New York, when he scored a between the legs goal against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena, the kind of clip that instantly got the “goal of the year” label attached to it for a reason.
What happened on the play
The goal came in the first period and was Tkachuk’s second of the game, giving Florida a 2–0 lead. On the sequence, Tkachuk jumped a play, picked off the puck, and in one motion pulled it between his legs and lifted it past Ilya Sorokin.
Goal of the year? Goal of the year. pic.twitter.com/lNu6X5B9gO
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) March 28, 2026
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The larger context: Florida scored first, then the game flipped hard
The goal became even more notable because the game didn’t follow the script after Florida went up 2–0. The Islanders responded with a five-goal second period and went on to beat the Panthers 5–2, with Tkachuk scoring both of Florida’s goals.
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So yes, Florida lost, but the loss didn’t erase the highlight. Tkachuk created a viral moment for himself and the game of hockey.
Why “goal of the year” talk isn’t overreaction
“Goal of the year” gets tossed around too easily in every sport. This one has the ingredients that keep it alive through April and beyond:
Timing and pressure: early in the game, score-altering, not garbage time.
Difficulty: between-the-legs finishes in stride are hard enough; doing it cleanly with an NHL goaltender set is harder.
Style without slowing down: the move didn’t look like a player stopping to perform. It looked like the fastest solution to the problem in front of him.
And Tkachuk’s track record matters. He’s not a random name who caught lightning once. He’s a player who lives around the net, creates turnovers, and makes chaotic plays look repeatable, which is why a play like this doesn’t feel like an accident (and it certainly wasn’t).
The bigger trend: Hockey highlights travel faster now
There’s also a reason goals like this feel bigger than they used to: the league’s best clips are instantly packaged and distributed everywhere. This goal was posted and reposted across team accounts, league channels, and highlight aggregators within hours, turning a single finish into a league-wide conversation before the game’s final horn had time to cool off.
For fans, that’s a win. It turns a random Saturday night game into a moment people are talking about the next morning, like we are now. And for the NHL, it’s exactly the kind of clip that pulls casual viewers in, one replay, one “how did he do that,” and suddenly people are looking up the next Panthers game.
Bottom line
Florida didn’t get the result in Elmont, but Matthew Tkachuk produced a finish that’s going to live all season, a legitimate, serious goal of the year candidate.
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