Referee calls out Matthew Tkachuk for diving in hilarious viral video
The IIHF World Championship didn’t go anywhere close to the way Matthew Tkachuk and his USA teammates had imagined.
The US were inconsistent throughout the whole tournament, yet they were still able to punch their ticket to the quarter final to face Canada on Thursday. Unlike the Olympics, it was Canada who had the last laugh, picking up a 4-0 win to advance to the semis.
While Canadians were thrilled to see the US sent packing, many also took joy in Matthew Tkachuk being called out on his theatrics by a referee.
In the quarter-final game, the Florida Panthers’ star forward took what appeared to be a clear dive after getting tangled up with defenceman Zach Whitecloud. The referee felt the exact same way and scolded Tkachuk for several seconds afterward.
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“Come on. Hey, Matt! You’re better than this. You’re better than this. You’re much better than this,” the referee barked.
To Tkachuk’s credit, he had no issue giving Canada kudos for being the better of the two teams on Thursday.
“They were definitely the better team today for most of it,” Tkachuk said. “In the third period, I thought we played really, really good. Their goalie made some incredible saves. They ultimately were better for most of the game, so they deserved to win.”
It was rather unusual to see Tkachuk suit up in this tournament, as fans across the globe watched him and his Panthers teammates advance to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past three years. Safe to say, he doesn’t plan on returning to the World Championship anytime soon.
“I was hoping we could ride the high [of their last two wins] and win against these guys today,” Tkachuk said. “We’ll have to wait … I mean, I don’t ever want to be back in this tournament. I want to be playing in the playoffs, but if for some reason I am, [hopefully] we can get another crack at it.”
With the victory, Canada now moves on to face Finland with a chance to advance to the gold medal game. It would mark their first win at the World Championship since 2023.
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