"Mr. Irrelevant lmao": NHL fans react to Ryan Reaves' altercation with Matthew Tkachuk 

NHL fans reacted online to the clash between Toronto Maple Leafs' Ryan Reaves and Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk during Monday's game.

It all went down in the second period when Reaves and Tkachuk got into a heated argument. In the tension, Reaves made a sarcastic, "I'm so scared" gesture toward Tkachuk, prompting hockey enthusiasts to share their thoughts on X, formerly Twitter.

One fan tweeted:

"Mr. Irrelevant lmao."

Another chimed in:

"Guys worse than prime zack stortini, nobody cares about him in this league."

Here are some of the other top fan reactions on X:

"If I’m the Panthers I want Tkachuk out there everytime Reeves is out there."

"Leafs are tough for the first time in decades and it feels GOOD!"

"Nope, those are jazz hands. Weird flex by Reaves!"

In the post-game interview, Reaves mentioned that it was crucial to acknowledge that the Panthers are a high-intensity team and felt that it was important for his team to match that intensity and style of play:

"I think it was, you know, a point of focus that, you know, they're [Panthers] a high-intensity team. You know, they play hard, they play physically play in your face and very direct and that was something that we had to do right back to him."

Reaves added:

"I thought, you know, we came up with that exact way that we talked about, obviously, a good team's not gonna go away in the third but we did a lot of good things in the second period, the first and second to pull it off."

How Ryan Reaves and Maple Leafs beat Florida Panthers

On Monday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena. The Maple Leafs delivered a solid performance, defeating the Cats 6-4, registering their third consecutive win as well.

Auston Matthews accumulated three points (two goals and an assist) on the night to set a career-high with his 61st and 62nd goals of the season. The forward is now on pace for 69 goals for the season.

Nicolas Robertson and Matthew Knies collected a goal and assist in the matchup for the Leafs (43-22-9), who sit third in the Metro Division and have won five of their past seven games.

David Kampf and Tyler Bertuzzi were the other scorers for the Leafs. Meanwhile, Ilya Samsonov ended the contest with 26 saves on the night.

Brandon Montour, Vladimir Tarasenko, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart were the scorers for the Panthers, who have already punched their ticket for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Ryan Reaves and the Maple Leafs are getting closer to booking their spot for the playoffs. They take on the Tampa Bay Lightning next on Wednesday.