Matthew Tkachuk's Latest Achievement Could Be Bad News for the Panthers

It's bee quite the summer for Matthew Tkachuk. He celebrated winning the Stanley Cup in exciting fashion, got married, and is also about to undergo some pretty serious surgery to fix some important injuries.

But his latest accomplishment will see Tkachuk be visible to tons of non-hockey fans as well, as he was named to EA Sports' NHL 26 video game cover, depicting him holding the Cup with a wide grin on his face.

The full reveal of the game will occur on Wednesday, August 6th, where no doubt Tkachuk will be front and center of a potential gameplay trailer, as well as likely showing him raising the Cup in game.

However, while this is a great honor for any athlete given the prestige that goes along with it, it also comes with a very intriguing caveat that some fans might know as 'The Madden Curse'.

Tkachuk is part of a group of athletes who graced the cover of an EA Sports video game, and while his future season is undetermined as of yet, we can go through history and see that there may be something to a supposed 'curse'.

In terms of the NHL, only two teams have made it past the second round one time with a player representing that team on the cover, and only three times did they make it past round one.

While nothing is guaranteed, two is a coincidence, and three's a pattern; so if things keep going the way they have, then the Panthers might be in trouble.

This is coupled with the fact that Tkachuk is likely to miss the majority of the season due to recovery from surgery, and though he should be back for the playoffs, who knows where the Panthers are going to be sitting in the Atlantic upon his return.

But going past the NHL, we have the most famous curse of all which is the Madden Curse. Several top stars have fallen victim to off-field issues, injuries or simply just being one and done in terms of being a star. Most notable names include Michael Vick and Dante Culpepper.

So for now we have to wait and see if the EA Sports curse is going to affect Tkachuk, but history is often doomed to repeat itself.