Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk loses his cool after Leafs’ Jake Muzzin post-buzzer puck flip

It’s a somewhat common occurrence in baseball games: A guy who is frustrated or angry heads to the dugout and takes it out on the big Gatorade jug, his glove or the baseball bats, all nicely stacked on the wall.

It’s rare in hockey games that this kind of emotion happens. But that’s pretty much what Matthew Tkachuk did at the end of the Flames’ 4-3 loss to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

After the final horn sounded, Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin flipped the puck at the notorious pest, who was down in the corner on his knees. He got up and went after Muzzin with his helmet sailing off his head as the two were separated by the guys in stripes.

The Sportsnet telecast then showed Tkachuk slamming the bench door as he left the ice — a few times — and taking a swipe at the bottle holder that did have, yes, at least one Gatorade bottle in it.

Tkachuk is the thorn in the side of every NHL team not named the Calgary Flames. Muzzin’s little puck toss at him may have been related to Tkachuk’s actions from Sunday night: The winger was on the doorstep jamming at the puck in the waning seconds of the Leafs 3-2 win when he was knocked over by ex-teammate TJ Brodie into netminder Jack Campbell.

A few speculated on social media that he kneed Campbell in the head on purpose, although both teams dismissed that idea the next day. The Flames’ feisty forward could have also been letting out some frustration.

The Flames’ loss marked back-to-back defeats at the hands of the Maple Leafs who sit in first place in the North Division with 12 points. Calgary is now 2-2-1 and in sixth (out of seven teams) with just five points. The frustration could also be that the Flames have yet to put together a complete 60-minute game and were only able to muster one shot on net in the first period of Tuesday’s battle at the Saddledome.

As coach Geoff Ward said postgame: “We didn’t start on time, that’s for sure.”

Or the frustration could be that Tkachuk, who led the team in scoring last season with 61 points in 69 games, isn’t contributing more in key spots. He does have three goals and an assist in five games, but his first two goals were Calgary’s first tally of the season in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Jets and an insurance goal in a 3-0 win over the Canucks. His third goal did cut the Leafs’ lead to one on Sunday night (that would be the final score) but he wasn’t able to bury the tying goal later on.

The Flames now head to Montreal for a two-game set — not an easy task — before a three-game tilt in Winnipeg. They do not face the Leafs again till Feb. 22-24 for two games in Toronto.