Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa opened with boos, stick taps and a power-play goal, but the Senators owned the night where it mattered most. Ottawa smothered the Florida Panthers 5-1 at Canadian Tire Centre, turning a charged homecoming into what coach Travis Green called the club’s most complete game of the season.
Tkachuk, back in the building where he spent his first eight NHL seasons and wore the captain’s C for five, was greeted by sustained jeering during warmups and again when a tribute video rolled before the game. The video’s narration could not be heard over the crowd. Wearing Panthers colors, Tkachuk raised his stick and smiled while current and former teammates saluted him with their sticks.
“It’s new,” Tkachuk said of the reception. “Those were my teammates not too long ago. New experience, once in a lifetime experience in that moment. So, just trying to have as much fun as I could.”
Florida’s new forward briefly gave Ottawa something else to boo. Nine seconds into a Panthers power play, Tkachuk collected the puck near the right side of the crease and beat Linus Ullmark at 10:00 of the opening period. It was his 113th regular-season goal in Ottawa’s building and added to two playoff goals he scored there as a Senator.
That was all the Panthers could get past Ullmark. Ottawa answered with five goals, and Shane Pinto’s marker at 17:18 of the second period gave the Senators a two-goal cushion and brought another message from the stands: “We don’t need you.”
“Yeah, it felt nice, but at the end of the day it wasn’t the outcome that we wanted as a team,” Tkachuk said of his goal.
After the horn
The temperature stayed high from puck drop through the final whistle. The clubs combined for 28 penalties, with Florida taking 15 and Ottawa 13. Scrums repeatedly featured Brady Tkachuk, his Panthers teammates, or both Tkachuk brothers.
The building treated every Panthers touch by Tkachuk as an invitation to boo and every Senators hit as a reason to roar. Chants aimed at the former captain ranged from “Traitor” and “Little brother” to “Timmy’s better,” while the most persistent theme was that Ottawa had moved on without him.
Pinto said the crowd gave the game a postseason edge.
“Very emotional game,” Pinto said. “Obviously the fans were super in it, obviously like a playoff game. That was the most fun I think we’ve had in a while.”
Claude Giroux, playing his 1,355th NHL game in a 20-year career, could not recall another matchup with that kind of hostility toward a former teammate.
“Not that I remember,” Giroux said. “It was a unique game, for sure.”
Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson said even he was surprised by the level of noise directed at Tkachuk.
“I didn’t expect it to be that much,” Sanderson said. “A little crazy, but we’ve got great fans. They’re passionate. They want to see our team do good and win. They brought the energy tonight.”
Tkachuk told the Senators at the end of last season that he would not sign a new deal when his contract expired, despite having two years left on it. Ottawa dealt him to Florida on June 21 for a package of draft picks, sending him to the same club as his brother, Matthew. Wednesday was his 10th game as a Panther.
Before the game, Florida coach Paul Maurice said Senators fans were entitled to react however they felt. If they were hurt by Tkachuk’s departure, Maurice said, they should bring that feeling to the rink rather than follow the mood of the person sitting beside them.
The Ottawa crowd did exactly that. Tkachuk, for his part, said he understood the response.
“Shows the passion that they have,” he said. “One chapter closed and, like I said, a new, exciting chapter that we’re living in. It was nice to be in front of this passionate fanbase.”
Pinto saw it from the other side of the result: a home building fully behind the players still wearing Senators sweaters.
“We love it,” Pinto said. “I think it just shows what kind of passion this fanbase has. They’re going to have the backs of all of us. That was a special night, for everyone.”
