One-On-One With Senators Captain Brady Tkachuk: Health, Performance, And Hearing The Heat From Fans

Everything gets thrown under a microscope after a tragic loss, and the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s disastrous loss was no exception.

Inexplicably blowing a 3-0 lead, the second multi-goal lead the Ottawa Senators had blown that week, at a critical juncture of the season, when the organization is fighting for its playoff lives, will leave a fan base seething.

When there is anger, there’s an accompanying tendency to lash out.

The media takes heat for not being critical enough or being too soft with their line of questioning. The coaching staff is criticized for their team’s shortcomings. Management catches flak for their inability to stem the tide or for reacting too late to easily identifiable problems.

Others dwell on lines on the game sheet.

Zero shots. Zero hits. A minus-one rating.

It was an uncharacteristically nondescript performance by Sens captain Brady Tkachuk that left fans questioning his level of engagement.

Tkachuk would eventually be credited with a goal originally belonging to Dylan Cozens, but it is hard to ignore how prevalent these directed criticisms of Tkachuk have become across certain parts of the internet.

A large portion of the blame lies in this tendency on social media to vacillate between two extremes. It is like people have this compulsion to viscerally react to every event or story without much concern for context or the bigger picture. It does not help that revamped algorithms on ‘X’ have shelved a chronological timeline, preferring to amplify tweets that often elicit engagement through ‘hot takes’.

Tkachuk has not paid attention to the “white noise,” as head coach Travis Green would describe it.

“No, I don't worry about that stuff,” Tkachuk explained ahead of the Senators’ game against the Carolina Hurricanes Saturday. “People have a right to their opinion, but all I care about is the opinion of the guys within this room.”

As the captain and leader of this team, Tkachuk is an easy target, especially after the launch of his ‘Wingmen Podcast’ earlier this season. Everyone wants a focused Tkachuk to set the tone for this group.  

He is a unicorn, a rare power forward who has a unique blend of skill and physicality that every team within the NHL would love to have.

Tkachuk's skill set is so unique that when he has games like Thursday night’s game against the Predators, it gets magnified; even though it came days after he had two massive games against the New York Rangers (1 goal, 4 points, 6 shots, 2 hits) and Montreal Canadiens (1 goal, 8 shots).

With the Senators’ fading playoff chances, fans want to see the version of Brady that appeared in last year’s 4-Nations Face-off.

"I'd like to be at that level every single game, but 82 games is a lot of games,” Tkachuk admitted. “There are days when I think everybody who's ever played can say that there are games where they tried everything that they could, but nothing was going their way.

"For me, it's limiting those moments and those games. Would I like to be at my absolute best for 82 games or for every game of my career? Yeah, I think everybody would, but that's just hockey. Sometimes the bounces don't go your way, and when they don’t, you just have to try to stay within yourself and focus on playing your game.”

Since returning from injury on November 28th in St. Louis, Tkachuk has produced at a point-per-game clip, recording 12 goals and 29 points in 29 games. Only 37 players in the league have produced more during this time than the Senators’ captain, and only 18 players have recorded more hits than Tkachuk’s 81.

Relative to his ice time, Brady is still generating some impressive metrics.

According to Natural Stat Trick’s five-on-five data, since his return, Tkachuk has averaged 2.62 points per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time (40th in NHL), while he has posted the 15th highest shots per 60 (iCF/60) rate.

In terms of where his five-on-five metrics track relative to his career norms, they are pretty close.

Considering the context of Tkachuk getting hurt in the fifth game of the season with a torn thumb ligament that required surgery and forced him to miss 20 games, the hope is that Tkachuk’s game will continue to get better the further removed he is from his surgery.

If his thumb is bothering him, he is not letting on.

“It is good,” he professed. “No issues. Surgery hasn't hampered me whatsoever. I feel like I have now worked on plenty of (exercises) to keep it the same or even better.”

After injuring his groin at the 4-Nations Face-off last year, Tkachuk has played very few games while being 100 percent healthy.

"The thing is that I am not the only one who deals with that stuff,” Tkachuk said while downplaying any frustrations. “(Injuries) are a part of it. It's part of the job description that there's gonna be some days, months, I’m grinding through things.

"That can't stop me from playing the way I know I need to play. It's never an excuse to use when you have injuries.”

Although he acknowledges that his hand is not hampering him, he recognizes the injury’s role in preventing him from fighting.

"I definitely miss that side of the game,” the power forward professed. “The only thing that is stopping me is the tape. I have got to keep that on and keep (my thumb) protected.

“But hell, do I miss the fights, the adrenaline, and the energy? Yeah, but so be it. I’ve just got to bring more of my game to help balance that out.”

It is slightly ironic that for years, a segment of this fan base wanted Tkachuk to fight less because he was more valuable to the team on the ice. Now that he cannot fight, another segment of the fan base wants him to be more engaged on it when the team needs a spark.

Before seemingly every practice last season, it was commonplace for Tkachuk to be out early putting work in on his shot. One noticeable tendency this season is that Tkachuk has not shot or scored from distance as often as he did last season.

An encouraging sign from that New York Rangers game was Tkachuk skating down the right side on a two-on-one during the first period and wiring a snap shot past Jonathan Quick.

“Yeah, it felt good,” Tkachuk stated. “Unless you're one of the best shooters, then it is really hard to score from distance in the NHL.

“Many goals come from screens and from in-tight rebounds. For me, I have got to trust my shot in those moments, but my bread and butter comes from being around the net and keeping my stick available.”

If that goal is a precursor of things to come, it stands to reason that Tkachuk’s confidence will continue to grow. When he is confident, he becomes an extremely difficult player to play against, and that is the version of the player Sens fans want to see more of.

They just do not want to wait around for the Olympics to see Tkachuk elevate his game to that level.

If it does, it will inevitably foster cynicism in this fan base, and it is already a sensitive group. Having watched star players be jettisoned during the previous regime, there is an unmistakable feeling of resignation within a sect of this fan base that Tkachuk is headed out the door.

With two years left on his contract, which brings him to unrestricted free agency at the end of the 2027-28 season, there is a fear that Tkachuk will follow the path of his brother and elect to play for an American-based organization. To his credit, Tkachuk has repeatedly gone out of his way to affirm that he is his own person, with his own story and path.

Ultimately, whether it is lip service or not is inconsequential.

The real test occurs in July of 2027, when the window to sign Tkachuk to a contract extension opens.

In the interim, it is up to the Ottawa Senators organization to prove to its captain that it is doing everything within its power to move things forward. And similarly, it is probably in the interests of the fan base not to be hypercritical of the captain after each loss, especially when framed with reasonable context that explains why Brady may not be the best or healthiest version of himself.

For years, fans opined that the Senators never had a Gary Roberts during the late 90’s and early 2000s when they were routinely getting ousted in the postseason by the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. Hell, John Muckler’s inability to acquire the power forward despite an edict from Eugene Melnyk to acquire him at the deadline led to the general manager’s firing, despite the fact that the Senators reached the Stanley Cup Final.

The Senators have their unicorn now.

This city should be doing everything in its power to keep him part of the fold.

By Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News/Ottawa

Read more from Graeme Nichols at The Hockey News Ottawa

Next Level: Senators' Forward Ridly Greig 'Does Whatever Needs To Be Done To Win'
Jake Sanderson's Blunt Goaltending Critique Hits Hard In Ottawa
Time Is Running Out For The Senators... And Steve Staios Knows It