Brady Tkachuk scored his first Olympic goal alongside brother Matthew in a dominant Team USA victory.
Brady Tkachuk's Olympic debut went about as well as he could have dreamed.
As expected, as Team USA opened the men's Olympic hockey tournament on Thursday, the Senators captain got to play on a Team USA line with his brother Matthew. Not only did the team come up victorious with a 5-1 win over Latvia, but Tkachuk opened the scoring, assisted by his brother.
"Yeah, I mean, it was a fun start," Brady told NBC St. Louis. "Kind of don't really think about scoring. You're just thinking about the (team) points at the end of the day, and for it to work out. The first one, it was a little special. And know that there's going to be many more to go and just keep building off this effort."
In the same interview, Matthew said that after a decade of playing in the NHL, finally getting to the Olympics has been incredible in every way, living up to all his expectations.
"Yeah, we're trying to have as much fun as we can without taking away from the ultimate goal," Matthew said. "And that's taking care of business and doing the best we can and ultimately winning here. But we are loving the whole village life. We're loving the whole Olympic experience.
"It's my 10th year in the league. It's (Brady's) eighth. This is our first opportunity at it, unfortunately. There should have been a few before. But for us to be at our first one, we're trying to take everything in."
The NHL opted not to make players available for the past two winter games. So it's been 12 years since this tournament was a true best on best. Brady echoed his brother's comments about the experience, which has included trading pins, playing cards and hanging out with other American athletes from other sports.
"This is a dream come true. It truly is special. I mean, there's really no words. It's just every day brings something new and something fun and something that we'll have forever."
The interview was conducted by KSDK-TV in St. Louis, so the boys were asked if they had any message for the fans back at O'B Clarks, a famous hockey bar in their hometown.
Brady couldn't resist a plug for his favourite menu item.
"I mean, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the city of St. Louis and so many great people there. And for the people at OB's, enjoy The Brady Special. Bacon and cheese pizza, toasted ravs (ravioli) and dirty wings!"
Tkachuk is obviously hungry, on and off the ice, and from a hockey perspective, that's not great news for the rest of the world. The Americans will play their second game of the Olympic tournament on Saturday afternoon, facing off against Denmark.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was first published at The Hockey News-Ottawa. Read more Senators features and articles from THN Ottawa here:
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