Team Owner Reveals That Brady Tkachuk's In-Game Chirp Motivated The Senators Last Week

As if Senators fans needed another reason to dislike Brady Tkachuk, Sens owner Michael Andlauer just gave them one.

During an appearance on the Coming in Hot podcast on Tuesday morning, Andlauer discussed Tkachuk's return to Ottawa and dropped a nugget that's sure to irritate Sens fans even further.

When Tkachuk faced the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre last Wednesday, this time as a member of the Florida Panthers, he was booed relentlessly from the pregame warmup until he left the game with a double minor penalty late in the third period.

We knew the fans would be furious with Tkachuk, but even the players seemed extra ticked off. He was their captain, the guy who talked about winning Cups here someday and went around scolding people for daring to question his commitment to Ottawa. 

Then he asked for a trade with two years still remaining on his contract.

The hostility surrounding Tkachuk's return was greater on the ice than most people expected. And now we may have another reason why.

According to Andlauer, when Tkachuk opened the scoring in the first period, he had the nerve to skate past the Senators' bench, chirping the teammates he'd left behind and bragging about his scoring prowess.

"Some things never change, eh boys?"

That's what Andlauer says Tkachuk told the Senators' bench.

If Tkachuk ever had any respect for his former teammates, he'd go into this game feeling some remorse about the way he ended things, which doesn't mean playing the game any differently than he normally does. But after you've let your teammates down so profoundly, trying to dunk in their face in your first game back is as about as tone-deaf as it gets.

As we know now, the Senators had the last laugh. Hell, they're still laughing a week later. They trampled Tkachuk's new team and no returning player has ever had a rougher welcome home.

"I don't think that (comment) motivated our players much," Andlauer said sarcastically, with a smile.

The Senators scored five unanswered goals to win 5-1.

In fairness, Tkachuk's comment wasn't totally off-base. He was still out there taking undisciplined penalties while grotesquely gnawing away at his mouthguard like a dog with a chew toy.

Some things never change.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa