Brady Tkachuk is as passionate as they come — but for one night, lying in his bed in Ottawa, he was losing interest in his team’s efforts.
His teammates had an opportunity to clinch a playoff berth, the franchise’s first in eight years, with a win on a Tuesday night earlier this month against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Senators’ captain would have been there had it not been for an upper-body injury.
Ottawa could have used him, as the Sens fell behind early and wound up losing one of their worst games of the season.
Tkachuk grabbed the remote and switched to the Detroit Red Wings-Montreal Canadiens matchup.
Down a goal in the third period, the Red Wings pulled their goalie, desperately needing a win to keep pace with the Senators in the standings. But an eventual empty net goal from Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher sealed Detroit’s fate and led to jubilation in the Tkachuk household.
After playing more than 500 regular-season games — and years of watching his brother, Matthew, compete with the Calgary Flames in the postseason and go on deep runs with the Florida Panthers culminating in a Stanley Cup victory last June — Tkachuk’s wait for his own playoff action was soon to be over.
“I was pretty fired up,” Tkachuk said.
Tkachuk will make his playoff debut Sunday against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round, a “dream come true” for the 25-year-old. The Senators and Leafs will play each other in a playoff series for the first time in 21 years.
“Those (are the) games I’ve always dreamt of playing,” Tkachuk said. “Mini-sticks, in the driveway, shooting the last shot to score the game winner in playoffs.”
Tkachuk’s playoff ambitions are 25 years in the making, starting in a St. Louis driveway. And if it wasn’t in the driveway, it was in his parents’ basement.
Those were war zones for Brady and Matthew, sons of NHL All-Star Keith. If they weren’t damaging the walls, they were breaking windows outside — at least until those windows were eventually replaced with plexiglass by local hockey arena workers.
“He’s a very emotional kid,” Keith said of Brady. “Still is. He hasn’t changed. That’s what I love about Brady. He gets fired up. He’ll do whatever it takes to win, and that hasn’t changed since he was 6 years old.”
A teammate of Keith’s on the St. Louis Blues, a teenage David Perron had a front-row seat to those battles between brothers. So, when Matthew was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2016 and his presence was established as a young power forward, Perron wasn’t surprised.
Knowing what he knew about the younger Tkachuk brother, he offered a warning.
“I always used to say, ‘Wait until the next one comes up,’” Perron said. “And it was Brady.”
Brady was drafted two years after Matthew, chosen No. 4 by the Senators in the 2018 NHL Draft. The year before, the Senators went on a dream run to the Eastern Conference final, only to be stymied by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tkachuk debuted with the Sens that fall in an afternoon October game at the TD Garden in Boston. He couldn’t stop smiling as he skated and launched pucks into an open net during his solo pregame warmup. One month later, he got into his first fight — a scrap with Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader. It didn’t take long to establish himself as an everyday NHLer with the Senators as a rookie. Three years after joining, he became their captain.
But with his team still years away from being a contender, his seasons ended early. By comparison, Matthew had experienced the postseason three times in his first five years in the league with the Flames. So, when Matthew began his chases for the Cup, Brady and the rest of the Tkachuks tagged along and watched him from the stands.
“I hold the record for having attended the most amount of playoff games without playing in them,” Brady said in February during the 4 Nations Face-Off.
But the Tkachuks weren’t shy about their presence being felt at games, Brady famously high-fiving Flames fans while walking up the Scotiabank Saddledome steps, beer in hand.
Brady Tkachuk = légende Il semble pas effrayé par une Bud Light. Oh que non!Magique!
— Marc-André Perreault (@MA_PerreaultTVA) May 19, 2022
“Maybe I went a little over the top, but I was just trying to be a supportive brother,” Brady said.
And when Matthew was traded to Florida, the family followed his journey to the Cup Final in each of his first two seasons. When Matthew won it all last summer, Brady and his family were visibly emotional when they celebrated on the ice.
Brady didn’t just celebrate his brother’s successes, he served as a “sounding board” when Matthew needed it. Brady treated his conversations with Matthew as ways to gain playoff experience without playing in the playoffs. The biggest thing he learned from his older brother? Moving on from one game to the next.
“The big thing is whatever happens that game, the next game is a new game,” Brady said. “If you win one, you’re not going to win the series off one game. It’s just all about resetting.”
Throughout the 2024-25 campaign, Tkachuk has tried to simulate a playoff experience without having any. That includes his time at the 4 Nations Face-Off — a tournament without a history. Many wondered how seriously players would take it. But once Tkachuk got to know his teammates, he realized his team was “treating it as the Stanley Cup.”
“Guys playing through injuries, guys doing whatever it takes to win,” Tkachuk said. “There’s just so much pride on the line. Right from when we got there, this is as big of a moment that I know I’ve had.”
Playing alongside his brother, Brady was a battering ram for the United States. He scored in the championship final, only to lose in overtime to Team Canada. Despite the loss, he told the media that it would go down as his “favourite hockey memory.”
“You can think of Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk,” ex-Sens defenceman turned broadcaster Shane Hnidy said. “Those throwback guys that had the skill to score, but also could run over you. They did whatever it takes to win. Brady Tkachuk is the type of player, we saw it at the 4 Nations, he’ll do whatever it is for his country, for his team.”
“He doesn’t take a shift off,” said Senators and Team USA teammate Jake Sanderson. “He can play any type of game. Skilled, physical, he’s the heart and soul of our team.”
The Americans may have lost the tournament, but the Tkachuk brothers helped create one of its most enduring moments: three fights in the opening nine seconds of a rivalry match against Canada. Not long after, the brothers made appearances on podcasts and late-night television, including the “New Heights” podcast with NFL brothers Travis and Jason Kelce.
“It was just a little coming-out party for him,” Sanderson added. “I feel like everyone in Ottawa knew what type of player he was and what person he was, too. So, now I feel like the rest of the world is just catching up at this point.”
When Brady returned to the Senators, he began preaching a “Game 7 mentality” as his team chased a playoff spot. He did it because he wanted his team to build resiliency. It almost became a running joke among his teammates.
“He was just saying it every single game for a month straight,” Sanderson said.
“It became a running joke because we had like 20-something games left in the year,” Thomas Chabot said. “But it was the mentality we needed to have for the rest of the season. We knew it was going to be tough … to get a playoff spot. We knew each game was going to be intense and difficult to win.”
That focus helped the Senators through their home stretch, going 16-7-3 in their final 26 games after the 4 Nations break — the league’s 10th-best record over that span — to help snap their playoff drought. Despite missing time with an injury, Tkachuk finished one goal shy of a fourth consecutive 30-goal season.
Now, onto the playoffs against the Maple Leafs.
“I’m not feeling too good about the other team because Brady’s going to get unleashed in the playoffs,” Senators president Cyril Leeder said. “I think we’ll see the real competitor that he is and a team leader.”
“I give him and his teammates a lot of credit,” Keith said. “It’s been a long time being in Ottawa to not be able to get that taste. It’s important for him to get in there. And anything can happen once you get in. He works hard and he’s been a great kid, great leader, great teammate. I just want to see him get that opportunity.”
Brady will get his chance in the Battle of Ontario, just narrowly missing playing his brother Matthew and the Panthers in the first round. For once, Brady won’t be following his brother around.
Oh, and if it gets to a point where the brothers face off against each other? Don’t expect Keith to take a side.
“I’ll be rooting for Anheuser-Busch,” Keith said. “A lot of Bud Lights.”
(Top photo of Brady Tkachuk against the Toronto Maple Leafs: Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images)
