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Brady Tkachuk Addresses 'Twisted' Keith Tkachuk’s Senators Comments
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Ottawa Senators continue to navigate the home stretch of the season with their playoff fate still hanging in the air.

Ottawa enters Friday with a 39-26-10 record and 88 points in 75 games. The Senators are in a three-way tie for the final wild-card place, but they are currently on the inside looking out thanks to tiebreakers.

Even though the stakes cannot be higher for the franchise, attention shifted away from the ice earlier this week to focus on the comments made by Senators captain Brady Tkachuk's father, Keith, during an appearence in his son's podcast.

During Wednesday's episode of the "Wingmen" podcast, Keith Tkachuk made some questionable remarks about what he perceives as the Senators' lack of toughness, which was interpreted as criticism of Ottawa’s roster.

Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk (7) warms up.Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

“Holy Christ, (Brady’s) whole team: ‘Oh, my pinky hurts. I’m out for six days,’” Keith Tkachuk said. “I just had a bad sleep, so I can’t play today. Oh my god… disgusting. I can’t play back-to-back. Mismanagement.”

The comments quickly generated backlash, especially with Brady Tkachuk, the Senators' leader, present during the conversation and not doing anything to stop his father.

Brady Tkachuk addressed the situation on Friday, and he pushed back on how the comments were misinterpreted. Brady added that he spoke with his father following the episode to clarify if he was sending between-the-lines messages.

“I talked to him after, and there was no shot at anyone. I don’t know how it got twisted to this point where we’re having to talk about it now.”

Added Tkachuk: “I’ve answered this a couple of times now. People are going to interpret things how they want, but I know what was said and what I was part of.”

Ultimately, Tkachuk emphasized his support for his father while declining to reinterpret the remarks he made in the podcast.

“I completely respect my dad. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer,” Tkachuck said. “I’m not going to put words in his mouth or explain what he said. If you know him, he's an outgoing guy, says kind of what he thinks, and I know it comes from a good place.”

The Senators will return to action on Saturday when they'll host the Minnesota Wild at 1 p.m. ET.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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