Senators Brady Tkachuk is Ready, Set, Go For The Battle of Ontario

The Ottawa Senators closed out the 2024-25 regular season with an unconventional 7-5 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Senators vaulted to a 3-0 first-period lead, but the Hurricanes, playing without six regulars, responded with five unanswered goals. However, it was the Senators who fought back with four consecutive markers of their own to earn their 45th victory of the campaign.

Forty-five wins mark the team’s highest regular-season total since the 2006-07 season, when the club won 48, coincidentally the same season they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

On this night, Drake Batherson (two goals, one assist), Tim Stützle (one goal, two assists), Dylan Cozens (one goal, two assists), and Adam Gaudette (two goals) led the way.

However, while several solid performances buoyed the Senators, all watchful eyes were on Brady Tkachuk. The Senators captain was making his first appearance after an eight-game absence due to a disclosed injury.

It was well-known that Tkachuk had been playing through a hip injury sustained at the 4 Nations Faceoff. His latest injury occurred in a collision with Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves at the blue line in Pittsburgh on April 1, after which he left the ice clutching his arm.

The 25-year-old took a couple of shifts to get his skating legs back, and didn’t look out of place. With any luck, Tkachuk would’ve tallied a first-period goal, redirecting a shot which was stopped by Hurricanes netminder Freddie Andersen. Followed another open-ice stellar shot, which Andersen blocked away.

Tkachuk did give Senators fans a scare late in the second period when he caught a stick from Hurricanes Mark Jankowski in the facial area. Tkachuk left the game and didn’t return. The club announced midway through the final period that he had left for “precautionary reasons.”

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Senators head coach Travis Green said, “He’s fine,” during his postgame availability.

Tkachuk did meet the media after signing a multitude of autographs and participating in a Senators’ Fan Appreciation Jersey Giveaway.

Tkachuk told assembled media, including Full Press Hockey, that he wasn’t expected to play a lot and a stick to the face sped up his exit, “Obviously precautionary, I took two sticks to the face, and I wasn’t gonna play much tonight, just get legs underneath me. And that was “Greener, Doc and the trainer’s decision. And to be honest, we got everything I needed tonight, and felt good and just precautionary.”

Adding, “I mean, I haven’t played in two and a half weeks, so just get the timing, just want to get some reps, power play reps, and we accomplished that.”

With that, Senators fans can let out a giant exhale that Tkachuk is indeed ready to go for Game One of the Battle of Ontario Sunday evening.

After being selected fourth overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and playing 512 regular-season games, Tkachuk is set to make his Stanley Cup Playoff debut.

When asked if he thought it would’ve taken this long to reach the postseason, Tkachuk responded, “Definitely not seven years. But like I said, everything happens for a reason, and just sets the stage that much better. And it was seven long years, but now feels good getting into it, and now it’s no for us. It’s like I said earlier, to check the box to get in the playoffs is great, awesome, but there’s more we want to accomplish.”

“This is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and I think it’s only fitting that it’s a Battle of Ontario right away. So it’s going to be fun, something that was gonna be really fun to experience with this fan base. And like I’ve said all along, it’s gonna take this whole city, this whole fan base, and I’m really excited to share this moment with them,” said an excited Tkachuk.

“It’s gonna be fun like I said, to share this experience, not just with the guys in this room, but the whole city and how passionate everybody is already, I’m going to be I’m really looking forward to Game One, get out there and playing in enemy territory. So that’s gonna be awesome.”

Finally making the playoffs, Brady Tkachuk is leaning on his brother, Matthew, who won a Cup last season with the Florida Panthers, to provide advice.

Matthew told him, “I just think the big thing is, whatever happens in that game, the next game is a new game, and so if you win one you’re not going to win the series off one game. So he’s just all about resetting. And it says something that’s kind of been the messaging with our team all year. It doesn’t matter how we played the last game, it’s a whole new opportunity to be at our best.”

There’s little doubt Brady Tkachuk is chomping at the bit to step on the ice in his Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. When asked if he thought the series with the Toronto Maple Leafs would be a “bloodbath,” Tkachuk smiled and said, “We’ll wait and see.”