- Brady Tkachuk scored a first-period power-play goal in his return to Ottawa
- Senators fans booed him through the tribute video, the anthems and his first shift
- Read below for the goal video and what Tkachuk said before the game
Brady Tkachuk answered the boos the best way he could.
The Panthers winger opened the scoring on the power play in the first period Wednesday, beating Linus Ullmark at the 10:00 mark of his first game back in Ottawa. Matthew Tkachuk and Seth Jones got the assists on his seventh goal of the season.
Watch the goal and the reaction:
The crowd at Canadian Tire Centre had been on him long before that. A loud “Brady sucks” chant started before the anthems were even finished, and the Senators played a tribute video that got the reception you’d expect.
Take a look at Tkachuk saluting the crowd while the boos rained down:
Artem Zub got the loudest ovation of the night so far for knocking Tkachuk down on the opening shift. Roughly nine minutes later, Tkachuk had the last word.
Tkachuk was asked before the game about why he never planned to re-sign in Ottawa. He wouldn’t get into details, per NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin.
“I’ve talked about a lot, there’s professional reasons, personal reasons, why I wasn’t going to re-sign here and a lot of those things remain private between (general manager Steve Staios) and I, and it’s going to remain private,” Tkachuk said. “It just happened to work out this way.”
Tim Stutzle answered for Ottawa on the power play at 14:13 to tie it 1-1.
The goal keeps a hot stretch rolling for Tkachuk, who had back-to-back natural hat tricks against the Blue Jackets and Canucks last week. We told you earlier about his plan to donate any jerseys thrown on the ice, and he also explained why he left Ottawa in his own words.
