OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators fanbase must be breathing a sigh of relief with the news that Brady Tkachuk will return to the lineup on Friday against St. Louis.
“I’m not going to lie to you, not a fan of watching (hockey) up there (in the press box),” Tkachuk told the media, via video call, about his emotions during his hiatus due to injury.
And there was no mistaking the fact that Tkachuk was excited to be coming back.
“I feel pretty freakin’ good right now,” he said.
When Tkachuk went down with a thumb injury in the third game of the season against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 13, panic set in, and to some extent rightfully so. Tkachuk is a monster presence who was always going to be irreplaceable.
It was the ultimate test for the Senators. They passed.
“Everybody elevated their standard,” said Tkachuk.
With Tkachuk out, the Senators thrived, with a 11-5-4 record. The Senators will now have the ultimate wingman rejoin their lineup while they’re on a roll.
“Made the recovery a little bit better,” said Tkachuk. “It made my life a lot easier, seeing all the wins.”
With the Senators’ emotional leader and face of the franchise coming back, we are about to find out how good this Ottawa Senators team can be.
They could be great, considering how well they played without him for the last six weeks.
But be mindful of expectations in Game 1.
“Not expecting perfection right away,” said Tkachuk.
Nevertheless, Tkachuk is a unicorn of a hockey player with size, skill and physicality, paired with an infectious personality. He announced his return earlier this week on his new podcast with brother Matthew, star of the Florida Panthers. As far as anyone knows, it marked the first time an NHLer has announced his return on a podcast.
“It’s never something I expected myself to be doing, but since we’ve started, it feels like I was meant to be,” said Tkachuk about his podcast.
You might be thinking to yourself, of course Tkachuk will make the Senators better, but in what ways?
Here’s how he will augment the team.
Tim Stutzle has been an absolute force this season since Tkachuk went down, with 11 goals, 21 points in 20 games sans his captain. Nevertheless, you have to think Stutzle will be better with his partner in scoring crime on his left flank. No shade on David Perron or Nick Cousins, who have been plugging the hole, but they are not in the stratosphere with Tkachuk.
In their careers together, Tkachuk has set Stutzle up 29 times (22 primary assists) while Stutzle has set up Tkachuk 57 times (30 primary assists).
Stutzle’s dynamism as a skater can be hard to match, especially for a bigger guy like Tkachuk; but Tkachuk’s injury forced him to work with the Senators’ skating coach a couple times a week on power skating, including bag skating.
“The No. 1 thing that I feel most confident about right now is my skating,” said Tkachuk.
His brother Matthew commented on their podcast that he’s never seen him so fast. That might let him keep up with Stutzle even more often than in the past.
Since the 2022-23 season, Tkachuk and Stutzle have played the majority of their ice time at five-on-five together. During that time, with the pair on the ice, the Senators have outscored opponents 100-93 at five-on-five; when they are not on the ice, the team has been outscored 312-245. Even this season, the Senators have a goal differential of plus-8 with Stutzle on the ice and a minus-5 with him off.
The point is that the Senators’ top line goes from good to elite with Tkachuk back with Stutzle. Ottawa’s offence is 11th in goals per game, and there’s every reason to expect that to improve with the captain back in the lineup.
Speaking of offence, despite a hot start to the power play this season, the Senators have just 4-for-37 in their last 13 games. Tkachuk is a menace in front of the net while also utilizing his elite shot when needed. He has 120 power-play points over his career and averaging 24 per season over the last three seasons. Ottawa’s struggling power play will substantially improve with Tkachuk in the lineup.
Second- and fourth-line slotting bump
An underrated aspect of Tkachuk’s insertion back into the lineup is the domino effect through the rest of the lines. In hockey, the credo of “next man up” is a familiar one, and when players take on larger roles due to injury, they are also most often under-qualified for their new roles. For example, Perron has been on the top line and Lars Eller has been playing on the second line with Ridly Greig out.
Both the second and fourth lines have struggled, getting outscored all season. As the second-line centre, Dylan Cozens is a minus-11 and Eller is a minus-4. With the captain back, Perron will likely revert to a more suitable second-line role and that could be said for Eller naturally slotting back as the fourth-line centre. Depth matters to survive injuries; it also matters when you are healthy, of course.
We don’t expect changes to the best third line in hockey — Michael Amadio-Shane Pinto-Claude Giroux — but both the second and fourth will be bolstered with Tkachuk back.
Tkachuk’s most valuable trait is the most unquantifiable: leadership.
Tkachuk brings a quality of infectious enthusiasm for the game. His presence will be felt not just on the scoresheet but among teammates and the entire organization. He even shouted out the Senators’ head athletic therapist, Dom Nicoletta, with a “Wingman of the week” award on his podcast because of his work treating and rehabbing Tkachuk through his thumb injury.
“I (also) got to give a little shout to the equipment guys, even though they provided very little over these six weeks,” Tkachuk said, joking.
Assessing how good this team can be
The Senators have been really good this season; now we will finally be able to assess how good they can be. The Senators can’t exhale too much with their captain back and need to avoid taking their skates off the pedal.
“The biggest one for me is the maturity and finding ways to win,” said Tkachuk, referring to his team’s play without him in the lineup.
“There’s been games where it hasn’t been the prettiest, but you find a way to get a point or squeak out winning a big two points.”
It should get a lot prettier with the captain.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that he expects the Senators to be aggressive this season on the trade market; the brass knows their window to compete is now, into the next two or three years.
Tkachuk undoubtedly makes the Senators better and we are about to find out what the true ceiling for this Senators team is, as they strive to be a true Cup contender.
Captain Podcaster: The hockey player/podcaster Tkachuk said the opportunity to start the Wingmen podcast with brother Matthew came to his attention after the 4 Nations tournament. He alluded to the fact that there had been no active NHL players who have a podcast until now.
“If there (was) a podcast (when) we were kids coming up, playing youth hockey. … I’d be tuning in every time,” said Tkachuk.
Surgery affecting home life: Not being able to use your thumb can impact a hockey player’s personal as well as professional life, something we tend to forget.
“I was useless the first couple of weeks,” he joked. “I felt really bad for (wife) Emma. I couldn’t really help out with (baby son) Ryder and definitely couldn’t do stuff around the house.
“Some new skills that I had to learn with my left hand,” said Tkachuk.
“Brushing the teeth and stuff like that, where the first couple days probably felt like I didn’t even brush them because I did such a bad job.”
