The Ottawa Senators put together a “Welcome Back” video for Brady Tkachuk and played it during the first TV timeout on Wednesday. By the time it finished, nobody in the Canadian Tire Centre could hear a word of it.
Tkachuk stood there and raised his stick to the crowd anyway, reacting to their animosity as if it were deafening cheers, as ESPN put it. He was smiling the entire time.
B/R Open Ice summed up the performance in five words, calling him the biggest heel in hockey. Plenty of people who don’t like him found themselves enjoying it regardless.
“Hilarious to do the stick raise,” one fan wrote.
“Can’t stand him, but that got a chuckle out of me,” said another.
“Red Wings fan checking in with the same thought. What a f***ing heel, and he absolutely owns it. Good for him,” a third added.
How did Brady Tkachuk react to the boos?
The booing started the instant his skates touched the ice in warmups and came again every time he handled a puck. He grinned through all of it, waved at the crowd, then scored the opening goal of the game on the power play and collected another chorus for his trouble.
Not everyone in the building joined in. Several of his former teammates on the Senators bench tapped their sticks during the tribute, which was a reminder that eight seasons and a captaincy don’t disappear because of one summer.
READ MORE: Ottawa’s chants for Brady Tkachuk were absolutely merciless
The relationship had been fraying for longer than most people realize. His standing in Ottawa took damage over the Wingmen podcast he hosts with brother Matthew Tkachuk, and again when he attended a White House celebration following the United States’ Olympic gold, which went down badly in a Canadian market.
He hasn’t explained the trade request beyond saying there were personal and professional reasons, and that those will stay between him and general manager Steve Staios.
“I know for myself it was 100 per cent my decision,” Tkachuk said.
Ottawa won 5-1. Tkachuk said afterwards that he was mostly glad the game had come and gone, and hoped it would let everybody turn the page.
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