The Ottawa Senators had already given Brady Tkachuk a difficult evening by the time the final whistle went on Wednesday, beating his Florida Panthers 5-1 in front of a crowd that had spent three periods telling him what it thought of him. Then they went into the dressing room and put on a record.
“Mr. Brightside” by The Killers. On a loop.
That song belongs to Tkachuk in Ottawa, or at least it used to. It was his three-star song, the one that played when he was named a star of the game, and it followed him everywhere during eight seasons in the city. He and Josh Norris were filmed belting it out at a pub in 2022. He sang it shirtless at karaoke the weekend of his wedding. He once told Sportsnet he’d happily do it again in the stands, adding “maybe tarps off, you never know.”
The club even played it at the draft in June when they made their first-round selection, a few days before trading him.
Why were Senators players tired of Tkachuk’s podcast?
One of the louder chants on Wednesday night was aimed squarely at Wingmen, the podcast he hosts with brother Matthew Tkachuk, and that wasn’t invented by the crowd. Elliotte Friedman reported before the trade that multiple Ottawa players had grown weary of it, particularly after the 2026 Olympics, and that one player told him directly it had caused issues in the room.
So the music wasn’t a random choice.
READ MORE: Brady Tkachuk’s response to the boos was pure theatre
The rest of the night ran along similar lines. Supporters threw his old jerseys onto the ice, which Tkachuk had already announced would be donated to the Boys and Girls Club in Ottawa, and drowned out a tribute video that focused entirely on his charity work in the city. He responded by taking a brief skate around center ice, waving with an awkward smile.
He scored the opening goal. It was the last thing that went right for Florida all evening.
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