OTTAWA — Simple as it sounds, the Ottawa Senators really needed a victory on Thursday night.
Yes, their push for back-to-back playoff berths continues after a 4-1 home win over the Buffalo Sabres, with Ottawa moving into the second wild-card spot thanks to tiebreakers over the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets.
However, the triumph also crucially helped quiet the “white noise,” as coach Travis Green put it, that had enveloped his team.
The commotion reached its loudest point some 36 hours earlier, following the Wednesday morning release of a new episode of the “Wingmen” podcast, which Senators captain Brady Tkachuk co-hosts with his brother Matthew of the Florida Panthers. For the episode, Brady and Matthew were joined by a special guest: their father, ex-NHLer Keith Tkachuk. The trio wound up going viral for several reasons.
At one point during the 79-minute show, which was recorded in the lead-up to the Senators and Panthers facing off in Florida on Tuesday night, both Keith and Matthew quipped about Brady’s ice time with Ottawa, especially as the team chases a playoff spot. Tkachuk is currently averaging 17 minutes, 6 seconds per game this season, nearly a full minute less than last year (18:14) and two minutes down from his career high of 19:09 during the 2023-24 campaign.
“You didn’t play that much last game either,” Keith said, appearing to reference last weekend’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, in which Brady only skated 16:55.
“He never does,” Matthew added.
“Dad, come on,” Brady replied in protest.
“Just thought I’d throw that in there,” Keith said, adding sarcastically, “Why play him a lot in a big game?”
“Why play him more at the Olympics than in the regular season?” Matthew said, also sarcastically. “That makes sense.”
“Just carving the coach,” Keith said, referring to Green.
Speaking after an eventful Sabres game, having logged an assist, three hits and a fight in 15:55 of ice time — plus, later, a league-issued $2,500 fine for slashing an opponent from the Ottawa bench — Brady downplayed Keith’s comments about his relative lack of shifts.
“I completely respect my dad,” Brady said. “He’s going to be a Hall of Famer. So I’m not going to put words in his mouth or explain what he said. If you know him, he’s an outgoing guy. He says what he thinks. I know it comes from a good place.”
Green similarly dismissed the significance of the remarks. A former teammate of Keith’s for two seasons (Phoenix Coyotes from 1999 to 2001), Green said that he hadn’t listened to the podcast as of Thursday morning.
“I know (Keith) very well,” Green said. “He’s a friend. Played with him. Known him a long time. I know he’s outspoken. I’m not sure exactly what he said. But that’s white noise.”
Asked about Brady’s ice time, Green replied that it was “perfect.”
Brady also pointedly addressed a comment that his father made later in the podcast, when the elder Tkachuk poked fun at NHL players unable to play through injuries and goalies who don’t start back-to-back games due to “rest management.”
In a video version of the podcast, Keith appears to first gesture at Matthew and refer to “his whole team” before beginning the mini-rant. However, many listeners, including members of the national hockey media, assumed that Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, whom Green had deemed unavailable due to “rest” for the team’s March 28 game against Tampa Bay, was a chief target here.
“Being a part of it and rewatching it, I think it was pretty clear he was talking about Florida,” Brady Tkachuk said. “I just don’t know how that got turned and misconstrued. But it happens. I know, in there, I thought it was clear as day he was talking about Florida.
“I talked to him after, and there was not one shot. So, I don’t know how that got twisted, and I have to talk about it now. But I thought it was clear as day talking about the Florida Panthers.”
After saving 21 of 22 shots against Buffalo, having successfully rebounded from allowing five goals and getting pulled in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Panthers, Ullmark declined to elaborate on his absence for the Tampa Bay game, which had drawn ire from fans and pundits alike. Green, who at the time said that Ullmark “wasn’t available,” followed suit.
“I’m not going to get into that,” the Senators coach said. “I don’t have to talk about injuries. I don’t have to talk about any of that. He needed a rest, and that’s fine. And my only concern is getting our team to play, standing behind our players. And I know how good of a team we are when we play.”
Indeed, Green and the Sens were able to celebrate an effort that put the podcast and recent losses behind them — not to mention preventing Buffalo from clinching its first playoff berth since 2010-11. Ullmark and Tkachuk even exchanged a celebratory hug after the final horn, as they’ve often done after wins.
“He was amazing,” Tkachuk said of Ullmark. “I think that chance at the very end of the second period won us the game. He stood on his head all night. That just gave us such a boost of energy. He just made an unbelievable save, and he got us two points.”
Given their upcoming schedule, which includes home dates against the current Atlantic and Metro Division leaders, the Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes, respectively, the Senators’ road back to the playoffs should be plenty difficult, even without off-ice distractions.
“We don’t listen to the white noise,” Green said. “We don’t let any of that creep into our room. And obviously, there’s a lot of talk right now.”