For the second year in a row, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was in the thick of a Stanley Cup celebration as a proud brother. Brady had said at the end of the season he had planned to follow Matthew’s playoff run from afar this year, but as the sting of elimination faded, he obviously had a change of heart and wanted to be there for his brother.
Brady was down on the ice on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Florida, once again joining the family to watch Matthew hoist the Stanley Cup with the Panthers, who powered their way to a second straight Cup, taking down the Oilers in six games.
Brady says he was impressed with how his brother managed to battle through injuries and still be a major factor.
“I mean I just I think it’s gonna come out what he’s been dealing with, but for him to step up like that… hopefully the next step is winning (Olympic) gold with him,” Brady said in a postgame interview with Darren Pang.
His diagnosis did come out. Matthew revealed he had a been playing with a torn adductor muscle – torn from the bone, no less – along with a “hernia thing” on the same side.
“He was a mess,” head coach Paul Maurice told NHL.com. “That’s the medical term. He was a mess.”
Hearing that relatively rare diagnosis will resonate with Sens fans like ice cubes down their back. Many still remember 2006 when their Stanley Cup hopes were badly derailed by Dominik Hasek’s adductor injury suffered at the Olympics that year.
Brady also powered through his own injuries this season. In fact, both Tkachuk brothers had injury trouble that seemed to begin during the 4 Nations Face-Off and lingered into the post-season. When NHL owners express concern over shutting the league down in February for a fierce, best-on-best, king-of-the-world tournament, this is exactly the kind of thing they’re worried about.
The Tkachuks were named this week to the preliminary roster of six players to represent Team USA again this February at the Olympics.
As Brady posed for family photos on the ice, he was more than ready for the championship celebration, even donning a hat from The Elbo Room, the iconic Fort Lauderdale beach bar where the Panthers returned to party with fans for a second straight year.
This time, though, the celebration probably hit a little differently for Brady. Earlier this spring, the Senators made it to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in eight years, a real turning point for the franchise. Ottawa was eliminated in the first round by the Leafs, which was deeply disappointing, but it did mark a huge step in the team’s evolution.
“Our end goal is something that isn’t really a pipe dream anymore,” Tkachuk said, as the Senators were cleaning out their lockers for the year.
“We’re going to continue to get better. It’s all about just growing as players, growing as a group and knowing that we want to win the Stanley Cup. Just getting into the playoffs isn’t good enough anymore.”
While this championship moment belonged to his brother once again, Brady’s turn might not be far off, maybe as soon as February at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
And hopefully someday in Ottawa as well.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
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