Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa lived up to the hype

The Ottawa Senators faithful were loud and boisterous, raining boos and co-ordinated chants down on the ice at their former captain, Brady Tkachuk.

Despite the most hated player in the arena opening the scoring for the Florida Panthers, it was the Senators who had the last laugh, winning with a final score of 5-1 and outshooting the Panthers 30-19.

Tkachuk, whom the Sens took No. 4 overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, now gets to play with his older brother in the Sunshine State. But Wednesday night, it was Ottawa who had the last laugh.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the former captain’s return to Ottawa and some of the clever chirps fans shouted from the stands.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Anyone who is sitting there and getting offended by the crowd … it’s sports. If you want to yell “eff you” or “your podcast sucks” at a player who left their team, then you do it. I don’t know, I just don’t think it’s that big of a problem.

Carter Hutton: I agree. I actually think the heckling that goes into it makes sports fun.

Brady made his bed, he’s going to wake up today and laugh about it on the plane and move forward. I love it.

Tyler Yaremchuk: He wanted to leave with years on his contract, and when you do that, a fanbase is going to not like you. Did you have a favorite of all of the chants?

Carter Hutton: I think “you eat crayons” was the most creative and out there … even as a player, if someone said a witty chirp or something unique, I always thought it was good. But if you heard “you’re dead” or “you’re going down,” I’d think, “that’s the best you can come up with?”

I thought that was unique. I think it’s part of the game, in a sense. I know some people said there were kids there, but that’s a process at a sports event. For this team, and the way Ottawa answered in this game is the bigger story. They pushed back and were the difference maker when it all came down.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…