Brady Tkachuk returns, how will Ottawa respond?

Shame on me. I should have known better.

For the better part of the last two years, former Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was outspoken and dismissive about speculation regarding his future in the nation’s capital.

In his episode of Amazon Prime’s ‘FACEOFF: Inside the NHL’ that aired last fall, Tkachuk detailed how he wanted to write his own story.

“Everybody ties what he did, and everyone's expecting me to do the same thing,” Tkachuk stated. “It's just two different stories. Matthew on his path, and it worked out for him. My path is chugging along, grinding it out and winning a Stanley Cup for the Ottawa Senators."

This juxtaposition made for a compelling tale.

Here was a young, American-born captain of a Canadian franchise who dealt with some incredibly challenging years under inept ownership and management and came out the other side. Stable ownership and an effective new front office had finally insulated the Senators’ young core. Together, with Travis Green and his staff’s coaching impacts, the Senators posted some of the best analytics in all of hockey last season - ranking top-five in several shot and goal metrics, while having the eighth-best power play and a penalty kill that ranked second in the league after Mike Yeo took over on January 24th.

The Senators were finally good, but despite that fact, the rumours surrounding Brady’s uncertain future continued to circulate.

“I don't really (know), honestly,” the left winger professed at his end-of-season media availability in late April. “I don't get why. (The rumours are) a consistent thing that's happened so many times personally, and it's frustrating. It's frustrating to have to answer for something that has never been spoken out of my mouth or has been spoken from the team's mouth. I just feel like I have to consistently answer to it, and it's just frustrating.”

Technically, he was not wrong. Those words never came out of his mouth publicly, but when his brother and father were brazenly discussing the Senators, his ice time or his contract on his ‘Wingmen Podcast’, it was naive to believe those same conversations weren't happening privately off camera.

Several short weeks after that availability, Brady’s trade request leaked and became public knowledge.

Today, he had a chance to clear the air.

In his much-publicized return to Ottawa, Tkachuk held court with a large media contingent at the Canadian Tire Centre and was offered several opportunities to elucidate why the dynamic changed and why he needed a change of scenery.

“I would say it (happened) gradually,” Tkachuk explained when asked to distinguish when and why those feelings began to change. There are professional reasons and personal reasons why I wasn’t going to resign here. A lot of those things have remained private between Steve (Staios) and me, and it's going to remain private.”

At the very least, we can’t fault Brady for being consistent and not providing added context.

The closest this fan base has is owner Michael Andlauer’s comments in a Pierre LeBrun article in The Athletic, where the owner of the Senators blamed Matthew and Keith Tkachuk for their influence.

“Blood is thicker than water, and let’s just say that his father and his brother got in his kitchen. Ultimately, the decision was made to go and play with his brother. It’s a decision that was out of our control to a certain degree. But you have to want to play for Ottawa. And right to the end, our fans were behind Brady - even after Team USA won gold. I have no doubt in my mind.”

When asked about Andlauer’s comments, Tkachuk offered the following response.

“I saw the quote,” Tkachuk acknowledged. “He's entitled to his opinion, but I know for myself, it was 100 percent my decision. I’m a big boy. I can make decisions for myself and my family. I don't need to be influenced by other people to make decisions. So he's entitled to his opinion.”

Tkachuk would go on to state that his Olympic experience brought him and his brother closer together.

“(The trade) just happened to work out this way,” Tkachuk explained. “(Matthew and I) roomed together at the Olympics, and it was special just being with him every day. It came down to the end, and it worked out that I went to Florida. Then I was really excited about it. So all that decision stuff is in the past. Now it's about the next chapter moving forward.”

The next step is Tkachuk’s first game at the Canadian Tire Centre and the first opportunity for fans to channel their collective feelings towards the former captain. Given recent history with misdirection and deflections about his future, it would be hard to fathom this fan base receiving this perceived deception with anything but acrimony.

Tkachuk is not alone in the sense that over the past several months, other high-profile players from that American Olympic hockey team have asked for trades. Other stars have asked to be dealt from the Senators too, the distinction with Tkachuk is that this organization was trending up. In the time that Michael Andlauer, Steve Staios and Travis Green have taken the reins, the performance on and off the ice has improved markedly. And at a time when everything was trending up, Tkachuk, a beloved piece of this franchise, who, like the great Daniel Alfredsson, had his name chanted regularly because of his unique blend of physicality and skill, pulled the chute.

He quit.

How will the fans respond?

With anger. Jersey tosses. Jeers and comical chants.

But, how will the Senators respond?

That is the more important question.

A few of Tkachuk’s former teammates went out to dinner with him last night. Tim Stützle wasn't one of them.

“I haven’t seen Brady,” the skilled centre relayed. “I have a chef. That’s why I didn’t go to dinner.”

It was a pointed and honest shot from one of the team's biggest competitors.

"That's not on my mind,” said Stützle, reflecting on whether this is any residual resentment from Tkachuk’s decision to leave. “I'm just trying to win a hockey game tonight, and I hope the whole team feels the same way."

Stützle was the last player to hug Tkachuk at centre ice when he was soaking in the moments of the game-four loss to Carolina in what was ultimately his last game in a Senators jersey. The two will have time to reconnect after the game.

In the interim, Stützle’s comments point to a focused player who wants to send a message with his play. As much as the focus will be on the crowd’s reaction to Tkachuk, a lot of attention needs to be paid to how the Senators respond in an emotionally charged game against a divisional rival that can eventually have playoff implications.

They need to rise to the occasion and play with a chip on their shoulder.

The time for a message is now.