The Ottawa Senators made sure Brady Tkachuk’s return to Canadian Tire Centre came with plenty of noise and even less comfort.
With fans chanting “We don’t need you!,” Ottawa rolled past Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday night. Tkachuk, who spent eight seasons with the Senators and served five of them as captain, was booed throughout the game in a tense homecoming that also saw several fans toss “Tkachuk” jerseys onto the ice.
Ottawa improved to 7-3-0 with a game that stayed emotional from the opening period all the way through a chippy third. Florida, now 5-3-2, had its three-game winning streak snapped.
Tkachuk gave the Panthers the first punch anyway, scoring the game’s opening goal on a power play midway through the first period. It came on a feed from his brother. Ottawa answered quickly when Tim Stutzle tied it just over four minutes later with a one-timer off a Jake Sanderson pass.
That was the start of a night where the Senators kept stacking goals while the Panthers kept getting dragged into the emotion. Ottawa scored twice in the second period, with Claude Giroux snapping home his second of the season through traffic from the top of the slot midway through the frame. Shane Pinto added another late in the period to make it 3-1.
By then, Florida was already showing signs of frustration. The Panthers “seemed to get caught up in the emotion of the game early on and drew a couple needless penalties.”
Ottawa then put it away in the third. Warren Foegele finished off a strong pass from Dylan Cozens at the eight-minute mark to push the lead to 4-1, and Stephen Halliday added the fifth goal on a Stutzle drop-pass.
Tensions boiled over in the final period as well. Tkachuk, his brother Matthew and Sam Bennett tangled in front of Ottawa’s bench, and Tkachuk later had a heated exchange with Cozens. Earlier in the period, Ottawa’s Ridly Greig and Bennett dropped the gloves.
The Senators also had to navigate a scare in goal. Linus Ullmark left early in the third period after making a pad save on Tkachuk. He was down to one goal allowed on 17 shots before exiting, and Sam Ersson handled one shot in relief.
Florida’s Akira Schmid made 25 saves in the loss.
One note from the numbers: Sanderson’s assist on Stutzle’s goal helped him become the second-fastest Senators defenceman to reach 40 career multi-point games, doing it in 305 games. Erik Karlsson did it in 233.
Ottawa now turns right around for a Thursday home date with the San Jose Sharks. Florida heads to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins on Thursday.
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