Ottawa finally got their REVENGE...
Oct 24, 2026
On June 21st, the Ottawa Senators lost their captain.
Last night, he returned for the first time in a different jersey,
and it ended in disaster for him.
The Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 5-1
in Brady Tkachuk's return,
and the atmosphere in the building was absolutely electric.
They loved seeing the demise of their former captain.
And here's the catch.
Brady Tkachuk scored the first goal of the night on the first shot.
But the Ottawa Senators did not let their foot off the gas.
They kept pushing and decided the next 50 minutes were theirs.
So was it revenge? Stay with me.
Because by the end of this,
we'll see what the Ottawa Senators were trying to prove
and why the Florida Panthers were not ready.
Let's rewind to June.
Steve Staios, the Senators' general manager,
said publicly that Brady Tkachuk has asked to be traded.
He had a no-trade clause. His camp gave Ottawa a list of four teams.
Florida, Carolina, Vegas, and Minnesota.
He decided to go to the one with his brother on it.
The price tag was big.
Florida sent Ottawa the 9th and 25th pick in the 2026 draft,
a conditional first in 2029, and a second rounder in 2027.
That is three first round picks and a second.
Then Ottawa moved fast.
Less than 48 hours later, the Senators flipped the 9th pick to San Jose
for William Eklund and a couple of prospects.
They did keep the 25th pick
and took a Swedish winger in Jonas Lagerberg-Holm.
Here is what Ottawa gave up.
Eight seasons, five of them as captain.
Last year, Brady scored 22 goals and 37 assists in 60 games, 59 points.
And still, the Senators got a trade back for him.
So this was never going to be a normal game.
A franchise player, the captain, left on his own terms.
and the teammates that he left behind had four months to sit down
and think about what they would do when he returned.
Before the puck dropped, the buildup was loud.
Dylan Cousins said, quote, it's going to be a fun game.
Jake Sanderson said, quote,
it'll be weird seeing him on the other side.
And Brady himself on Monday said it would be special being back.
Quote, I spent eight years there and have a lot of great memories.
Ottawa had talked about a video tribute.
The building's answer was booing.
constant chants of we don't need you
and at one point jerseys rained on the ice with Tkachuk on
the back then nine minutes
and 51 seconds in Artem Zub went to the box for tripping nine seconds
later Brady Kachuk on the power play scored Florida's first shot
of the game won nothing
Panthers five seconds after that two players dropped
the gloves in Hodgson and Amama fighting
at 10.05 this was not going to be a quiet game here
is where the night turns four minutes and
13 seconds after Brady's goal,
Tim Stutzla tied it on the power play with Jake Sanderson and Stephen
Holliday on the assists. The building roared.
It was 1-1 and Ottawa never trailed again. Going into
the first break, tide was huge for this team.
They heard the boos that Brady Kachuk was getting
and they knew they weren't the ones that needed saving in this game.
The second period was the
one that decided it. Claude Giroux gave Ottawa
the lead at 9-34 of the second, a wrist shot from
between the circles. Then Shane Pinto made it 3-1
at 17-18 with Sanderson on the assist, and Ottawa
walked into a second intermission with the building theirs.
Look at the shot count. By the final horn,
Ottawa had 30 shots on goal, Florida had 19.
For a team that came in with a three-game winning streak,
that is being outworked in a hostile environment.
And look who was on the ice for it. Stutzla had a
goal and a primary assist, won seven to ten face-offs,
and by one team account, matched up
against Sam Reinhart for six minutes and nine seconds.
Ottawa had seven shot attempts to one
in those minutes. This is how you get revenge in hockey.
You don't need a speech. You go out and
win the minutes. The third period is where
the story stopped being about hockey. Two minutes and
17 seconds in, Ridley Greig and Sam Bennett dropped the gloves.
Then at 3.35, another pile,
Roughing minors all around and a 10-minute misconduct for Nick Cousins.
In the middle of it, Linus Allmark made a save and went down.
Lower body strain.
He had to be helped off after 18 shots and one goal.
Samuel Eriksson came in.
And that is a part I will not let you miss
because the Ottawa Senators lost their starting
goaltender due to injury in a charged building
with Brady Kachuk still on the ice and they
still built off that momentum and scored two more goals in this game.
Warren Fogle made it 4-1 off a pass from Dylan Cousins.
Then at 14.57, Stephen Holliday scored off a Stutzle drop pass.
Both even strength, 5-on-5.
That is a team playing its game
while the other team plays it differently.
Brady Kachuk finished with a goal.
Three shots, six hits, six penalty minutes,
a minus two, and 13 minutes and 13 seconds of ice time.
Three minor penalties in a game where he wanted
to be the main character.
Matthew Kachuk was not happy either.
He and Nick Cousins were both fine the next day.
$5,000 for Matthew Kachuk for roughing Cousins,
just over $4,000 for Cousins for unsportsmanlike conduct on the bench.
Before we call it revenge, let's be fair.
Some of the centers still have a great relationship with Brady Kachuk.
Drake Bathurston said it would not affect his relationship
with him just because he wasn't here anymore.
Bathurston added that every player in this league
is open to doing whatever they want to do,
and this sounds like a man talking about a friend,
not a guy plotting a revenge.
The fans saw it differently. The Associated Press had them chanting,
we don't need you. Daily Faceoff panel said
the most creative one was you eat crayons.
Tyler Yakumchuk on that same show put his finger on why.
Quote, he wanted to leave with years on
his contract. And when you do that,
a fan base is not going to like you. And the money matters.
Brady is signed at $8.2 million against the cap
in each of the next two seasons. And he is a free
agent in 2028. He did not leave because he was out of options.
He asked to go, but his old teammates
did not make it about that.
Carter Hutton said it best on Daily Faceoff. Quote, they pushed back
and were the difference maker when it all came down.
Ottawa's story last night was not anger.
It was a team that responded.
Here is the part nobody puts in a graphic. Ottawa got a haul,
but Ottawa also took a big hit. So let's put both together.
Start with the Senators. William
Eklund, the player they flipped the ninth pick for,
was hurt on October the 8th in a two-on-one win
over the Philadelphia Flyers.
He's out 10 to 12 weeks after surgery on a torn ankle tendon.
Add Linus Omark to that list for at least three games,
so the price of last night is not small.
This was a win without two pieces the Senators were counting on.
Brady has seven goals in 10
games, three of them on the power play.
That is a 20% shooting rate, seven goals on 35 shots. It is
very good. It is also a number that tends to come back down.
His career total is 220 goals and 474
points in 582 games across Ottawa and Florida.
He is a legitimate elite power forward. The
Senators did not lose a player who was in a decline at all.
That is why the three picks in this trade
mattered so much because Brady Kachuk is going
to matter to the Florida Panthers for the next five
years. Ottawa has to flip those picks into players
that will matter for them in the next five years
as well. And if you want a second chance at the story,
you will get three. The Panthers host the
Senators on November 25th and January 18th.
The Ottawa hosts Florida again on March 18th. So what
does Ottawa leave with from this game?
They leave with two points, a 7-3 record that puts them third
in the Atlantic Division,
and they get the last laugh because Florida still remains fourth under
them in the standings. Claude Giroux said it best afterwards.
Quote, it felt like a playoff game.
And Florida's coach, Paul Maurice, gave the other half.
Quote, we were behind the play in the first.
The cost for Ottawa is real.
Omark is on the injury reserve for at least three games. And
Irsin, who was already lined up to start against San Jose,
now has the net for a week. Now on the
other side, Brady has seven goals
and four assists in 10 games for Florida with 17 penalty minutes,
six of them last night. He is fine. The Panthers are fine.
This is one loss in October for them.
But this is a victory Ottawa will remember.
And this was a crucial win for them.
This will give them so much momentum going forward
because they beat Brady in his return
and a lot of players in that locker room needed that victory
and they got it last night.
So revenge, I'll give you my answer.
They didn't go after Brady Kachuk last night.
They went after the scoreboard and dominated.
If you want to see the box score from last night's game,
it is up on DigestSports.com.
We'll add the link in the description.
so what do you guys think do you think this was revenge
for the Ottawa Senators or you just think
it was a team that really wanted to beat
this guy let me know what you guys think down below
did they get the revenge is this what they
were seeking I'd love to hear from you guys down below
in the comments and that is all for this episode of NHL Digest
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