Brady Tkachuk tries to explain comment that stirred controversy in Ottawa return

Florida Panther Brady Tkachuk gets kicked out of the game during third period at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa Wednesday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Brady Tkachuk isn’t backing down from what he said to the Ottawa Senators bench after scoring in his return to the Canadian Tire Centre.

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Instead, the former Senators captain is trying to explain it away.

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Speaking on The Wingmen Podcast, which he does with his brother and teammate, Matthew, Tkachuk tried to add context to what he told the club’s bench in his return to the Canadian Tire Centre on Oct. 21 after scoring the first goal in a 5-1 loss by the Florida Panthers.

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Matthew took a shot at the Senators for announcing a sellout of 17,010 the night of Brady’s return.

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“That was one of the better regular-season games, for sure. One that I can remember. Playoffs are a little different,” Matthew said. “It was good. It was a loud 15,000. They say it was sold out. I was there. I had my eyes. That was not sold out.

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“But they were loud. They were passionate. It started in warmups. It’s good. Those games are really fun to play. The result sucks.”

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Tkachuk did a good job inflicting his own form of revenge by opening the scoring. Down low on the power play, he beat Linus Ullmark on the first shot he faced at the 10-minute mark of the first.

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“A lot of people called and texted me,” Matthew told Brady. “They want to know what it’s like scoring in front of 15,000 people and then getting booed. What is that like?”

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What did Brady Tkachuk tell the Sens bench?

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Tkachuk didn’t like that majority owner Michael Andlauer stated publicly that Tkachuk told the Senators bench that “some things never change, eh, boys?” as he skated by.

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“It felt nice. I mean, obviously the fans were passionate before and it was pretty quiet there for the next couple of minutes, which was nice,” Tkachuk said. “They didn’t really have much to say and it felt good because there’s been a lot of goals scored in that building, and for it to happen the other way around, that was nice.

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“It felt good. Felt like a lot of memories I’ve had in the past.”

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That prompted Matthew to chime in.

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“I don’t know how many goals you’ve scored in that building. It’s got to be 200-plus. Some things never change, you just scored for another team,” Matthew said.

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That’s where Tkachuk half-heartedly tried to deflect his comment to the bench.

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“That’s what I was thinking,” Tkachuk said. “There’s been a lot of goals scored in that building. My thought was that it was just another one and that I just did it on the other side. I’ve had a lot of memories of scoring in that building before.

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“So, I don’t know where that kind of got misconstrued, that it was about something else other than the fact I’ve scored in this building before. It was just the same feeling on the other side. There was no siren, no horn, and just a lot of silence. That was the most different part, just the silence.

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“I’m used to having fans cheering and people banging on the glass and on their feet. That celly was different. I was taken aback. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a weird feeling, scoring here and just having no response back to that.’ But that’s what we were going with. But all good. It got misconstrued.”