Senators Crush Panthers 5-1 as Brady Tkachuk Gets Booed in Ottawa Return; Ullmark Hurt
They booed him. They chanted "We don't need you!" at him. They threw his jerseys onto the ice. And then they watched their Ottawa Senators beat Brady Tkachuk's Florida Panthers 5-1 in one of the most electric nights Canadian Tire Centre has seen in years. If this was supposed to be an awkward homecoming, nobody told the 19,000 people in the building — or the five different Senators who found the back of the net.
Wednesday night was Tkachuk's first game back in Ottawa since the June 21 trade that sent him to Florida after eight seasons in a Senators sweater, the last five as captain. He scored first — a power-play wrist shot at 10:00 of the first period, fed by his brother Matthew, slipped under Linus Ullmark's right arm. The former captain smiled and shrugged. For about four minutes, the Panthers led. Then Tim Stutzle buried a one-timer from the right circle off a Jake Sanderson pass, and the night belonged to Ottawa.
Five goals, five different Senators
Claude Giroux put Ottawa ahead at 9:34 of the second with a wrist shot through traffic. Shane Pinto made it 3-1 late in the period, crashing the net and slipping the puck across the line. The third period was all Senators: Warren Foegele finished a short-handed rush at 7:58 off a Dylan Cozens feed, and Stephen Halliday closed it out at 14:57 on a Stutzle drop-pass. Stutzle and Halliday each finished with a goal and an assist; Sanderson added two helpers and became the second-fastest Senators defenceman to reach 40 career multi-point games, behind only Erik Karlsson.
Florida's three-game winning streak is over, and the Panthers (5-3-2) never found their forecheck. "I don't think we ever got to [our game]," head coach Paul Maurice admitted afterward. "The defining feature of our game is our forecheck. I don't think we ever got to it." Garnet Hathaway was blunter about what went wrong: "They were on pucks. They were quick. They were feeding off the energy in this rink."
The night turns ugly — on both sides
This wasn't just a hockey game; it was a grievance aired in public. Tkachuk was booed every time he touched the puck, fans chanted through the night, and the bad blood spilled over in the third. Sam Bennett fought Ridly Greig. Brady and Matthew Tkachuk got into it in front of Ottawa's bench. Tkachuk and Cozens exchanged heated words. The building loved every second of it.
Tkachuk, to his credit, didn't hide. "It was just nice to be back," he said. "Of course, not the outcome that we wanted, but it's the start of a road trip. Just got to bounce back and move on." He's now scored seven goals in his last four games — the production is there, even if the homecoming wasn't.
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💛 Donate via PayPalUllmark goes down — the real worry
The win came at a cost Ottawa can't afford. With 16:25 left in the third and the Senators up 3-1, Linus Ullmark extended his right leg to make a pad save on — of all people — Tkachuk, then slumped over in the crease. Trainers came out. He was helped off the ice and down the tunnel, and Samuel Ersson finished the game. Head coach Travis Green confirmed a lower-body injury but couldn't say how serious it is; Ullmark will be re-evaluated Thursday.
That's the part that should keep Sens fans up tonight. Ullmark entered the game with a 1.33 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage through seven starts — Vezina-calibre numbers. He'd stopped 16 of 17 before the injury. Ottawa (7-3-0) hosts San Jose on Thursday, and if their goalie is out for any length of time, this euphoric win gets complicated fast. A backup finishing one shot in relief is fine for 16 minutes. It's not a plan.
Still — what a night. The fans got their revenge game, the kids (Stutzle, Pinto, Halliday) drove the bus, and the captain they lost watched it happen from the losing bench. "We don't need you" was harsh. Wednesday night, for three hours at least, it was also true.
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