It’s been six long weeks. Brady Tkachuk returns from right thumb surgery to the Ottawa Senators lineup. Fittingly, the Senators’ captain is set play his first game after missing 20 in his hometown, St. Louis surrounded by family and friends. In fact, the Tkachuk family were serving up Thanksgiving dinner for the entire Senators squad and training staff.
“It’s all very thankful, very grateful for all the people, especially the people that helped me get back: the strength staff, the trainer, I got to give a little shout to the equipment guys, even though they provided very little over these six weeks. But no, it’s just overall, just great human beings here. I’m just so thankful for my family, and just thankful be able to play the game I love again,” said Tkachuk via Zoom Thursday.
“It was a long six weeks. It was tough stretches. There were some highs, some lows, and I’m just so grateful to have the opportunity to be playing again. I’m really excited to join the boys.”
Tkachuk miscalculated timeline
Interestingly, the 26-year-old initially miscalculated his return to action. He thought his recovery timeline coincided with the start of the Senators seven-game road trip, not Game no. 5.
Tkachuk explained, “I’m not gonna lie to you. At the start, I got all my weeks messed up. I thought I was coming at the start of the road trip, and then once I got halfway through the recovery, like, oh, oh, St. Louis is the six weeks. So yeah, I thought I was gonna be starting the trip with them.. I guess it just happens to work out. Now, there’s always no reason for stuff that happens, things that you can’t really predict and don’t make sense.“
He continued, “For it to work out that St. Louis is going to be the first game where I have the opportunity to come back in front of family and friends and everybody that supports me, it’s made the recovery a little bit better and something to set my eyes on, set my goals towards.”
Tkachuk joked in his earlier media availability that he would come back a better skater. He was on the ice with Senators power skating consultant Shelley Kettles six days after his surgery.
“I started skating. I think it was six days post surgery, and as you guys could tell, there was no stick. And those couple weeks with Shelley working on power skating was such a huge benefit that I can see for myself, a couple times a week was sexy and just doing bag skates. So I did that for four weeks, and at the four week mark post-surgery, was able to stick handle.
“Quite honestly, I thought the shooting would take a little bit longer, but the shot felt pretty good right from the start. So for the last two weeks been, of course, doing all the conditioning, the bag skating, but being able to stickhandle and shoot and feeling really good and confident in that. Been taking faceoffs at practice and feel really good. So I’m really grateful for Dr Hotchkiss, the trainers that make me feel, honestly, even better than I was before.”
Senators hung in without their leader
Despite missing their leader for 20 of 23 games played this season, the Senators performed well in Tkachuk’s absence. They developed a next-man up mentality, posting an 11-5-4 record. The club is holding their own in a tight Atlantic Division/Eastern Conference race. Heading into Friday’s action, the Senators sit second in the Atlantic.
Being able to analyze games from above, Tkachuk sees the growth in his teammates, “I think the one, the biggest one for me, is the maturity and finding ways to win. There’s been games where it hasn’t been the prettiest, but you find a way to get a point or squeak out winning a big two points. So that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve been proud of, and something the group’s built the last six weeks. And that’s just the mindset, mentally.”
Tkachuk added, “For example, Timmy (Stützle), everyone already knew how unbelievable a player that he was, but even raised his own standard and took charge. And I know that’s just one guy, for example, but I can name the whole roster. Everybody took charge and pushed themselves to be even better than they were. I think that’s what makes you the most proud of our group. It’s not just being able to do that, but it’s just the self-accountability to be better than they were. It made my life a lot easier, seeing all the wins, seeing all the points, and no, they definitely took care of me. So I’m looking to come back and just help out.”
With the storm weathered, the Senators are now primed to make another towards securing consecutive playoff berths.
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