It will be sibling rivalry tonight when the Florida Panthers take on the Ottawa Senators and the Tkachuk brothers find themselves clashing with one another.
I’m sure Keith Tkachuk will be doing his best Homer while in the stands tonight:
“The Senators were riding a five-game winning streak before they ran into the Tampa Bay Lightning, who beat them 4-3 on Tuesday and by a more convincing 5-1 count on Thursday, with both games played at Amalie Arena. Tim Stützle leads the Senators with 38 assists and 55 points. Brady Tkachuk is the only member of the club to hit 20 goals.”
I personally think this is going to be a great game tonight. The Sens sit right in the middle of the Atlantic Division in the #4 spot and are pushing for a playoff berth. Ullmark has returned to the lineup and they have a red-hot Adam Gaudette who is having a career year.
Add to that the fact that these two teams really don’t like each other, and seem to push one another’s button each time they play.
“When the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators meet up, one never knows what havoc may occur.
Their history together over the last few seasons has been, well, less than friendly.
It doesn’t take much to figure out that mayhem is coming when you have a game with a Tkachuk on either side.
Brady, with Ottawa, is second in the NHL in penalties with 99 minutes; Matthew, the more passive of the two, has a mere 54 minutes and is not even in the top 25.
“It starts and ends with one word. It’s a last name,” Ryan Lomberg said last year.
“It’s ‘Tkachuk.’ Brady is their leader; Matthew is one of our leaders.”
In Florida’s second game of this season, Ottawa beat Florida 3-1 in a game that was pretty quiet — until Sasha Barkov got hurt after going skates-first into the end boards after chasing down a puck headed to an empty net in an attempt to stop Tim Stutzle from scoring.
Their fourth matchup last season in Sunrise was a mild affair, save for minor tussles between Zack MacEwen and Jonah Gadjovich, followed by some angry looks between Niko Mikkola and Ridly Greig.
MacEwen started this season in Ottawa but has since been sent to the AHL; Gadjovich could be back in the lineup tonight.
Compared to what happened in previous games, that match was highly passive.
Last season, the Panthers were 4-0 against Ottawa, outscoring the Sens 16-2.
The bad blood began in earnest with the final meeting of the 2022-23 season in a game that featured 166 minutes in penalties with six fighting majors, 10 roughing minors, four 10-minute misconducts, and three game misconducts.
The Tkachuk family has a rule that Brady and Matthew will never fight each other, but in that game, Brady duked it out with Marc Staal while Matthew fought Drake Batherson.
The next meeting came early last season. A summer off did not cool any heads.
The Panthers and Senators racked up 167 minutes in the bin, topping the prior game by a minute.
The main culprit was MacEwen (again), who got tired of Matthew taking liberties with his team and nailed him with a flying elbow to the head, earning him a match penalty for intent to injure.
There was much more, but you get the point: These teams are not traditional rivals, but they do not like each other.
Some resident agitators, such as MacEwen and Lomberg, are no longer with the teams, which might lower the retaliation factor tonight.
But the hockey should be good.
The Senators are a much-improved team. They hold the first wild-card position and have a good shot at making their first playoff appearance since 2017.
Ottawa just lost two straight in Tampa after having a five-game winning streak.
So, these games are essential to Ottawa.“
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Looking forward to some old time, beat ‘em hockey tonight!
Florida Panthers Blogger • 
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