Matthew Tkachuk isn't buying what the Senators said about Brady's return to Ottawa and calls it out
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Matthew Tkachuk says the Senators did not really sell out Brady's return to Ottawa, despite announcing 17,010 tickets for the October 21 game.
Matthew Tkachuk is still not buying what the Ottawa Senators sold two weeks ago.
Speaking on the Wingmen podcast, the Panthers winger questioned the team's announced sellout of 17,010 for his brother Brady's return to Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday, October 21.
He said the building looked closer to 15,000 people to him.
Still, he gave the atmosphere real credit.
Matthew ranked it among the best regular season nights he can recall, while pointing out that playoff hockey is a different animal.
The crowd was passionate from warmups on, he said, and games like that are fun to play. The result, not so much.
"That was one of the better regular season games, for sure. One that I can remember. I mean playoffs is a whole different beast. 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."
- Matthew Tkachuk
- Matthew Tkachuk
How the night played out
Ottawa won 5-1. Brady scored the lone goal for Florida with Matthew getting the assist, and the Ottawa crowd made sure he heard about it.
Fans booed him through warmups and every time he touched the puck, and they showed up with creative chants, including a few jabs at the brothers' podcast.
Brady spent eight seasons in Ottawa and captained the club from 2021 before requesting a trade earlier this year.
He has said scoring in that building was nothing new for him, and that the strangest part of doing it as a visitor was the silence with no horn or siren.
Where things stand now
Ottawa sits at 9-6-1, one point ahead of Florida at 8-5-2 in a tight Atlantic Division race.
Brady has eight goals and eight assists through 15 games in his first season with the Panthers.
With the standings this close, the feud between the Tkachuks and Ottawa has plenty of fuel left.
The brothers clearly have no plans to let the topic go, and Senators fans will almost certainly have something to say about the attendance debate.
Whatever the real number was, the noise clearly stuck with both brothers.
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