NHL hits two players with maximum punishments after chaotic Senators-Panthers clash

The NHL's Department of Player Safety didn't let Wednesday night's chaos in Ottawa slide.

Matthew Tkachuk and Nick Cousins both got hit in the wallet on Thursday, and both fines were the maximum the collective bargaining agreement allows.

Tkachuk was docked $5,000 for roughing Senators forward Dylan Cozens.

It was a busy night for the Panthers winger, who also picked up a high-sticking minor in the second period and two roughing penalties in the third, one of them for an altercation with Ridly Greig.

Cousins was fined $4,091.49 for unsportsmanlike conduct toward an opponent while he was on the Ottawa bench.

He also received a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct with just over three and a half minutes left in the game.

The tension was baked in before the puck dropped.

It was Brady Tkachuk's first game back in Ottawa since asking for a trade to Florida this summer, and the crowd let him have it with a loud wave of boos.

He answered with a power-play goal in the first period to put the Panthers up 1-0, but the night went sideways from there.

Brady spent plenty of time in the penalty box himself, including a roughing minor against his former teammate Cousins, and he picked up two more in the third.

Ottawa pulled away to win 5-1, and the two teams combined for 84 penalty minutes.

The league stuck with fines instead of suspensions.

For Tkachuk, who has built a career on living right on the edge, $5,000 is basically the cost of doing business.

With Brady now wearing a Panthers sweater next to his brother and the Senators clearly enjoying the spite, this one isn't cooling off anytime soon.

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