Things are looking awfully bright in Ottawa these days. For a roster that may not be the flashiest or most talent-stacked group in the league, the Senators are winning on identity — structure, buy-in, and a level of chemistry most teams can only dream of. When players genuinely love showing up to the rink together, the results follow. And with a locker room as close-knit as Ottawa’s, hilarious stories are almost guaranteed to bubble to the surface.
That’s exactly what happened when James Duthie told a now-viral tale on the BarDown podcast — a prank gone wrong (and then very right), starring Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux. It’s a perfect snapshot of what makes the Senators’ room so tight, and why their success feels so sustainable.
According to Duthie, the story began when Tkachuk walked into the dressing room one day to find all of his sticks taped together with what looked like “2,020 rolls of tape.” It was an obvious prank which Brady Tkachuk thought Giroux was behind. So, naturally, he decided he had to get even.
Right before practice, he grabbed a hacksaw and cut into the shaft of four of Giroux’s sticks. As Duthie explained, if you cut the right spot on a stick, it loses its structural integrity entirely — you can’t tell by looking or handling it, but it’ll snap the moment real pressure hits it. Brady figured Giroux would break three sticks in practice, have a mini-meltdown, everyone would laugh, and the prank war would end there.
Except… things immediately went sideways.
Right as practice was about to begin, Tkachuk got called into a meeting with a coach. He completely forgot about the stick situation and Giroux ended up using one of the uncut sticks. Practice came and went without a single broken twig. No reaction. No payoff. Nothing.
The next day, Ottawa played an afternoon game against the St. Louis Blues. Roughly eight minutes in, on the power play, Giroux snapped a stick, went to the bench, grabbed another… and snapped that one too. Somehow, Brady had forgotten all about it and sat on the bench with absolutely no idea what was happening.
Meanwhile, Giroux was furious because he believed someone was messing with his equipment during an actual game. He even started yelling at Brayden Schenn, one of his closest buddies from their Flyers days, demanding to know whether the Blues forward had tampered with his sticks.
That’s when Brady overheard Giroux’s verbal assault of Schenn and had the horrifying realization: Giroux was using the sabotaged sticks in a real game.
Brady Tkachuk’s got his first goal of the season! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/e98jCPCWak
— NHL (@NHL) December 3, 2025
At that point, only two Sens players — Tim Stützle and Shane Pinto — knew the truth. They were on the bench, barely breathing from trying not to laugh. As they later told teammates, they thought the story would “go to the grave.”
But guilt eventually won. After a timeout, Tkachuk quietly tapped Giroux on the arm and told him he was the one who tampered with his sticks. Giroux stared back, stunned. Ottawa was in a playoff race, playing meaningful hockey, and here he was snapping sticks on national television because of a prank gone sideways.
Then, in perfect hockey fashion, Tkachuk scored four points as if out of pure guilt. Ottawa won the game 8–1. Giroux didn’t speak to Brady for a bit, but because of the big win he got over it fairly quickly, and the story became legendary.
On a recent episode of the Wingmen Podcast, Tkachuk said he immediately thought it was Giroux because that season, the two of them were chirping each other nonstop and constantly playing little games back and forth.
Another new detail? During that 8–1 home win on October 29, 2024, Tkachuk pulled equipment manager John over mid-period to whisper, “There’s a third one. Get rid of it.” Meanwhile, Giroux was yelling at Brayden Schenn on the ice because he genuinely believed an old teammate had sabotaged him.
“You’re lucky we won that game, because if not I was going to kill you.”
Claude Giroux was not happy with Brady’s insane prank 🤣🏒 pic.twitter.com/vpIOki7MC2
— Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk (@Wingmenpod) December 3, 2025
Brady later joked on the podcast with his brother Matthew that the only reason this story ever saw daylight is because they won that game. If they had lost? This tale probably disappears forever.
Instead, it’s now a small and hilarious snapshot of why Ottawa feels different. Teams don’t play this loose, or stay this connected, without a foundation of trust and genuine friendship. In a league built on structure, talent, and grind, sometimes the real edge comes from a room that can laugh together.