This season has been a rollercoaster ride for Brady Tkachuk.
It started with surgery to repair a torn tendon in his thumb after the Ottawa Senators’ home opener against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 13, continued with the high of winning a gold medal with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and took another step with the Senators making the playoffs.
Now, the Senators’ captain has a chance to write another chapter as the team prepares to open the National Hockey League postseason against the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 1, and winning the Stanley Cup would make this a full storybook season for the 26-year-old Tkachuk.
The Senators will face the Hurricanes in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C.
“Every year you dream about winning the Stanley Cup, and the first step is to get to the playoffs,” Tkachuk said. “You can’t look too far ahead. All our focus is to get off to a good start to the first TV timeout in Game 1, and then it’s to the next TV timeout.
“We’re going to have to shorten our mindset by just focusing on the little things and being ready to go.”
Getting here hasn’t been easy. The Senators were 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference on Jan. 27 and had to make a strong stretch run to get into the postseason.
After Ottawa booked its playoff spot on April 11 with a 3-0 victory over the New York Islanders, combined with a loss by the Detroit Red Wings that evening, Tkachuk was among five regulars who didn’t suit up for the 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.
He suffered a bizarre ailment against the Isles that “caused him to lose his vision” at one point, but told reporters on Tuesday he had been checked from head to toe and would suit up to start the series in Raleigh.
Tkachuk was asked to sum up the season as he prepared for his club to take the next step after making the playoffs for the second straight year. The Senators were eliminated by the Maple Leafs in the first round last spring.
“It’s been a wild one,” Tkachuk told the Ottawa Citizen. “It was my first time being hurt, which felt like forever ago. So that was a little hint of adversity, and then just the ups and downs of everything, of being so far out and so far behind some teams and just slowly creeping back up and passing teams that probably people didn’t think we could still (catch).
“The best way I can describe this season is a lot of highs, a lot of lows, and it’s been fun. Not everything’s meant to be perfect. You’re always supposed to enjoy the hard road. So it’s definitely been a hard road to get to where we’re at.”
You can debate Tkachuk’s season all you want, but he finished with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 60 games. The thumb injury didn’t help matters because it took away a big part of Tkachuk’s game — fighting — for a large part of the season.
He didn’t drop the gloves until he was able to shed a piece of equipment he wore to protect the thumb. That happened in late February.
“It definitely took away from my game,” Tkachuk said. “But I also think it allowed other areas of my game to improve. I felt like my skating got a lot better, being hurt and working on that.
“I wouldn’t say I lost anything not being able to fight, but being able to come back and add that to my game, I feel like I’m peaking at the right time.”
That’s good news for the Senators.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk during practice at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Tuesday.
“I’ve seen great growth and maturity, not only in his game on the ice, but off the ice as well,” said Steve Staios, the Senators’ president of hockey operations and general manager, “and as a leader, the emotional control, the way he manages his game.
“This young man’s been through a lot, and a lot of it has been out of his control. I’ve seen great growth and development both on and off the ice.”
Tkachuk is hopeful that some of the experience he gained by winning gold in the Olympic hockey final against Team Canada in February can help as the Senators embark on their 2026 playoff journey.
“Just from the adversity aspect: We faced a lot of adversity in that game, and we never wavered, never faltered and never lost belief that we weren’t going to win,” Tkachuk said. “I know I can apply that for every single game I play in.
“That was one of the most pressure-filled environments you might ever play in. You just have to know that you’re never out of it, you’re never out of it, even if they have all the chances and all the momentum. You’re still in the game. You have to have faith and never waver.”
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