Ottawa Senators’ Brady Tkachuk fights for a puck with Toronto Maple Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson in front of Toronto Maple Leafs’ Anthony Stolarz during second period NHL playoff action in Toronto on April 20.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
How players look and sound directly after a crushing playoff loss isn’t determinative of the future, but it’s a semi-effective crystal ball.
There’s good upset and bad upset, but peppy is a bad sign. Jokey is worse. Stunned is the bell beginning to toll.
Most of the Ottawa Senators who spoke right after getting blown out by the Leafs in Game 1 sounded one or the other of those. Goalie Linus Ullmark was reduced to quoting Ted Lasso.
Only Brady Tkachuk had the right mix – something between a shrug and rage. He seemed personally affronted, which is how the Brad Marchands of the world react.
“I think we just got a little careless with the sticks,” Tkachuk said. “Cross-checks, pushes, whatever you want to call it.”
I think most people call it cross-checks.
Toward the end of the game, Tkachuk seemed to agree with Leafs’ hard man Simon Benoit that they should meet away from the play to air their differences. Though both men had already been given penalties which sent them to the locker room, they attempted to hide on the ice until the puck was dropped. They almost got away with it, too.
I don’t read tea leaves, but I think I know how Game 2 is going to start. If Ottawa isn’t a lot better on Tuesday, this series will be short and bloody.
That would be a shame for anyone who wants to get to know the other Tkachuk brother better, which should be everyone.
Despite what Leafs fans believe, the NHL doesn’t need any particular team to do well. The average fan could not find Green Bay on a map, but it hasn’t stopped the Packers from becoming a global sports cult. If they tell compelling stories, small markets can make big impacts.
The important part of that equation are the storytellers. What the NHL needs is more and better characters.
Hockey has great players and a few good talkers, and never the twain do meet. Have you sat through an interview with … well, we don’t need to name names here. Think of the half-dozen best players in hockey based on statistics. Nice enough guys, but they don’t exactly fill a room with their personalities. Most couldn’t fill a half-empty box of baking soda.
The trick to taking a league from one level to the next is finding players who have the ineffable quality of stardom. They don’t need to be raconteurs. Michael Jordan didn’t say much. They need to have that jus, that special sauce.
Think of what Caitlin Clark has done for the WNBA. Not much of a talker, and not in a great market, but she has that electricity. Like Jordan, she does it by being a ridiculously gifted blank slate. She is whoever you imagine her to be.
Whether or not you know, or care about, or watch the WNBA is not the point. That you know who she is and have some opinion of her is what matters.
There is no trick to turning a current fan into a bigger fan. But converting a non-fan to a tire-kicker? That’s sports marketing alchemy.
Brady Tkachuk can be the same sort of transformative player as Clark, but funnier, more engaging off the field of play and more villainous.
When it’s at its best, the NHL is full of cartoon bad guys. Philadelphia had a whole team of them. Once fighting became verboten, it got harder to tell the bad from the good. So both ends of the spectrum began to contract. Now everyone’s OK, until they dive or butt end a guy in the throat or say something whacky. Then they’re bad for a little while, until they say something nice, and then they’re good again.
Like his brother, Matthew, Brady Tkachuk is temperamentally suited to be a black hat. He’s Kenny Linseman, but bigger, better and a faster talker. His differentiating quality is that he actually seems to care what people think of him.
On Sunday, the Scotiabank Arena crowd was able to stay engaged for the entire first period – a record. They got bored in the second.
The one thing they committed to for the full 60 minutes was berating Tkachuk. As chants go, “Brady sucks” is a failure of creativity, but it does let you know who matters.
Asked about such things, current athletic best practice is to say that you love it and that it motivates you. Like he does on most things, Tkachuk went another way.
“I don’t really give a (use your imagination) to be honest with you,” in a tone that suggested he very much does. So the chants will get louder on Tuesday. That’s fun.
A league can only control part of its offering. It sets the rules, sells the franchises, outsources hiring and makes sure the game is broadcast is on TV. But it can’t make its entertainment entertaining. That’s up to individual staffers.
Back in the day, there was some percentage to making your voice heard, or playing a character on TV. Maybe it convinced the local car dealership to trade you a free truck for showing up and shaking hands twice a year.
These days, there is no personality dividend. You don’t have to say a mumbling word to get the benefits of a star. In fact, talking is fraught with risk. That’s why most of them are so bad at it.
But every once in a while, someone with natural, uncontainable charisma sneaks through. These are the players whose shoulders leagues are built on. Your Aaron Rodgers or Novak Djokovic or Max Verstappen. Not everybody likes them, but everybody wants to hear what they’re saying.
Amplified by his Frick and Frack relationship with his brother, Brady Tkachuk is that sort of player. All he needs now are the performance bona fides. He has to play in games that matter.
It would be great for this series if the Ottawa Senators got a lot better in a hurry. It would be great for hockey if everyone got to see more of the most interesting person in it.