{"id":507959,"date":"2026-03-17T15:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/507959\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T15:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:17:15","slug":"youve-got-to-have-a-way-better-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/507959\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You\u2019ve got to have a way better response\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Senators<\/a> captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a> is no stranger to mixing it up on the ice.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old winger has eclipsed 100 penalty minutes in each of the past four seasons and in five of his past six. <\/p>\n

Following the season-ending knee injury<\/a> sustained by Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> captain Auston Matthews<\/a> at the hands of Anaheim Ducks<\/a> defenceman Radko Gudas<\/a> last week, Tkachuk lamented the team\u2019s lack of on-ice response to the hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your captain gets taken out like that, you\u2019ve got to have a way better response, personally.\u201d Tkachuk said on his \u2018Wingmen\u2019 podcast. \u201cI know how I\u2019d feel if I got hit like that and nobody really jumped in there. I\u2019d be pretty pissed. It\u2019s unfortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go after our best players, we\u2019re going after your best player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the Maple Leafs on the ice at the time of the hit \u2013 Morgan Rielly<\/a>, William Nylander<\/a>, Easton Cowan<\/a> and Brandon Carlo<\/a> \u2013 have come under fire for not physically responding with Matthews down on the ice.<\/p>\n

Both Nylander and Rielly have taken responsibility for not jumping in<\/a>, saying they did not fully grasp the severity of the situation at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on me for not responding earlier to Gudas,\u201d Rielly said. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand how bad he got him \u2026 but I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there or being in there quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShould have probably gone in there,\u201d Nylander said \u201cBut in the situation at the time, I didn\u2019t really understand until, like, 15 seconds later there was more than what I thought it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senators and Maple Leafs will face off on Saturday as Ottawa continues to chase a playoff spot with one month remaining in the regular season. The Sens are 6-1-2 since the Olympic break<\/a> and sit four points back of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, held by the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk said he has a lot of respect for Matthews, who captained Team USA to gold at Milano Cortina 2026, and says it was a missed opportunity for the Leafs to show unity in what has been a tough season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been their guy for the last bunch of years. Gives it everything he has and keeps getting better,\u201d said Tkachuk. \u201cI\u2019ve been in that position before. Pissed off you\u2019re [not in a playoff spot]. You already have that like natural anger. You want to go take it out. That was a perfect opportunity to stand up for your captain and just didn\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senators have three games coming up this week, all against Eastern Conference rivals, starting with the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Wednesday, followed by the New York Islanders<\/a> and Leafs on Thursday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has 16 games remaining in the regular season, with all but one against Eastern Conference opponents. The lone exception is an April 4 game against Quinn Hughes<\/a> and the Minnesota Wild<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs (29-27-12) have 14 games remaining in the season, starting with the New York Islanders<\/a> on Tuesday night and a back-to-back beginning Friday night against the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> and Ottawa Senators<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Viewers in the Leafs region can watch them take on the Islanders LIVE Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET\/4 p.m. PT on TSN4, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk is no stranger to mixing it up on the ice. The 26-year-old winger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[4759,33999,34584,5,4,72,25,33540,5157,73,32467],"class_list":{"0":"post-507959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-auston-matthews-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479318","10":"tag-brady-tkachuk-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8480801","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-ottawa","14":"tag-ottawa-senators","15":"tag-ottawa-senators-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-9","16":"tag-ottawasenators","17":"tag-senators","18":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116245184155687077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}