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<\/p>\nThis season has been a rollercoaster ride for Brady Tkachuk.<\/p>\n
It started with surgery to repair a torn tendon in his thumb after the Ottawa Senators\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Now, the Senators\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year you dream about winning the Stanley Cup, and the first step is to get to the playoffs,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cYou can\u2019t 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\u2019s to the next TV timeout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to shorten our mindset by just focusing on the little things and being ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting here hasn\u2019t been easy. The Senators were 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the NHL\u2019s Eastern Conference on Jan. 27 and had to make a strong stretch run to get into the postseason.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t suit up for the 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He suffered a bizarre ailment against the Isles that \u201ccaused him to lose his vision\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a wild one,\u201d Tkachuk told the Ottawa Citizen. \u201cIt 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\u2019t think we could still (catch).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way I can describe this season is a lot of highs, a lot of lows, and it\u2019s been fun. Not everything\u2019s meant to be perfect. You\u2019re always supposed to enjoy the hard road. So it\u2019s definitely been a hard road to get to where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can debate Tkachuk\u2019s season all you want, but he finished with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 60 games. The thumb injury didn\u2019t help matters because it took away a big part of Tkachuk\u2019s game \u2014 fighting \u2014 for a large part of the season.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t drop the gloves until he was able to shed a piece of equipment he wore to protect the thumb. That happened in late February.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely took away from my game,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cBut 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019m peaking at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good news for the Senators.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk during practice at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen great growth and maturity, not only in his game on the ice, but off the ice as well,\u201d said Steve Staios, the Senators\u2019 president of hockey operations and general manager, \u201cand as a leader, the emotional control, the way he manages his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis young man\u2019s been through a lot, and a lot of it has been out of his control. I\u2019ve seen great growth and development both on and off the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust 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\u2019t going to win,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cI know I can apply that for every single game I play in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the most pressure-filled environments you might ever play in. You just have to know that you\u2019re never out of it, you\u2019re never out of it, even if they have all the chances and all the momentum. You\u2019re still in the game. You have to have faith and never waver.\u201d<\/p>\n