{"id":559814,"date":"2026-04-26T07:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559814\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:36:22","slug":"brady-tkachuk-in-tears-as-senators-season-ends-in-crushing-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559814\/","title":{"rendered":"Brady Tkachuk in tears as Senators\u2019 season ends in crushing sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa Senators<\/a> saw their playoff run end with a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in Game 4, completing a first-round sweep in the 2026 NHL<\/a> Playoffs. It was a tight series, but Ottawa failed to find the finish when it mattered.<\/p>\n

Captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a> struggled to hold back tears after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media<\/a>, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking. Really tight series. Give credit to them. They\u2019re a great team. Play hard. Don\u2019t give you much. I think everybody in this room gave absolutely everything they had to try to extend the series, and it\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: NHL playoffs kick off with intense fight as Jordan Staal takes on Brady Tkachuk<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s biggest issue came on special teams. They went 1-for-9 on the power play in Game 4 and just 1-for-21 across the series. Several long 5-on-3 chances slipped away, and those moments shaped the outcome. From Ottawa\u2019s view, that lack of finish proved costly.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss, there were positives. Drake Batherson scored and added an assist, including a key power-play goal. Carter Yakemchuk impressed with two assists in his playoff debut. Late in the third, Dylan Cozens pulled Ottawa within one, but the comeback fell short.<\/p>\n

Brady TKachuk talked about the series<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the series, Tkachuk said, \u201cJust what we learned. We knew it was going to be an absolute grind of a series, and I think every game showed that, not much room, and yeah, just sometimes you don\u2019t get the luck with some of the post, some of the chances that don\u2019t go in, and just heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tkachuk also pointed to the team\u2019s fight through adversity. \u201cWe faced a lot of adversity to get to where we\u2019re at. At the end of the day, we didn\u2019t achieve our goals, and that stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tensions rise as Carolina Hurricanes left wing Nicolas Deslauriers (44) fights with Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) in the second period of game four of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Canadian Tire Centre. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn<\/p>\n

Emotional Brady Tkachuk fights back tears<\/p>\n

Injuries to key defensemen Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub added to the challenge. Still, Tkachuk praised the group\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want our season to be over,\u201d he said, his voice breaking. \u201cJust didn\u2019t want it to be over.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Senators\u2019 $64M star reacts to \u2018big loss\u2019 after Jake Sanderson injury<\/a><\/p>\n

This was the Senators\u2019 second straight playoff appearance, but in both of them they have been eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators saw their playoff run end with a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5104],"tags":[536,29,5,4,60,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-559814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-brady-tkachuk","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-playoffs","13":"tag-ottawa","14":"tag-ottawa-senators","15":"tag-ottawasenators","16":"tag-senators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116469864447853620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559814","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=559814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}