Ottawa Senators Captain Brady Tkachuk: "I’m Sick and Tired of Losing and I Don’t Want to Go Home in April Anymore”

The Ottawa Senators have missed the playoffs for seven straight years – the second longest active playoff drought in the NHL – and Brady Tkachuk is tired of it. Tkachuk has been in the league for six years and not only has he failed to get a taste of the post-season, none of his teams have been particularly close.

Meanwhile, Matthew Tkachuk, the brother that Brady has playfully competed with for his entire life, is heading to his sixth NHL post-season, which includes a Stanley Cup Final appearance last year. Rest assured, Brady is happy for his brother, but the comparison of their playoff track records probably isn’t helping Brady’s current mood at the moment.

At the club’s year-end media availability on Thursday, Brady was the first player up and said, among many other things, that he’s sick and tired of losing.

“I mean, everybody knows I’ve just finished year six and haven’t done a thing,” Tkachuk said. “I haven’t played in those meaningful playoff games that I’ve imagined and the rest of the group have imagined of playing.

“It’s been a while since the city’s enjoyed that and experienced that. And I’ve seen it first hand with Matthew last year. That was my motivation coming to this year. Those are the memories I wanted to provide to this city, and have this city rally around us.”

Brady Tkachuk April 18, 2024. Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk meets with the media at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa two days after the end of their season. Image credit: The Hockey News

Tkachuk says he had very high hopes coming into this year and for it to not happen was pretty disappointing.

“For me, this was the most difficult year so far. It’s been tough mentally. There were days that were not fun, and that hasn’t happened before.”

As for possible changes in the offseason, Tkachuk says he has complete faith in new GM Steve Staios, the management team, and owner Michael Andlauer.

Along with the final media availability on Thursday, it was also a day for locker clear-outs, farewells, and exit meetings. Tkachuk’s probably felt like Groundhog Day.

“Yeah, I mean, (the exit meeting) was a lot of the same. (I’m) sick and tired of losing. I don’t want to be going home in April anymore, it’s frustrating. At the end of the day, it’s just disappointing.

“But I think when there’s adversity, it’s all about the lessons you learn from it and be better because of it.”

Tkachuk was asked whether it’s hard as a young group to learn how to get to the next level when not a lot of players on the team have ever done it. Tkachuk offered up the notion of personal accountability.

“Yeah, I definitely think so. To be honest with you, I think there needs to be a little bit more of an accountability amongst ourselves. We can’t just keep doing the same things. It clearly hasn’t worked. Clearly, we need to adapt, we need to make changes to our mindset, attitude, and the way we play.

“Because we’ve kind of had the excuse of, yeah, we’re a fun team to watch, we have a lot of skill, a lot of offense, but at the end of the day, we need to find a way to play that simple, meaningful hockey on a day to day basis.

“I guess you could say (we need to play) playoff (style) hockey from day one.”