OTTAWA — Brady Tkachuk says he’s ready to go.
After missing the Senators’ last eight games with an upper-body injury, the Ottawa captain returned to the lineup for Thursday’s regular-season finale against Carolina but didn’t finish the night.
Tkachuk sat out the third period of the Senators' 7-5 victory after taking a stick to the face. He said it was a precautionary move and he'd be good to go for Sunday's playoff opener in Toronto.
“Yeah, no issues,” Tkachuk said.
The Senators (45-30-7), who are making their first post-season appearance in eight years, finished in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Tkachuk hadn’t played since March 30 and wanted to get a game in to “get some touches.”
“I haven’t played in two and a half weeks," he said. "So just get the timing and I mean it’s not that much time at the end. But (I) just wanted to get some reps, power-play reps, and I think we accomplished that.”
Tkachuk said he felt good but he and the team “wanted to be smart about it.”
He did admit that it took a couple of shifts to find his rhythm but he felt better as the game went on.
Tkachuk leads the team with 29 goals and ranks fourth with 55 points. Ottawa was 5-2-1 without its captain in the lineup down the stretch.
"He always gives you 100 per cent and we've seen it at the 4 Nations (Face-Off)," said teammate Tim Stutzle. "He played an unbelievable tournament and really meaningful games for (the U.S.).
He's going to be a big factor for us again and he has been all year, even through some tough stretches, he's come out and played really hard."
The Ottawa-Toronto series will be the playoff debut for the 25-year-old Tkachuk.
"It was seven long years," he said of the post-season wait. "But you know, it feels good getting into it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2025.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press
