Ottawa Vs. Brady Tkachuk Was Fantastic Theater

There’s a type of hate that’s easy to love. It’s the hate a downtrodden fanbase feels for a homegrown star who forced his way out, to a better or at least more glamorous situation. This hate is full and rich and multifaceted. It contains all the frustrations of decades of losing, of free agents spurning their team as a destination, of being a punchline for the rest of the league. It contains envy and resentment toward the idea that someone could just choose not to live or die with the fortunes of that benighted franchise. It contains disappointment in that departed star, for getting their hopes up and leaving them dangling. It contains a heart-tugging exasperation that gets deep into sports’ very real ability to encapsulate the human condition: We loved you, it says. Why didn’t you love us? Not since Long Island “welcomed” back John Tavares has there been a night of hockey hate like Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa on Wednesday. He may be Keith Tkachuk’s garbage son, but for eight years he was Ottawa’s garbage son, too, dammit.

Ottawa’s easy to root for from afar. They’ve dealt with more shit than any fanbase should be expected to. They weathered an evil and stupid owner, and threats of relocation. They’ve been the butt of the joke on the ice, failing to win a playoff series in the last decade and reaching one Final in their entire existence. Everyone dumps on their town, even, accidentally, their own mayor. Players don’t want to live there. If they are to have their very own superstar, they have to make one. For the Senators’ drawn-out trek into and then gradually out of the wilderness, that was Brady Tkachuk.

Tkachuk makes a great bad guy. He already has the bearing and showmanship of a pro-wrestling heel, and the way he forced his way to Florida was genuinely villainous: quietly, on the mythical Team USA group chat, and publicly, on his podcast with his father and brother. (Tampering is an unenforceable rule, but it’s insulting to not even try to pretend to follow it.) He’s an avatar for the U.S.’s aggressive geopolitical little-brothering of Canada. He’s unlikable as a person and infuriating as an opposing player. He is very fun to boo, and he is of the temperament to enjoy being booed.