Tkachuk savors debut with Senators against Bruins

BOSTON -- Keith Tkachuk felt ill. His stomach roiled, his nerves crackled and his stress levels exploded. He was in the stands at TD Garden as his son Brady Tkachuk was on the ice, making his own NHL debut 26 years after Keith made his.

Keith watched, excitement and tension competing for supremacy, as Brady took the ice for a solo lap, the traditional rookie prank pulled by his new Ottawa Senators teammates.
"Put it this way, I wanted to throw up before the game," Keith said after the Boston Bruins defeated the Senators 6-3 in their home opener. "That's how it is. You're excited, but you're sick to your stomach. Because this is out of your control. It's not like he's 5 years old and you take him to the rink. He's a big boy now, playing big boy hockey in the best league in the world."
But was he more anxious than Brady, the second of his two sons to play in the NHL?
"I can't believe he'd be any worse than I was," said Keith, whose other son Matthew is a forward for the Calgary Flames. "I'm telling you, I was definitely sick thinking about this. But excited too."

It felt strange to him to watch what was happening on the ice, watching Brady skate out alone, watching him play the Bruins, the team he rooted for as a kid growing up in Boston, watching him play against Bruins forward David Backes, who lived with the Tkachuks when he entered the NHL with the St. Louis Blues in 2006.
The black-and-gold had meant something to Keith, long before he made his own NHL debut with the Winnipeg Jets in 1992, and to see his son playing against them in his hometown as a member of an NHL team, well, that was just "a little weird."
But it wasn't a place that meant something just to him. It meant something to Brady too.
Brady spent last season as a freshman at Boston University and could easily have returned this season to play his home games down the street at Agganis Arena. Instead, the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft opted to head to Ottawa for his rookie season, somehow still finding himself back in Boston for his debut.
"I think guest passes got up to, give or take, 70," Brady said.

Though he lamented the outcome of the game, Brady did admit it was "a pretty special experience."
He noted a change in pace from the preseason games he played for the Senators to this, a regular-season game in a charged atmosphere, against a division opponent. His legs, he said, were heavy, after the nine-day layoff. But adrenaline helped.
"I got used to more of the pace as the game goes on, but I would like to have played a bit better," Brady said. "Just got to put it behind me and focus on the next one."
That comes in two days, when the Senators host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, NBCSP, NHL.TV). There will be less focus on him, fewer nerves, as Brady settles into life as a rookie in the NHL. He knows it will get both easier and harder.
He's not the only one looking forward to heading home.
Keith has been on a 12-day road trip, starting last week when his 94-year-old grandfather died through games against the Chicago Blackhawks in Ottawa and against the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road. Brady missed each game after a groin injury in the final preseason game left the date of his NHL debut in doubt.

But it became clear Sunday that he would get his shot in Boston's home opener, a day game at TD Garden. Keith and Chantal Tkachuk packed up in Toronto, where they were celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with Chantal's family, and jumped on a plane for Boston.
They would finally be rewarded, and it felt so appropriate.
"It's been a lot of ups and downs," Keith said. "But it was well worth it, sitting there tonight."
After the game, the 70 members of Brady's family and friends gathered in Loge Section 3 at TD Garden, nearly filling it, to welcome him. He received congratulations and hugged babies, looking like a very young politician.
He finally reached his father, who had stood watching, waiting patiently, and extended his hand over the row of seats that separated them. They shook, briefly, and then the younger Tkachuk was swallowed up by more of his crowd. They barely said a word. It seemed they didn't need to.
"You can't believe it's here," Keith said. "He's dreamt about this his whole life, put a lot of work [in] to get to this point. For me and my wife, it was pretty special to be honest with you. … Words can't describe it, just seeing him on the ice."