Thursday night’s game between the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers will be a special reunion between Brady Tkachuk and Brendan Lemieux. It is the first time the two men have faced each other for a bite from the second since lockdown.
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We must go back to November 2021 to find the roots of this conflict. In the then colors of the Los Angeles Kings, Lemieux had bitten the captain of the “Sens” in the hand during a scuffle on the ground. For his gesture, Claude Lemieux’s son was fined five games by the National League’s player protection service.
Tkachuk had a lot to say after that meeting.
“It was the most disgusting thing you could have done. This guy, you can ask any of his teammates, nobody wants to play with him. He’s a bad teammate who only thinks about himself.
“It’s outrageous,” he added. Even children don’t do that. Babies do that. I don’t know what he was thinking, he’s an idiot. He has nothing in mind. Bad boy, bad player, what a joke he is.”
Not so good without Tkachuk
In short, Tkachuk may not have forgotten Lemieux, even though 16 months have passed since then. However, Senators head coach DJ Smith told his forward not to fight. The 23-year-old ice hockey player has nothing to prove to his torturer, he believes.
“Brady is not afraid of anyone and he will stand up to anyone, but we don’t want him to confront him. […] We weren’t happy with what happened [samedi] in New Jersey, where he was attacked by a fourth-row player. Then he wasn’t there for the power play. If he’s out for two, five or 17 minutes, we’re not such a strong team,” Smith said.
“Hockey is a tough game, but I personally don’t see the point in seeing him fight every game,” he said, adding that Tkachuk was a player who was often the target of opposing fighters.
It remains to be seen whether tempers will heat up tonight, but the Senators, who are still in the playoff race, have more to lose than win in this game.