OTTAWA — Brady Tkachuk’s first game back with the Ottawa Senators wasn’t easy.
The Senators captain is back in the nation’s capital having won a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics, but his on-ice performance has gone under the radar.
Earlier this week, Tkachuk was one of 20 American athletes who traveled to the White House at the invitation of President Donald Trump to attend the State of the Union address.
But what many Canadians and the senator’s fans took issue with was an AI-powered video shared by the White House that made it seem like he was disrespecting Canadians. The doctored video, shared on the White House’s TikTok account, included a fake audio of Tkachuk calling Canadians “maple syrup-eating scumbags” and an expletive-filled beeping sound in the video. The video comes with a warning that it “contains AI-generated media.”
“It’s obviously fake because it’s not my voice and my lips aren’t moving,” Tkachuk said after the Senators’ morning skate. “I don’t control those accounts. … I know words like that would never come out of my mouth.”
The rest of the day was far from easy for Tkachuk.
During the first television timeout against the Detroit Red Wings, the Senators aired a video of every player and staff member who played or worked at the Olympics, ending with Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson.
The display was met with equal amounts of boos and cheers.
Tkachuk took the lead with a power-play goal late in the first period, drawing support from the home crowd.
Midway through the second period, the captain picked things up again.
Tkachuk was watching the play and as he was about to bring the ice up, Simon Edvinsson stepped inside him. Tkachuk’s own stick hit him in the face and he fell onto the ice.
Dylan Cozens dived into the captain’s defense, sending both Edvinsson and Cozens into the box.
“I couldn’t see him, I just felt like he had his shoulder down to me,” Tkachuk said.
Tkachuk returned to the ice before play resumed, skated to the penalty box and confronted Edvinsson, drawing a 10-minute misconduct charge.
“I didn’t know it was like a 10-minute drive,” Tkachuk admitted. “I just expressed my frustration. I didn’t think it would take 10 minutes.
“If I had known I would only have 10 minutes, I never would have done that.”
Head coach Travis Green wasn’t too pleased with how things were unfolding.
“I don’t want him to be in the box for 10 minutes,” Green said. “You don’t see many calls like that.”
The Senators played a solid game, but lost 2-1 in overtime, giving up a crucial two points to their district rival.
Ottawa (28-22-8) currently trails the Boston Bruins by seven points for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“We definitely felt like we deserved a better result,” Tkachuk said. “(Thursday) I thought we did a lot of great things. Their goalie stood on his feet and played a great game. But unfortunately we didn’t get the two points we wanted.”
The Senators are gearing up for a five-game road trip, and the schedule couldn’t be easier. The NHL trade deadline is set for March 6, so Ottawa doesn’t have much time to prove that it’s a contender.
“All we have to worry about is our own fate, our own game,” Green said. “We’re going to lose some games. (Thursday) we got one point. We probably should have gotten two points. All we can do is play and play well.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.
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