Brady Tkachuk Booed, Scores as Senators Rout Panthers 5-1

Brady Tkachuk heard it from the first step of warmups to the final horn, scored Florida's only goal anyway, and still left Ottawa on the wrong end of a 5-1 loss to the Senators on Wednesday night. ESPN's Kristen Shilton was in the building for a return that was every bit as hostile as Senators fans promised.

Tkachuk spent eight seasons in Ottawa, five as captain, before requesting a trade last spring and landing with the Panthers in a June blockbuster. The crowd booed his name in the starting lineup, chanted "Brady sucks!" before the anthems, and drowned out his "Welcome Back" tribute video during the first TV timeout. He smiled through all of it and raised his stick to the fans anyway.

Tkachuk struck first, then Ottawa took over

The script flipped fast. Tkachuk opened the scoring on a power play midway through the first period, finishing a feed from his brother Matthew on Florida's first shot of the game. Tim Stutzle answered on the power play a little more than four minutes later with a one-timer off a Jake Sanderson pass, and it was all Senators after that.

Claude Giroux scored through traffic from the top of the slot in the second, and Shane Pinto made it 3-1 at 17:18. In the third, Warren Foegele finished a great feed from Dylan Cozens, and Stephen Halliday added the fifth off a Stutzle drop pass. If you were watching in Ottawa, the loudest moment might have been every time the puck touched Tkachuk's stick.

Jerseys on the ice and a third-period boil-over

A number of fans threw their old No. 7 Tkachuk sweaters on the ice, mostly in the third. Tkachuk had already pledged to donate any of them to a local Boys & Girls Club chapter. Emotions spilled over late, too. Sam Bennett fought Ridly Greig, and the Tkachuk brothers and Bennett got into it with Senators players in front of Ottawa's bench, with Brady trading words with Cozens. He took three roughing penalties on the night, one in the first against old teammate Nick Cousins and two more in the third. For Panthers fans, that third period was frustration you could see from the couch.

"Were they ruthless?" Tkachuk said, joking, after the game. "No, it was good. Shows the passion that they have. Now, one chapter closed, and just an exciting new chapter that we're living in."

He also kept it simple about the result. "It's pretty easy now, it's over and done with," he said. "It's a thing of the past. Not the outcome we wanted."

The Ullmark scare and what comes next

The one sour note for Ottawa: goaltender Linus Ullmark left early in the third after a collision with Matthew Tkachuk. He had just made a pad save on Brady and needed help getting off the ice. Coach Travis Green said Ullmark was being evaluated for a lower-body injury and would be checked again Thursday. Sam Ersson faced one shot in relief, and Akira Schmid made 25 saves for Florida. Senators fans just got the night they wanted, and now they wait on their starting goalie.

Ottawa improved to 7-3-0 and hosts the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. Florida, which had won three straight, fell to 5-3-2 and plays at Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Smacktok pick: lean on Brady Tkachuk to stay involved on the Florida power play at Pittsburgh. He scored on the man advantage off his brother's feed in Ottawa and played 2:11 on the power play, and on the Ottawa side, watch Thursday's Ullmark update before backing the Senators in net against San Jose.