Sens' Tkachuk frustrated with booing from home fans
Published
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk wasn't impressed with the booing from the home town fans Saturday after another loss at Canadian Tire Centre.
The Sens fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4, marking their fourth consecutive loss at home and dropping their overall record to 4-6 on the season.
Fans booed the Senators off the ice and even went after head coach D.J. Smith with a "Fire D.J." chant in the second period, according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia.
Tkachuk didn't hold back his frustrations after the game when he spoke to the media.
“It’s frustrating and whenever you don’t win it’s frustrating,” Tkachuk said. “It’s frustrating, the negativity from the outside, the constant booing and the bulls–t, kind of, from the crowd tonight.
“I understand that they’re passionate fan base and I understand that they love it, but when you face adversity you don’t turn your back on the guys out there. We’re playing hard, I know it’s frustrating right now. It’s not like we’re giving up out there, we’re fighting right to the very end. To be honest, that was very frustrating tonight.”
Not only are the Senators dealing with a slow start on the ice this season, but they are also dealing with multiple distractions off the ice.
General manager Pierre Dorion resigned last week after the NHL announced the Senators would forfeit one of their next three first-round picks as a result of punishment stemming from their 2021 trade that sent Evgenii Dadonov to the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent, invalidated trade that would have sent the forward to the Anaheim Ducks in March 2022.
In late October, forward Shane Pinto was suspended 41 games for “activities related to sports wagering.”
The 24-year-old Tkachuk has eight goals and three assists over 10 games this season, his sixth in the nation's capital after the Senators selected the American with the fourth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
Ottawa hasn't made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season.