Keith Tkachuk Tells Ottawa to Move On From Brady, and He's Absolutely Right

Keith Tkachuk telling an entire Canadian hockey market to get over his son is peak sports dad behavior. Brady Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers months ago, but the emotional baggage in Ottawa is still sitting unclaimed at the carousel.

Chris Johnston just dropped a piece for The Athletic where Keith flat-out says "it's time Ottawa moves on." It is the polite, print-journalism equivalent of telling your buddy to stop checking his ex-girlfriend's location on Snap Map.

"Keith Tkachuk says 'it’s time Ottawa moves on' after son Brady’s trade to Florida."

You can understand why Senators fans are still down bad. Watching your franchise captain and emotional leader pack his bags to join his brother Matthew Tkachuk in a state with no income tax is a brutal reality check for a fanbase that just wants nice things.

The Senators actually got a massive haul for Brady back in June. They landed two first-round picks, a second-rounder, and flipped one of those picks to the San Jose Sharks for William Eklund. But Eklund is now out 10 to 12 weeks with an ankle injury, making the trade look a lot less fun in the short term.

Meanwhile, Brady is already doing Brady things in the Florida sun. He just dropped two power-play goals against Washington on Friday and capped off a recent hat trick with an overtime winner. Florida is sitting at 5-2-2, and anyone holding Panthers futures tickets has to love the idea of two Tkachuks terrorizing the Eastern Conference.

But Keith is right. Ottawa is actually off to a highly respectable 6-3-0 start without their former captain. They have a good young core that is finding ways to win games despite early-season injuries. It is time to pack up the number 8 jerseys and focus on the guys who actually want to freeze in Ontario all winter.

The ultimate test of closure comes this Wednesday when Brady makes his highly anticipated return to the Canadian Tire Centre. Expect a chorus of boos, a wildly physical first period, and a whole lot of forced moving on.