Things got out of hand between the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators on Monday night and Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, with their family in tow, were at the center of it all.
It all started at the end of the second period when Matthew delivered a hit on Travis Hamonic. Mayhem ensued from there — even Sens goaltender Joonas Korpisalo got in Matthew’s face — as Brady started swinging at every Panther that wasn’t his older brother.
There was no love lost between periods, as Senators forward Zack MacEwan earned a match penalty for a headshot against the Panthers’ star-pest early in the third.
As things were being sorted out from the previous play, Brady, seated on the bench, exchanged some choice words with his older brother. It’s unclear exactly what was said, but it’s clear the two weren’t making dinner plans for after the game.
From there, things only got crazier in what was a completely wild third period.
About two minutes after Matthew fought Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson, the Senators and Panthers engaged in a full-fledged brawl after Brady drove hard into Sergei Bobrovsky. As a result, all 10 skaters on the ice were handed misconducts, leading to a legendary call of “every player on the ice has a 10-minute misconduct,” from referee Garett Rank.
The Tkachuk brothers’ grandparents were not impressed.
Shortly after, Panthers forward Sam Bennett and Ottawa forward Mathieu Joseph were also ejected — leaving both teams heavily shorthanded for the rest of the game.
The Panthers defeated the Senators 5-0. In total, the game saw 167 penalty minutes called — with 151 of them coming in the third period. Numbers that Panthers coach Paul Maurice called “mild” post-game.
“It has to get into the 250s before it gets too squirrely,” Maurice quipped to reporters, per Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards. “Sometimes hockey can get like that, it is what makes the game so darned great. It is graceful, beautiful, physical and angry all at the same time. It was good. Probably good for both teams. It could be the story of the year.”
Florida sits second in the Atlantic with a 13-7-1 record, while the Senators are dead last in the division at 8-9-0.
