Tkachuk of Panthers, Golden Knights' Smith receive NHL brothers' support

LAS VEGAS -- Brady Tkachuk is home in St. Louis, but he can't watch the Stanley Cup Final with mom Chantal and dad Keith.

"My mom gives a gasp whenever something happens," he said, laughing. "I go to a different room."

That's where Brady, captain of the Ottawa Senators, pays close attention to brother Matthew Tkachuk, the Florida Panthers forward who is arguably the face of this series against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Vegas leads the best-of-7 series 2-0 after a 7-2 win in Game 2 at T-Mobile Arena on Monday. Game 3 is at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Brendan Smith is in New Jersey, and he too is typically watching the games by himself, at least after the first period, when his son, 5-year-old Nolan, will go to sleep, and his wife, Samantha, may too. Their 3-year-old daughter Ryenn is already in bed before the game starts.

Smith, a defenseman for the New Jersey Devils, is rooting for one player, his brother, Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith, but that then leads him to root for Vegas as a whole.

"I mean, it's kind of weird cheering for another team, but I want him to win and then it turns into you want everybody else to succeed and excel," Brendan said. "It's kind of hand in hand."

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Brady Tkachuk and Brendan Smith have unique roles in this Stanley Cup Final as siblings of key players. They are the biggest fans of their brothers and arguably their most important confidants at the same time.

The brothers talk daily either through texts, phone calls or FaceTimes. Sometimes it's about things other than hockey, but most of the time it is about the games.

"It's been less catching up and more what do you think," Brady said. "It's fun that I'm able to support him in that aspect."

Matthew and Reilly are grateful.

"To have his support and to just bounce things off of him, talk about Vegas a little bit, see what he sees in them, I've been doing that all playoffs with teams we've been playing, getting his little pre-scout," Matthew Tkachuk said. "It's just great to have his support. I feel very lucky."

Reilly said Brendan has been his biggest role model in hockey.

"I always have time for his two cents, and he has the same for me," he said. "He's always given me great advice."

Brady and Brendan each said he's not critiquing his brother, telling him what to do, or that he should have done this instead of that. In separate conversations, each said his brother is such a good self-evaluator that he does not need to hear critiques from him.

Brendan, though, said sometimes perspective from another NHL player who is not playing in the series can help. When that player is your brother, you know it's coming from the heart.

"An outside eye really helps," Brendan said. "After they beat Dallas in Game 6 [of the Western Conference Final] we FaceTimed for about 30 minutes and went over what he thought and what I thought. I might have changed his opinion on a couple things, but in the grand scheme it was just an exciting moment for him to get back to the Final. We broke it down a little bit."

Brendan said sometimes the conversations can be about things out of Reilly's control.

"Nothing too serious, but for instance I told him I thought it was a great coaching decision to start their fourth line against [Sam] Bennett's line with Tkachuk in Game 1," Brendan said. "I think they've done a great job and moving [Nicolas] Roy back to the fourth line has rounded out their four lines. There are little things that I've picked up and thought were good decisions and I let him know. He'll give me his input. It's been fun."

Part of the challenge is knowing when to talk shop and when to back off.

"A lot of time I'm trying to figure out does Reilly even want to hear me talk about the game or does he want to just chat," Brendan said. "Do we want to talk about our kids or whatever? I think it's a little bit of a juggling act, but Reilly and I have been doing it forever."

Helping their brother find a diversion is also important.

Brady has visited Matthew twice during the playoffs and they went golfing in South Florida before Game 6 of the first round against the Boston Bruins and again before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"He was heavily involved in how we were playing, how we were hitting 'em," Brady said, "I think it was a nice little distraction for him."

Brady said he will not go to another game unless or until it could be a Cup-clincher for the Panthers.

"Another bit of motivation to get to that," Matthew said.

Brendan said he can't go to any games until Game 6 in Florida at the earliest because of his kids' birthdays, birthday parties and doctor appointments.

Then again, the last time he saw his brother play in person was Game 5 of the 2018 Cup Final in Las Vegas, when Reilly's previous trip to the championship round ended in disappointment as the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup on the Golden Knights' home ice.

"You can consider me maybe bad luck because they lost," he said. "We are keeping Game 6 in mind if that's necessary to go watch it in Florida. We'll take the kids if it gets to that point, but if they can finish it before Game 6 that would be great too."