There was a playoff atmosphere around the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday morning, as throngs of media descended on the rink to tee up Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa.
Speaking to that media, Senators head coach Travis Green said he also expects an intense atmosphere on the ice on Wednesday night against Tkachuk’s Florida Panthers.
“There’s a lot of focus on it. There’s a lot of energy. Building will be a little more energetic than a normal game in October. Two good teams, obviously it’s a benchmark game for us, they’re one of the best teams in the NHL, and should be an exciting game,” said Green.
“Guys have played in emotional games before, and, you know, the focus is on us playing our game, and that’s just, we’ve got to play our best. We want to beat a really good team. There’s a lot of talk about Brady coming back, and that's to be expected. Players will get questioned about it, but at the end of the day, it's a hockey game. It's about Florida-Ottawa, playing each other.”
For the Senators, it will also mark a return for Jake Sanderson, who checks back into the lineup after missing the last eight-and-a-half games with an injury.
“I think we’ve talked about it the past few days, I think it’s going to be an intense game, high compete, and obviously not another game just for me, first game of the year, so I’m excited,” said Sanderson, who added he expects a tight-checking game.
“They’re a good team over there, we’ve got to play our best to beat them, and I think every night, just watching the guys, they’ve been doing that, putting their best foot forward, and playing great defence, so just keep building on that.”
Tim Stützle has leapt out of the gate with five goals and 12 points through his first nine games. He called Wednesday’s game a “response game” for the Senators (6-3-0), who are coming off two losses in their last three games.
“I mean, obviously, [Brady and I] played for a long time together, but that’s not on my mind. I’ll just try to win a hockey game tonight, and I hope the whole team feels the same way, and we’re ready to go tonight,” said Stützle.
“I think we’ve just got to play our game. It’s pretty simple. Doesn’t matter who we play, obviously they have a really good team over there, they’ve won two cups pretty recently, so they’re the team to beat, and we’re going to have to be ready to go tonight.”
