Tkachuk brothers revealed how their mom and grandma reacted to their fights vs. Team Canada
Poor women. Guests on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, the brothers shared how stressful the fights were for their mother. Watch below:
Florida Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk and younger brother Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, both sidelined with injuries, took part in the in the popular podcast New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce on Wednesday.
The Tkachuk brothers spoke about growing up playing hockey together, but especially had more beans to spill on the 4-nations tournament and playing for the first time as teammates for Team USA.
The brothers were exceptional assets to the American team, though they fell 3-2 in overtime to Canada in the final of the competitive tournament.
Speaking about their experience in general, the Tkachuk brothers reminisced about Game 2 of the tourney when there were three fights in nine seconds against Canada in Montreal. Matthew Tkachuk and Canadian counterpart Brandon Hagel fought two seconds into the first period. Canadian forward Sam Bennett and Brady Tkachuk of the U.S. then dropped the gloves one second later. And after playing the actual game for six seconds, U.S. winger J.T. Miller fought defenseman Colton Parayko.
Matthew and Brady explained again how the plan sort of came together that day, hours before the contest, but the younger Tkachuk revealed how his mother handled the chaos of both of sons dropping the gloves in the violent showdown as she sat next to their father, former NHLer Keith Tkachuk.
“Nobody knew, and honestly it didn’t even cross our minds that we didn’t tell anybody in our family,” Brady said. “We were debriefing after the game with the fam and of course everybody was so excited.”
“I guess my dad saw right off the draw Matthew going back with his one glove off and he tapped my mom and he’s like, ‘You don’t really know what’s coming, but it’s happening,’” Brady added. “She’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Then the whistle and the gloves came off and I guess my mom doesn’t really handle it too well.
“I guess for like 15 minutes she couldn’t believe what was going on,” Brady said of his mom. “Our grandma, it’s the same thing. She’s a little nervous but I think she knows how we grew up and how we were roughhousing each other growing up.”
“She’s accepted that’s kind of who we are as players, but on that stage, she was pretty nervous.”
Unfortunately for the Tkachuk brothers, neither has been able to suit up for their respective NHL teams since the Americans’ overtime loss to Team Canada in Boston.
While Matthew will be out long-term, but is expected to play again this season, Brady was not given the green light to suit up against the Winnipeg Jets tonight.
