About last night: Ottawa Senators fans break out over a dozen chants to mock Brady Tkachuk

The Ottawa Senators’ home crowd brought the passion and creativity Wednesday night for Brady Tkachuk’s highly anticipated return to Canadian Tire Centre.

Every couple minutes, the sellout crowd of 17,010 broke out into a new venomous chant, making it brutally obvious how they felt about their former captain. We can’t list every crafty jeer — this is a family newspaper — but here are some of the good ones:

• You eat crayons!
• Who’s your daddy?
• You can’t read!
• Traitor! Traitor!
• You’re a sellout!
• Matthew’s bridesmaid!
• Little brother!
• Brady’s balding!
• We don’t need you!

The crowd mic was cranked up high on the Prime Sports broadcast — not that Sens fans needed it — with every chant reverberating throughout the hockey world.

Even former NHLer and current TNT Sports analyst Paul Bissonnette, who’s had it out for Sens fans at times over the years, felt obliged to give the faithful its due.

Crowd of the season so far in Ottawa tonight. Incredible performance by #SensNation. That’s a playoff team. Bravo. Hockey needs rivalries and hate to fuel the fire. 🔥🔥🔥

— Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0) October 22, 2026

The jersey alterations, comedic signs and general antics from Sens fans simply hit differently Wednesday night.

Not a single No. 7 sweater was worn without its name bar taped over to read LIAR, COWARD, CRYBABY or TKAJERK.

And if you know, you know.

The tribute video during the first TV timeout went about as expected. Not even a montage of all the good that Tkachuk had done around the local community could stop Sens fans from mercilessly booing.

I knew I hated Brady Tkachuk. I didn't realize how much I did.

This is so much fun.

17000 Sens fans group therapy hate session.

— Nick (@SpenceOnSens) October 22, 2026

you could tell brady came in expecting 2 minutes of boos he could smirk about but sens fans gave him a full 60 minutes instead

— ru ☼ (@beep_sens) October 22, 2026

The Prime broadcast couldn’t avoid showing No. 7 jerseys thrown onto the ice.

Tkachuk got a couple of good laughs in. A twirl at centre ice as the boos rained down following the tribute. An opening power-play goal, scored on a jam play that hadn’t worked for him as a Senator in years.

Tim Stützle did his part to ensure Tkachuk’s smiley moments were mere footnotes on the night. He scored an exhilarating power-play goal to tie it 1-1, and later set up Stephen Halliday on the rush for the 5-1 stake in the heart. The rink’s roof lifted an inch when the puck went bar-down.

The game ended quite fittingly — Tkachuk with his gloves off acting tough with former teammate Ridly Greig before getting ejected. It was a familiar sight for those in attendance.

We’ve seen this story from Brady 1000 times when he loses. Early shower for the big man. What a loser. Get Greig’d.

— Martian (@LalimesMartian) October 22, 2026

A little salt was rubbed in the wound post-game, with Tkachuk’s theme song, The Killers’ Mr. Brightside, blaring not only on the arena loud speakers but in the Senators’ dressing room.

The sounds of Mr Brightside were coming out of the Ottawa dressing room after the game #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 22, 2026

An eagle-eyed observer and a quick-witted fan teamed up.

Thursday morning, Sens fans were still basking in the afterglow.

I had the craziest dream that thousands of us chanted "you eat crayons" at Brady Tkachuk last night.

— SensChirp (@SensChirp) October 22, 2026

A former Senator chimed in.

Sens fans, you were electric last night. I was there with my family and they couldn’t get over all the chants…😂 The energy in the building felt like a playoff game.

And credit to the players for finding another gear after that deflating Brady goal. They stepped up and put on…

— Marc Methot (@MarcMethot3) October 22, 2026

And some folks just wanted to twist the knife.

Turns out it’s pretty easy to beat Florida when your captain isn’t tucking his tail between his legs because his big brother is on the other side

— Jack Richardson (@jackrichrdson) October 22, 2026

That was a special performance on the ice and off it. People everywhere gave Ottawa its flowers.

Ottawa is getting snubbed in the hockey town discourse.

— Jordan (@jordancicchelli) October 22, 2026

Respect to Sens fans. This is how you do it.

— JD Bunkis (@JDBunkis) October 21, 2026

Extremely moved by the haterism displayed by Ottawa tonight

— ‏ٰ (@filmpullman) October 22, 2026

Take a bow, Sens fans. That was fun.