Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk grew up in St. Louis, and as luck would have it, the NHL schedule brought him back home for American Thanksgiving.
This will be a business trip for Tkachuk, too. He hopes to return to action Friday afternoon against the Blues after missing 21 games with a thumb injury that required surgery.
“We have to check some boxes, but everything looks good for Friday,” Tkachuk said Wednesday on the “Wingmen” podcast with his brother Matthew.
His return would add even more fuel to the Senators’ surge. They have earned six of a possible eight points thus far on their seven-game road trip across North America.
Since suffering a 2-4-1 start to the season, the Senators have gone 10-3-3 in Tkachuk’s absence to move into second place in the Atlantic Division.
Coach Travis Green leaned hard on his top three forward lines Wednesday as the Senators pulled out a 4-3 shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Tim Stutzle, Shane Pinto, Claude Giroux and Drake Batherson each played more than 20 minutes. Ottawa’s pace lagged through the middle of the game, but the Senators powered through.
“Our first (period) was great, and we dipped a little in the second but stuck with it in the third and (were) patient to the end,” said Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson, who had a goal and two assists in the victory.
Going forward, Green would like to roll four lines for longer stretches of games.
“We talked about playing 60 minutes,” Green said. “We got a little tired. I’ve got to do a little better job of getting our fourth line out, getting them a few more minutes to save some energy later in games.”
The Blues returned home after a 1-1-3 Eastern Conference road trip during which they elevated their competitive level and got strong performances from goaltender Jordan Binnington.
“Some positives, but some things we can learn from,” defenseman Cam Fowler said. “Our guys are fighting for one another and we’re trying to stack some points up here. It feels like we’ve been gone for a long time, so it will be nice to get home and see our families.
“But it’s nice to spend some time with one another on the road too and go to work and play for one another. That’s starting to come naturally to us. I’m proud of our guys for digging in at the end of the road trip.”
The Blues earned points in nine of their last 12 games, but they are just 4-3-5 during that span. They fell 3-2 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
Only the Golden Knights have more overtime or shootout losses than the Blues’ seven.
“So we have to find a way to start winning these,” Blues center Robert Thomas said.
The Blues are just 3-5-4 at home this season. They will play three games at Enterprise Center in four days before returning to the road.
