While the world watched the Florida Panthers dominate the 2025 NHL playoffs, only the players’s inner circles really knew the extent of the effort that was put into the Panthers coming together the way they did this year. It’s easy to watch it all unfold from afar and make snarky jabs about Matthew Tkachuk looking out of form or Aaron Eckblad failing his prohibited substance test without knowing what happened behind the scenes, well, fortunately, in at least one of those instances, we are getting some insight into what happened behind the scenes, thanks to Brady Tkachuk, Matthew’s brother, whose team got out of the playoffs early enough for him to fully commit to watching Matthew make it through.

Brady Tkachuk and the Ottawa Senators didn’t make it past the first round of the Eastern Conference, getting knocked out early by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were also not in their finest form, but it is what it is. When Brady Tkachuk came on to play, he too was suffering an injury, a hip injury from an exhibition game in February and an upper body injury from a game against the Penguins at the end of March, needless to say, his playing was not awe-inspiring, and at the start of the playoffs, neither was his brother Matthews, but not without good reason.

The reality of the situation is that both Tkachuk brothers entered the playoffs badly injured, Brady with his upper body injury and Matthew with a pretty serious torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia injury! And we’re finally getting an insight into what it was like for Brady to watch his brother play with the Panthers knowing full well the extent of the damage—his adductor muscle was torn from the bone!

When asked on a recent episode of The Cam and Strick Podcast whether he wondered at any point of the series how Matthew was getting through the games, Brady said, “Once playoffs started, it was just like in his mentality. I’d be like, “Hey, how you feeling?” And it’s like he wouldn’t even give an excuse, like oh my, I’m sore, i’m hurt, like it’s almost like he never wanted to talk about it because he didn’t want it to be an excuse. He was just kind of in that mindset right from game one,” the proud brother said, adding, “But just to see his perseverance and how much work he put in just to give himself a 5050  chance to play in playoffs and I mean it just says, you guys know, uh, know him as a person; he is just willing to do whatever it takes and I think it showed and he gets rewarded for it.” It did show Matthew Tkachuk managed to lift the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row and is now reaping the benefits of the post-win parties, which he’s known to love.

When the interview moved in the direction of the nature of Matthew Tkachuk’s injury, Brady ended up getting a little bashful, as the injury occurred during the Four Nations Face Off when they were both playing for team U.S.A and let’s just say, maybe Brady had a little something to do with it.

How did Matthew Tkachuk get injured in the Four Nations Face Off and what did Brady Tkachuk have to do with it?

“But you were there when he got hurt, though, like at the Four Nations like did you have an idea then how bad it was?” Brady was asked as a follow-up question in the same podcast, to which he responded, “Well, first I think it was a bad pass by me that kind of screwed him to begin with, so I don’t know. Yeah, so I think I felt more bad about that, but uh, no I mean, I I didn’t really realize the severity I guess, and then before the final game he just told our team he’s like, ‘This is probably the last game I’m playing all year.'” Though Brady can laugh about it now, he explained on the podcast that he performed a bad pass that Matthew then reached for, and this is what he thinks caused the injury.

Brady recalled how Matthew gathered the locker room before that clinching matchup and laid it all on the table: “This is probably the last game I’m playing all year. I might get surgery, I might not—just kind of figuring it out.” With that admission hanging in the air, Matthew battled through the first period before stepping off the ice, underscoring the determination that carried him and the Panthers all the way to the Stanley Cup.

Elaborating on it, Brady said, “Yeah, I think it was like a… It was in the Ozone and I like it was like a spinama pass which I don’t know why I was doing a spinama pass but I think it was just a little bit outside his wheelhouse.” In any case, Brady can laugh about it now, since Matthew is off partying with the Stanley Cup and he ended up blaming Matthew’s warm-up routine.

Matthew Tkachuk managed 22 points (seven goals and 15 assists) in 22 games these playoffs despite his muscle being ripped from the bone! So needless to say, his younger brother does not have to worry about him! All eyes are on Brady for next year though, is he going to be able to live up to the legacy?