What Did Ottawa Senators Captain Brady Tkachuk Say To Fire Up Team USA At The World Juniors?

Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk is a poster boy for USA Hockey. Tkachuk was immersed in the U.S. National Team Development Program for two years before heading to Boston University in 2017-18.

He then answered the call for Team USA at the 2018 World Juniors, captained his team at this year's World Championships, and will soon represent his country again at the 4 Nations Faceoff Tournament in February.

So with the World Junior Hockey Championship opening in Ottawa yesterday, and the Senators having a few days off for the holidays, it seemed only natural Tkachuk might come by and cheer on today's young stars in red, white and blue.

With every American player wanting to walk in Tkachuk's footsteps, he even came into the room on Thursday to give the boys a few words of wisdom after their opening victory.

"I know everybody on our team, across the league, everybody watches, and everybody takes pride in each country," Tkachuk told the young Americans. "But I know the US boys are going to come on on top."

They certainly did in their tournament opener, manhandling Germany 10-4 on Thursday. And there's more than a good chance that Tkachuk playfully (and relentlessly) chirped his Senator teammate and German star Tim Stutzle throughout the game.

Stutzle met with the German team to wish them well prior to the game. He and Drake Batherson, who lived in Germany until he was eight years old, then announced Germany's lineup in the locker room, even working a sick beat into the announcement.

It's great to see Ottawa's top three scorers taking time out of their holidays to give back and help inspire the next wave of future NHL stars. But now, starting at practice on Friday morning, it's time for them to get back to business and work off a little of that Christmas gravy.

They begin the second leg of their nine-game road trip with a difficult weekend against the Winnipeg Jets (first overall) on Saturday and then the Minnesota Wild (fifth overall) on Sunday.