Senators’ Brady Tkachuk pretends to toss puck to Canadiens fan

It was a tough night for the home fans in Montreal on Tuesday.

Firstly, they had to watch their Montreal Canadiens fall 5-2 to their rival Ottawa Senators, dropping them a point behind the Senators and out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture altogether. Secondly, they had to endure the trickery of Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk, who pretended to a toss a puck to a Canadiens fan during warmup, only to keep the puck and skate away.

There’s just a lot going on here. Why is this Canadiens fan, who’s dressed like The Grinch (we’ll get to that), showing off a sign that has an apparently AI-generated image of Tkachuk holding a bottle of ketchup? Well, according to some light internet sleuthing, it seems a young fan may have mispronounced “Tkachuk” as “Ketchup” during an in-game video segment in Ottawa, which created a very minor, local trend. That explains the association between Tkachuk and ketchup, but why is a Canadiens fan holding a sign referencing a light-hearted Ottawa in-joke? Does he think this will bother Tkachuk in some way? Does Tkachuk not actually like ketchup?

Also, it’s hard to feel sorry for someone dressed like The Grinch not getting a gift. After all, this is a character who is adamently against the holiday spirit of giving and generosity, so why should he, of all people, get a surprise gift at this time of year?

Tkachuk certainly has the reputation for being an agitator on the ice, so it makes sense he would extend that attitude towards opposing fans that are bizarrely trying to get into his head before the game.

For what it’s worth, Tkachuk gave it to Canadiens on the ice pretty good. He had a goal and an assist in Ottawa’s win, which vaulted them into second place in the Atlantic Division.