Brady Tkachuk did exactly what Brady Tkachuk does on Monday night in the middle of Game 2 between the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes.
He got in Jackson Blake's face, leaned in close, threw a fake out of nowhere, and Blake flinched hard enough for the internet to notice.
Cameras caught it all. The stick taps, the glare, the tiny victory.
This is the part of the Senators captain's game that splits a hockey room straight down the middle. You either love the agitator, or you wish he'd grow out of it and focus on the jersey on the front.
Both camps have an argument.
The Brady Tkachuk identity that shows up hardest when the cameras are closest
The fake-punch routine isn't winning Ottawa a Game 2. Nobody is pretending it is. Travis Green would rather see his captain drive a first-line shift than win a staredown on a stoppage.
But the staredowns travel. That's the currency Tkachuk has spent his entire NHL career building, and it's the reason Carolina was watching him from their bench instead of focusing on their own zone exit.
Here's the clip if you want to see Blake's reaction in slow motion.
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Blake, 22, is a young Hurricanes forward who has spent a full regular season learning how to survive against players exactly like Tkachuk. Rod Brind'Amour has been patient with his development. Tuesday isn't the night that patience pays off.
Getting a young opponent to flinch is not a stat that shows up on a scoresheet.
It does show up in how Carolina plays the next shift, and the one after that, and the third one where the puck skips off a stick because somebody's looking at where Tkachuk is instead of where the play is.
That's the value nobody argues about. Tkachuk lives in the head of the opponent, and it costs that opponent something measurable even when it looks like clowning.
The flipside is the part the critics have. A captain picking fights with his eyes when his team is trying to claw back in a series can be the exact wrong frequency.
Ottawa came into Monday down 0-1 after a 2-0 loss in Carolina on Saturday. They needed poise from Tkachuk before they needed theater.
What they got was both.
Whether any of this matters depends on the score when the buzzer sounds. Tkachuk making Blake flinch is a highlight. Tkachuk scoring the tying goal would be a story.
The difference between those two versions of him is the difference between a good player and a franchise one.
Does Brady Tkachuk's in-your-face style help the Senators in the playoffs?
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