Matthew and Brady Tkachuk are some of the most notorious pests in the NHL. Constantly getting into scrums after the whistle, causing massive problems for their opposition, and just being a general nuisance is what they thrive off of — and of course scoring loads of goals and points and being impactful players when they’re actually playing hockey.
But in a recent interview clip, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim let the world know that he doesn’t really like either of them and wouldn’t want to be around them for too long.
With the 2026 Winter Olympics taking place, it’s the opportunity to get the players all together as they’re representing their country and get little viral moments out of what they say off the ice. Whether it’s fun little quizzes or lighthearted polls, almost every single rightsholder got to produce their own montage of question and answers for social media.
Travis Sanheim voices his opinion on Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, sort of
Over at Sports on Prime Canada — you know, how Amazon Prime has its weekly game north of the border and now have that access — the latest clip they put out from interviews recorded who knows when, featured a whole lot of Olympians answering a fairly interesting question. “Would you rather play with Matthew or Brady Tkachuk?” seems like something that would be asked to just stir the pot, especially for their Team USA teammates, as Bruins blueliner Charlie McAvoy says point-blank.
Sanheim gave the most interesting answer of the bunch, though.
We are all Travis Sandheim rn.pic.twitter.com/KyKhHdPCzX
— Sports on Prime Canada (@SportsOnPrimeCA) February 14, 2026
We’re just going to completely ignore a rightsholder misspelling the name of the Flyers’ top defenseman, because that will surely get most fans on a tangent about how disrespected and not acknowledged this team is.
“I don’t know if I’d like to play with either of them,” Sanheim said. “Just get into it every game — I get into it with both of them but Brady’s a lot more annoying. So I’ll go with Matthew.”
Obviously, this is all in jest and we shouldn’t take this as seriously as someone saying something like this after a game or during an intermission interview. But, it is funny that even during a more relaxed setting, Sanheim knows that neither would be the best option for him personally just to not be annoyed. And it’s completely understandable. As the workhorse on the Flyers blue line and the brothers both playing in the Eastern Conference, Sanheim has had to face these two for several years now and try to get them both away from whatever netminder was in the Flyers’ crease.
It would be incredibly annoying trying to deal with any of the Tkachuks’ nonsense on the ice, let alone be the guy need to take care of it for his team. But the good news is that if Canada and the United States face off in the Olympics, Sanheim will probably be off of that assignment as one of the depth players on the star-studded Canadian roster.
It would be a lot more fun if Sanheim came out and spat on about how much he loathed both of the brothers and how much he wants to see them lose in every opportunity (Matthew isn’t doing a whole lot of that) but we’re stuck with the Flyers defenseman just spilling the beans on how he’s a little irritated by their presence.
While trying to figure out what countries are likely to face each other in the knockout round is a task that might require several minutes of serious concentration (maybe just for this writer), with Canada winning all three of their games and having a massive goal differential after their three games, and the United States needing to win against Germany by several goals to make up that difference, it feels likely that the two North American nations won’t be facing off until much later. The semifinal games are on Feb. 20 and the gold medal game is on Feb. 22.
Maybe we’ll see Sanheim wrestle with a Tkachuk brother after the whistle if they do face off, and now we’ll know just how much he dislikes battling against them.
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The Phantoms are in the midst of, undeniably, the most challenging period of their season, to date. But while the results for the team as a whole have been at times maddeningly uneven, this period hasn’t been without its share of positives smattered throughout. The Phantoms have seen good flashes of impact up and down their lineup, but perhaps most notably, this last month and a half has seen Christian Kyrou making really positive strides to course correct on him game, and get things moving in the right direction again. Indeed, for the defenseman in his first season in the Flyers’ organization, despite some bumps in the road along the way, he’s working well, of late, to again string together some of the best hockey of his young career.
Getting rolling again
It’s been, if nothing else, a pretty wild season for Kyrou. He joined the Phantoms and certainly seemed to get a boost from the initial adrenaline that comes with joining a new team, but to his credit, he did really well to keep that positive play rolling once that adrenaline wore off — through his first 12 games with the Phantoms, Kyrou put up a very impressive four goals and 14 points, and seemed a threat to make something happen offensively every time he stepped onto the ice. And while this stretch was certainly eye-catching, there was in it an expectation that regression would swing around to catch him and he would cool off to some degree again, but no one would have predicted that the drop-off would be as sharp as what unfolded as soon as December rolled around. That is, after a scorching first 12 games with the team, Kyrou went without a point in his next 12 games, a stretch which saw both his scoring touch dry up and his decision making without the puck break down quite badly, all of which earned him his first healthy scratching of the season.
There was a certain whiplashing effect created in all of this, but credit to him, Kyrou was able to stop the bleeding at 12 games without a point, and has been building up his game steadily in the — tidily — 12 games which have followed. Over that span, it’s been a respectable (and perhaps also slightly more sustainably paced) 11 points racked up, as he’s gotten back to looking much more dynamic with the puck, and that’s been noticeable to the more distant eye, but it’s also made an impression on his coach.
“I think he’s playing with some confidence again,” John Snowden said after last weekend’s game against the Penguins. “You know, I think a player like him, when you find yourself on the scoresheet consistently it adds to the oxygen that he takes, and it gives him the confidence to make the plays that we want him to make and we need him to make. So I have no issues with what he’s been doing on the offensive side of things. He’s been generating plays, he’s been generating offense.”
The Phantoms’ scoring game collectively has been something of an uneven affair of late, but Kyrou has stepped up again as a major driver for them, and his confidence is begetting more confidence from others in the lineup, and it’s brought them some of the more marked jump offensively than we’ve seen from them, of late.
Rounding things out
Of course, the emphasis from his head coach about how he has no displeasure with what Kyrou’s been doing on the offensive side of things does leave open the point that there’s still some work to be done in cleaning up his play on the defensive side.
Now, there’s credit to be given here in that he’s certainly made some positive strides to correct his overall steadiness from what it was in its most challenging stretches in the last couple of months — he’s had a couple of moments when he’s been a bit exposed on a couple of more passive plays, but he’s largely been able to avoid getting caved in in a major way — but this past weekend delivered a reminder of how quickly and badly things can his level of attention to detail slips.
In Friday’s game against Cleveland, Kyrou was on the ice for three of their five goals scored (and three of the four goals they scored against a goaltender), and his play did leave a bit to be desired on these chances against. The first was the least egregious, as it saw the Monsters score off of an extended cycle play — extended after a failed clear by Alex Bump — and the shot having come from the opposite side of the ice, and there wasn’t much that Kyrou could have done to break that up. But the second was a little uglier, coming off a weird play where Helge Grans whiffed on an attempted pass over to Kyrou on the breakout, had the puck intercepted by the Cleveland player, and then Kyrou got caught slightly flat-footed and wasn’t able to cross over quickly enough to stop that from turning into a one-on-one chance on Bjarnason. And the third was uglier still, as it saw a more major breakdown on the power play’s defensive zone regroup — Bjarnason had the puck behind the net, but pressure was coming down on him fast, and with Kyrou for some reason positioning himself on the side of the descending Monster and behind Bjarnason’s back, taking himself away as an option to receive a pass, Bjarnason had no choice but to send the puck up the wall to be, ultimately, turned over, and he was scored on off of the ensuing scramble in front of the net.
just waited for the right time
: Pearson
: Ceulemans pic.twitter.com/aP70T24m2r
— Cleveland Monsters (@monstershockey) February 15, 2026
That breakdown wasn’t all on Kyrou, and Max Guenette was nowhere to be found on that play, starting completely out of frame and ready to blast the zone, but it was certainly not his best work either.
Of course, Kyrou was far from the worst offender defensively in this game — really, one would be hard pressed to pick out a singular defender who was outright good in that matchup — but his struggles did seem to be enough to earn him a night off and watching from up top in the weekend finale against Syracuse on Saturday, as the Phantoms worked through their rotation and looked for a bit of a different look.
So, not only has it been a tale of two seasons for Kyrou as far as his production is concerned, it’s equally been a tale of two degrees of impact on either side of the puck. On the whole, Kyrou’s defensive play has been, though imperfect, trending in the right direction, but there’s still a lot more that he can be doing. Snowden has been challenging his group to do more, show him more, to each find a way to be the one who cares enough, has enough, to be the one to step up as a difference maker to help break the team out of this slump they’re in, and Kyrou with his wealth of skill, remains one of their best chances to step up as a difference maker. Kyrou has shown already this season what he’s capable of when he’s firing on all cylinders, and that next elevation of his game is just what his team needs at the moment.
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This is it, folks! After a long couple of weeks of action over at the Olympics, the matchup for all of the marbles is upon us. We’re up bright and early, and ready to see the next installment of this storied rivalry between the US and Canada. The gold medal is on the line, and the Americans are hoping to come away with their first win of this tournament since 1980. We’ll see how they fare.
Puck drop: 8:10 a.m.
How to watch:
: NBC, Peacock
Pregame reading
- In case you missed it, Finland came away with the bronze medal yesterday, and Rasmus Ristolainen played so well that we’re wondering if he might have just played himself back onto the trade block. [BSH]
- Elsewhere, it was a really good weekend for Porter Martone, and a decent weekend for Cole Knuble. [BSH]
- Also, it was a really good — if not a little too exciting — weekend for the Phantoms. [BSH]
The matchup
This morning will see two teams facing off with certainly no love lost between the two of them, and it will also be a meeting of two decidedly hot hands. Both the Canadians and Americans have really cleaned up throughout these Olympics, and while they’re coming off of slightly different semifinal games in terms of output — the Americans came away with a lopsided win over the Slovaks, while the Canadians had to come from behind to pull off that win (though, of course, they did it in style by coming up with the game-winner on the power play with just six seconds remaining in regulation) — they’re both loaded teams ready to bring their A-games as the lights are the brightest.
But, without further ado, let’s get into the lineups. These are still a little bit up in the air, with both teams being a little bit secretive about their mix heading into this final matchup. But they do both also have each a big question mark on their rosters — Tage Thompson left Friday’s game with an apparent (though the official word was that his removal was more of a precaution), while Sidney Crosby took an injury in Canada’s quarterfinal game, and wasn’t able to go for the semifinal, but he might still be an option for this morning’s game. We’ll find out for sure before long.
Team Canada
Macklin Celebrini – Connor McDavid – Tom Wilson
Bo Horvat – Nathan MacKinnon – Seth Jarvis
Mitch Marner – Nick Suzuki – Mark Stone
Brad Marchand – Sam Bennett – Brandon Hagel
Sam Reinhart
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Thomas Harley – Colton Parayko
Travis Sanheim – Drew Doughty
Shea Theodore
Jordan Binnington
(Logan Thompson)
Team USA
Jake Guentzel – Auston Matthews – Matt Boldy
Brady Tkachuk – Jack Eichel – Matthew Tkachuk
Jack Hughes – Dylan Larkin – Tage Thompson*
J.T. Miller – Brock Nelson – Vincent Trocheck
Clayton Keller
Quinn Hughes – Charlie McAvoy
Jaccob Slavin – Brock Faber
Jake Sanderson – Zach Werenski
Noah Hanifin
Connor Hellebuyck
(Jake Oettinger)
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Coming off the high of a big win over the Bears on their turf on Friday night, the Phantoms were riding high into tonight’s matchup and looking to complete the sweep. And while this game was a much more challenging one for them, and they took a few more knocks, they rallied well, bent without breaking, and put together one of their most productive games of the season on the way to a 6-4 win.
The basics
First period: 2:17- Jon McDonald (Cruikshank), 4:13- Alex Bump (Pederson, Robertson), 10:01- Alex Bump (Tomasino, Kyrou)PPG, 18:19- Oliver Bonk (Guenette, Marody)
Second period: 4:32- Christian Kyrou (Wisdom, Wilson), 5:34- Henrik Rybinkski (unassisted), 6:15- Henrik Rybunski (Belpedio, Leason), 8:30- Kaden Bohlsen (Strome, Webb), 12:51- Alexis Gendron (McDonald, Gaucher)
Third period: 18:15- Zayde Wisdom (Gaucher, Guenette)EN
SOG: 34 (LHV) – 33 (HER)
Some takeaways
The weirdest goal in history?
We had a feeling that this game was going to be an interesting one, as we hit the rematch of yesterday’s very spirited meeting, but we didn’t predict how quickly that would pan out. The Bears got themselves on the board early on a wild play — Carson Bjarnason skated behind his net in anticipation of dealing with a routine dump-in, but instead of drifting on the expected path deep into the zone, the puck took a weird hop off the boards and flew straight into the empty net.
JMac working those angles to perfection
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) February 22, 2026
There’s not much more we can offer here in the way of commentary other than to emphasize that this was truly one of the strangest goals we’ve seen in recent memory, and it certainly set an interesting tone for what would turn out to be a wild game.
Bjarnason weathers the storm
It’s hard to fault Bjarnason on that goal in particular, but just as it set the tone for a strange game for the whole of it all, it also set the tone for a pretty eventful game for him on an individual level. One the one hand, he showed some real resilience early, settling things down quickly after that bit of tough luck, and giving the team a much-needed confidence boost on the way to getting themselves rolling in front of him.
But on the other hand, there was a period in the middle frame where he really seemed to be fighting it, where the Bears were able to get him scrambling and (thanks in part to an equal bit of defensive scrambling in front of him) put three goals up on him under three minutes to make the game really interesting. Now, credit to him, he was able to respond well to that on the other side of the intermission, and hold up well in the face of pretty intense pressure poured on by the Bears, coming up huge on the way to this win. But it was, all the same, a good reminder that he still has some work to do to build his game back up to the level we saw from him just a few weeks ago.
A quick response / Bump buzzing
That early goal against had the chance to leave the Phantoms rattled, or at risk of continuing to slide into one of the difficult extended stretches that have plagued them through the early goings of many of these games so far this season, but credit to them, they did really well to shake that one off and get themselves rolling again.
The Phantoms were able to get themselves on the board not even two minutes later on a true highlight reel play — they were able to get themselves going up-ice on the rush, and Lane Pederson pulled off a sneaky shot fake for the pass over to the trailing Alex Bump, who wired the shot home for his second goal of the weekend.
And if that wasn’t good enough, a bit of good work by Bump on the power play to plant himself in front of the net, positioning himself perfectly to make a deflection, pushed the Phantoms into the lead for the first time tonight.
Bump put together quite a solid game, on the whole, but it’s worth acknowledging that for all of the great work he did early in creating chances and setting a high pace of play, he did seem to lose a bit of steam as the game went on. And this is to be expected, as this is still just his fourth game back in action and he’s still working on getting his endurance all the way back, but the way that he stuck with it through the final frame was encouraging to see. He still has a ways to go to get all the way back to his very best form, but he’s taking some really good steps in the right direction.
Defense getting involved
The Phantoms have found a nice spread of scoring up and down their lineup throughout this weekend, and while the forwards have certainly been able to deliver a whole bunch of flash across these games, notable, too, is how well many of the team’s defensemen have been able to get involved in their offense, and how well it rounded out those efforts for the group. Tonight saw Christian Kyrou get himself involved in the scoring again, capitalizing on a chance put up through traffic on a drive to the net, and Oliver Bonk put up a similarly impressive individual effort, wheeling in the zone and putting a perfectly placed shot past the goalie.
Beyond that, too, Hunter McDonald set up their fifth goal of the game, what would be the game-winner, with a huge shot from center point that got through traffic for Alexis Gendron to deflect, and Max Guenette had one excellent chance of his own, one-on-one with the Bears’ goaltender, that he just rang off the post.
It was an impressive complete effort, and speaks to, if nothing else, the confidence with which they’re suddenly playing again — these players, particularly the defensemen, aren’t so bogged down by concern over a play breaking down on them and going the other way, of making a mistake, that they’re hesitant to jump in and create something for themselves, and this has been a huge contributor to the team’s elevated offensive game. Everyone is pulling in the same direction again, everyone is empowered to step up to create something, and it’s made for an exciting product.
Gendron picking up steam
Speaking of Alexis Gendron, it’s hard not to feel as though that goal he was able to score marked a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders. Gendron’s been fighting it a little bit of late, with his level of involvement not quite as high, and his timing a bit off, but this goal snapped an eight-game drought for him, and the relief was palpable in his celebration.
And while this goal wasn’t the flashiest one he’s scored in his professional career, it was a well-deserved reward for the good work he was putting in all night. Because Gendron really was everywhere in this one, zipping all around the ice and really flexing his speed, and pouring on chances across the whole of the night (he put up six shots on goal on the night, just one behind the team leader in Bump), and even more importantly, did it by getting himself to the right areas to make the most of those chances he was creating. He was really buzzing in this one, and the hope now is that this effort can springboard him into more performances like this, and more production, when the team is back at it again later this week.
Getting away from them
This game was, as we alluded to, a bit of a doozy. The Phantoms did some really good things in this one, sparking their offense well and controlling play for good stretches of the game, but just like they’ve seen happen time and again through the first couple of months of this new year, one short period where they got off the gas, got scrambling, and some poorly timed penalties very nearly sank them completely.
They did well to still make plays and create good chances late in this one, and in their own zone, despite the challenges thrown at them, did just enough to keep this one from completely slipping away from them. They can certainly come away from this win feeling good about themselves, but the work in progress has been a theme throughout this recap, and this spirit extends to the team’s ability to play a complete game, as well.
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