Tkachuk family: ethnic Ukrainians fight for US national team with sticks and fists
The United States and Canadian national teams will compete for the trophy in the first-ever Four Nations Face-Off tournament. The tournament, which has replaced this year's NHL All-Star Game, is actually a final rehearsal for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan.
The final will take place on a Thursday night, 20 February, in Boston at the TD Garden Arena. It starts at 03:00 Kyiv time.
The rivalry between the North American neighbours can hardly be called the fiercest in ice hockey, but integrity in their matches has always been present, especially when the teams consisted of the best players of the National Hockey League.
The final will not be without a Ukrainian presence, which has always been carved into the history of the world's premier league.
One of the leaders of the Maple Leafs is St. Louis Blues defenceman Colton Parayko. The sons of the legendary Keith Tkachuk, Matthew and Brady, play for the US national team. All of them have Ukrainian roots.
The US and Canadian teams have already met in the second round of the Four Nations Face-Off Tournament.
It was a match of principle for the Americans, who historically have lost out to their northern neighbours in ice-hockey titles at the World Championships and Olympic Games. As soon as the referee threw the puck on the ice, emotions were so intense that the strength of the ice rink was threatened.
The Canadian fans added even more hostility between the match participants, booing the US anthem before the start of the match. So it was no surprise that in the third second, Yankeesʼ forward Matthew Tkachuk attacked his counterpart Brandon Hagel with his fists. Helmets flew off the heads of both hockey players during the fight, and some of the players’ hair was pulled out, too. Their hairstyle was the last thing on the minds of the fierce rivals at that moment. The audience at the Bell Centre in Montreal was delighted.
As soon as the referees managed to break up the fight and calm the whirlwind of emotions, Brady Tkachuk, Matthew's younger brother, began to sort things out with Sam Bennett. Later, American JT Miller and Canadian Colton Parayko decided to follow suit. By the way, Colton Parayko also has Ukrainian roots.
Despite the five-minute penalty that all the participants in the fights received, Matthew, judging by his reaction, was proud of his brother's move.
It's hard to say how much Tkachuk and Parayko associate themselves with Ukraine, but the fight for the honour of their homeland is clearly imprinted in their DNA.
Matthew and Brady's father, Keith Tkachuk, a National Hockey League legend, who is one of the most productive Americans in the league's history, played in the NHL in 1991-2010. Uke, to give him the collective nickname Canadians have coined for Ukrainians playing in the National Hockey League, scored over 1,000 points in 1,201 games during his outstanding career.
Keith was on the winning team in the World Cup in 1996 when he was still single. Tkachuk also participated in the NHL All-Star Game 5 times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009), and in 2002, he became a silver medallist at the home Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. For the record, Tkachuk and company lost to the Canadians in the gold medal match 2-5.
Some Russians, whom the Americans defeated in the 2002 Olympics semi-finals, assumed that Tkachuk had Russian roots. There were also stories that the star hockey player was of Polish or Slovak origin. However, Keith himself has set the record straight about his origin.
"My great-great-grandfather was born in Ukraine. Unfortunately, I didn't get Slavic skills for playing hockey," Tkachuk said in an interview.
Keith Tkachuk was born on 28 March 1972 in Melrose, Massachusetts. The hockey star received his hockey education in a nearby suburb of Boston at Malden Catholic School. At the beginning of his career, Keith Tkachuk was nicknamed "Walt" – a reference to New York Rangers legend Walt Tkaczuk, whose family was also of Ukrainian origin. Tkachuk had a fantastic scoring instinct and got on well with his teammates on the ice, which helped him to perform assists.
Keith married Chantal Oster in 1997, who in turn gave birth to Tkachuk's daughter Taryn, in addition to his sons Matthew and Brady.
Taryn has also followed in her father's footsteps. Matthew and Brady's sister plays field hockey for the University of Virginia in the NCAA division.
It is interesting that Matthew, who is only 27 years old, has already begun to beat the achievements of his legendary father. Unlike Keith, his eldest son can boast that he was on the winning team in the 2024 Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers. Moreover, the Panthers have never won the most prestigious trophy in North American professional sports in over 30 years of the club's history.
Matthew celebrated this triumph with his family. His father and younger brother were obviously as happy as he was.
Last week, Matthew Tkachuk and his club visited the White House, where he had the opportunity to meet Donald Trump in person and give the newly elected US president a personalised Florida Panthers jersey.
Braden is 25 years old. He inherited his tall stature (191 cm) from his father and Matthew (both 188 cm) and a hot temper like his older brother. There are countless hockey players who have gone home with bruises after a fight with the Tkachuk family. Moreover, there are also Russians among Braden’s victims.
In particular, at the end of 2019, the youngest member of the Tkachuk family, who plays in the NHL for Ottawa, participated in a mass brawl in a match against Pittsburgh (2-5). Braden pinned Russian hockey star Evgeni Malkin against the boards, after which other players from both clubs joined the fight.
Sens/ Penguins ends with a Tkachuk/ Malkin scrum and Malkin whacking Pageau with his stick pic.twitter.com/J21lZkEtST
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 31, 2019
As children, the Tkachuk even had a bitter experience of fighting with each other. Once, Matthew was inspired by the stunts of wrestling stars and hit Brady on the head with a mini-hockey stick, which left a deep cut over his younger brother's eye.
"He was much bigger than me. He always beat me, but times have changed. Now he knows that he shouldn't mess with me," Brady recalled of the unpleasant incident.
After that, the Tkachuk brothers, like the Ukrainian star boxer brothers Vitalii and Volodymyr Klitschko, promised their mother they would not fight each other.
"No mother would want to see such a thing," Chantal later said, whom Keith either seriously or half-jokingly calls the boss of their house.
The brothers may win their first joint title on 20 February. To their mother’s delight!
Next year, they will try to beat their father's success and win the first Olympic gold medal in 46 years for the United States of America. With their Ukrainian DNA, inherited talent and stubborn nature, this ambitious goal is within their grasp.
Author: Denys Shakhovets
Translation: Yuliia Kravchenko
Edititng: Susan McDonald