A decade later, Bobby Ryan still cherishes the Senators’ unforgettable 2017 playoff run

If Bobby Ryan’s 2016–17 season with the Ottawa Senators ended in early April, it would be classed as one of the most disappointing — if not the most disappointing — campaign of his 14-season NHL career.

Ryan had managed just 12 goals and 24 points through his first 56 games. In February, he broke his finger and missed a dozen games. When he returned, the four-time 30-goal scorer couldn’t find the scoresheet, managing just a single point — a goal in the season finale — through his final 12 games.

“I don’t think I had a more isolating season,” said the 39-year-old Ryan in early October from his home in Nashville, reminiscing on his struggles on and off the ice some 10 years ago.

“Hand injuries are the worst because you can still skate. So when you’re injured — and I think a lot of people forget this — but when you’re injured, you’re not around the team, right? You’re very isolated. It’s like, see and be seen, be seen but not heard. Say hello, but your schedule’s different, right?”

Making things worse was the fact that Ryan had possibly the worst luck with hand injuries in the league. When he broke that finger in February, it was the fifth broken bone in his hand in the past four calendar years. He was all-too familiar with the isolating rehab process.

“Your schedule’s different, right? I have to skate and I have to be well off the ice well before the time that they’re coming in. You have to get treatment before, so that the guys that are actually playing can come in [later],” said Ryan.

“You’re just kind of there. And you have the connection of saying hi, and you’re in the room, but then you miss out on all the meetings. And the camaraderie of getting dressed and knowing, ‘alright, this drill sucks today, we’ve got to get through it,’ and all those different things.

“It was a tough year. I was injured too much. For myself, I was in active addiction at the time, so that obviously isolated me even more. I wasn’t travelling with the team [when I was injured], so you really miss out. There was a couple longer road trips that I missed where it’s like, these guys are in the grind of trying to inch their way into the playoffs, and you’re not part of it.”

Of course, as anyone alive for the Senators run to double-overtime of Game 7 of that year’s Eastern Conference Finals can attest to — that’s not where the story of Ryan’s season ends. Not even close. But then again, if you’re familiar with the story of Bobby Ryan, it’s hardly a surprise that some adversity was no match for him.

“It ended up being a blessing in disguise for me. Clarke [MacArthur] was trying to find his way back [from a severe head injury], and nobody was really sure how that was going to look. I kind of just thought he was collecting a paycheck and coming to do the work, but he was working so hard,” said Ryan.

“So I'm like, ‘there's something going on,’ you know. Like, I think he's coming back, but nobody was quite sure. But I got to skate with him. I think [Chris Neil] hurt his hand, I got to skate with him. Shean Donovan [who was then the team’s player development coach] was so clutch for me that year. He brings an energy to the room that is unmistakable every day. 

“And all the days where I was like, ‘I have to do this drill again, but I can’t really touch a puck, and I just have to skate?’ Those were the guys. And my teammates were great. They never treated me any differently when [I] was injured, right? But when you’re injured for four-to-six weeks, a couple times, it just sucks.”

Leading up to his time away from the team, Ryan said his hand could only be frozen “so many times” to help him grimace through the pain and play through the injury before he would have to stop and let it heal fully. At the heart of those efforts was Dr. Donald Chow, the team’s longtime physician who also doubled as the team’s practice goaltender during those skates away.

Daniel Alfredsson had returned to the team after retiring as a player, in the role of senior advisor of hockey operations. He was another participant in the practices with Ryan and the other injured Senators.

“We eventually got to the point where I could do everything, but the guys were in the playoff push, and I wasn’t 100 per cent. But I skated with those guys and did skill work. And competing with ‘Neiler’ every day, you’re going to get killed. If you take a second off, that guy’s going to kill you,” said Ryan.

“So I felt like I was in game mode at these practices. There were five guys on the ice, and we played two-on-two, and three-on-three when we could get the other guys mixed in, and it gave me the freedom to just explore the game again outside of the systems. I felt like I got so much better coming into playoffs, knowing that I was going to try to get back for it.”

Ryan was one of a few players who spent large chunks of the season away from the team. 

Netminder Craig Anderson’s wife Nicholle was diagnosed with throat cancer that October. Anderson began the season with the team, but stepped away in December to take care of her.

MacArthur — who already had a long history of severe head injuries — suffered a concussion during training camp and was only cleared to play in time for the final four games of the regular season.

Still, the Senators made the playoffs and even earned home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs thanks to their second-place finish in the Atlantic Division. While it would be misleading to say that the entire team was fully healthy, they were all available to play that postseason.

“By the end, yeah, I knew — we all knew — [Erik Karlsson] was going through stuff with the ankle. I don’t think anybody really knew the severity of it, but [Derick Brassard]’s shoulder was a disaster. I remember that. And we’d go into certain plays, and he’d be like, ‘I can’t do this, or this’, and you’d be like, ‘Okay, we’ll work around it. We’ll figure it out’. I think [Mark Stone] was a little banged up too,” said Ryan.

“By the end, when you go through that, number one, you’ve gone through 82 [games], right? So you’re going to have guys banged up from that. But then you go into the playoff series, and I think one playoff series is equally as tough as half the season, honestly. Just the way the game changes, the way the speed and the body [contact] changes, the hitting and the physicality.

“I can’t remember when they released the injury report, but every single guy had something, for the most part — aside from me, [laughs]. I was like, I’m healthy, finally, but I remember my hands. I couldn’t get my hands to open up. I’m coming up on 40 now, and the arthritis that I have in my fingers is a direct result of those years. But every single guy in that playoffs run was injured at some point. But that’s every team, right? You just get used to it.”

Four of the Senators’ six games in their first-round series against the Boston Bruins went to overtime. All six were one-goal games. It all started in Game 1, when Ryan dove for a puck and stayed with it after fanning on his first shot to beat Tuukka Rask. 

That was the first of four goals for Ryan that series. In each of the team’s three games in Boston, he added goals, beginning with the overtime winner in Game 3, continuing with the lone goal of a 1-0 win in Game 4, and finishing with the team’s opening marker in Game 6.

Despite his dominance in Boston that series, Ryan said he never really felt like a villain, save for potentially a short period after his overtime winner in Game 3. Even then, Erik Karlsson’s 120-foot saucer pass earlier in the game overshadowed Ryan’s goal.

“I think maybe at that point for a minute people hated me, but other than that, no, never felt it in that series at all,” said Ryan. “I think I flew into the radar because of ‘Karl’, and the flack that he got [from opponents] everywhere we went.

“At the same time, when we drew Boston in the first round, my excitement level just went through the roof. That was a team that played the way that I thought matched the way that I wanted to play, and I could have success against them.

“I know a lot of guys wanted New York, I think New York was [one of] the other options. A lot of guys wanted the Rangers. I did not want the Rangers, just more for logistics going into the Garden.

“I don’t think I ever really played the villain in that series. It didn’t feel that way. But I always loved playing [in Boston]. I always knew that I had success there in the past, so my excitement level was through the roof to play those guys.”

Those guys, minus one.

“The only person I wasn’t excited for was [Zdeno] Chara, in front of the net on the power play. I remember [former Senators general manager] Pierre Dorion coming in [to the training room]. It was a day off, and nobody was in there, except for me, because I had to go in for treatment, because of my back and shoulders from Chara, just in front of the net,” said Ryan.

“Pierre just laughed at me on the table, because I was just a crumpled mess, and we had a couple of days until the next series. He’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was just like, ‘I’ll be okay in a couple days.’ But I had bruises up and down [my body]. You skate across the net front, and somebody gives you a whack, you’re like, ‘Okay, I get it.’ But when Chara does it, it’s like a two-by-four coming down, because of the size and the strength of this guy.

“And the corner work that I had with him all series, I was just beaten to a pulp. I think I earned everything I got in that series, especially, the [goals] in front of the net, and Game 6, with the bounce to [MacArthur].”

That bounce to MacArthur on a power play early in the first overtime period of Game 6 sent the Senators to the second round of the playoffs, where some of Ryan’s teammates would get their wish, a date with the New York Rangers.

“A lot of people don’t realize that Clarke and I stayed to play together,” said Ryan, referring to the seven-year extension that he signed in October 2014, just months after MacArthur had re-signed on a five-year deal. When MacArthur had suffered that concussion during training camp, it was also Ryan who leapt to his defence.

“I’ve played with some of the best players of all-time, in [Ryan] Getzlaf, and [Corey] Perry. I had chemistry with Mika [Zibanejad] that I thought was very close on the ice. We thought the game alike. But Clarke and I came in at the same time… and [we just immediately clicked], and [Kyle Turris] did a lot of good things to operate on that line for us to give us the freedom to do that.” said Ryan.

“Our contracts were coming up at the same time [after the 2015 season], and Clarke had re-signed and immediately texted me, and said thank you,” laughed Ryan. 

“He's like, for the points that I got last year playing with you, I appreciate it, and I got that contract. And then I signed not long after the fact, and we had conversations around building this together, and you know, ultimately getting to that [point in 2017]. 

“But then he gets injured and it changes the landscape of everything. And I watched him probably as closely as anybody over the past year-and-a-half try to find ways back, and try to find ways to come back and be safe about it… I just watched him go through so many highs and lows.”

Ryan would have a quieter second round, picking up a pair of assists against the Rangers as the Senators again advanced in six games. That series, it was Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s turn to lead the Senators’ offence, with the ‘Honey Badger’ picking up six goals against the Rangers, including four alone in a 6-5 Game 2 overtime win.

But in the Eastern Conference Finals, Ryan picked up where he left off against the Bruins, as the Senators drew the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. 

During Game 1 in Pittsburgh, Ryan picked off a pass from Brian Dumoulin on the forecheck and found Pageau with a no-look backhand pass. Pageau found twine behind Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury for his eighth goal of the postseason. 

Late in the second period, Ryan nearly made the game 2-0 when he beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrister, but his shot instead rang off the post. Evgeni Malkin would tie the game late in the third period and send it to overtime.

Five minutes into the extra frame, Pageau would chip a puck out of the Senators zone. Ryan would collect it, burn Penguins defender Brooks Orpik, and find himself alone with Fleury. He made a quick move to the backhand and picked up his second overtime winner of that postseason.

“Other than maybe Nick Paul, I don't think I've played with a player that you could plug and play in any place. You could put ‘Pager’ on your first line and be like, "You have to produce today,’ and he's going to find a way to give you something,” said Ryan. 

“You could put him on your fourth line and be like, just take penalty kill, and run that. Take faceoffs, and crush that, and just shut somebody down. I’ve got so much respect for the way he plays the game. He plays it hard all the time.

“I sat next to him for a long period of time in the room, and I just laughed at him because he'd come in and be like, ‘I feel awful today,’ and you're like, ‘Alright. So don't give the puck to ‘Pager’ unless you have to.’ But come 7:30, that guy found a way to turn that crank up nightly, and he's still doing it.

“Obviously, the four-goal game gets a lot of credit, but what doesn't is the way that he played the rest of the playoffs. He just pissed players off and then smiled at them. He just found a way to get under their skin, but he scores, you know, when he needs to.”

The Senators would drop Game 2 to the Penguins 1-0. They returned home to Ottawa as the lone Canadian team remaining in the playoffs. Ryan, who lived northwest of Kanata near Dunrobin, didn’t experience the buzz on the streets that was happening in downtown Ottawa — but that was just fine by him.

“I was very far removed from it. But I remember going to the gas station and the grocery store a few times, and you could feel the pulse. People would come up to you, and it wasn't negative [laughs]. The whole energy shifted, and then with social media, you see the clips of the people gathering, and then you could feel the rallies, and you know the press became different, being Canada's last team,” said Ryan. 

“So you certainly felt it, but when you're in the playoffs, you're in your own little bubble. And I made it a very clear point for myself to stay in that bubble and not feel those things. I was like, if we win, then I'm going to go feel all those things and be part of it and whatever. But for me personally, I had to stay out of it. I can't get wrapped up in that stuff, good or bad. It just never served me well mentally.”

The Senators came out hot on home ice in Game 3, racking up four goals in the first period — including markers from the unlikely suspects Marc Methot and Zack Smith. 

Kyle Turris made the score 5-0 late in the second, but Sidney Crosby ultimately ruined what would have been Anderson’s second shutout of the playoffs when he broke a seven-game goalless drought in the third period.

“I think that series, oddly enough, it was the least difficult physically, if that makes sense. But when you're playing against Sid and Geno, and [Kris] Letang on the backend, you can't make mistakes, because they're going to burn you,” said Ryan.

“And we shut them down, games one and two, and then they finally got a cookie on a penalty late in [Game 3]… and they got a point. To stanch guys like that for games one and two and then let them get one kind of felt defeating, because then they obviously turned it on for the rest of the series and took control to a degree.”

The Penguins took a 3-0 lead by the midway point of Game 4, with Crosby picking up a goal and a primary assist. Ryan and MacArthur would combine on the Senators’ first goal of the game in the dying minutes of the second period and Tom Pyatt would add a late marker in the third, but the series would head back to Pittsburgh tied at two games apiece.

Malkin and Crosby would combine for five points in Game 5, as the Penguins used seven different goal scorers to blank the Senators 7-0. To this day, it remains the worst postseason loss in Senators franchise history. But when the Sens returned home, the slate was clean for a do-or-die Game 6.

Malkin opened the scoring under five minutes into the game, but Ryan responded on the power play on a one-timer he received from Turris late in the second period on a 5-on-3 power play. 

“Trading blows with those guys was awesome. Game 6 at home, I'll never forget the crowd,” said Ryan.

Minutes into the third period, Mike Hoffman strolled into the offensive zone and unleashed a slapshot from the top of the left circle. Defenceman Fredrik Claesson, sneaking into the play, screened Matt Murray, and Hoffman had his sixth goal of the postseason — one that would stand as the winner and send the Sens to Game 7.

“I remember looking down the line at that slap shot, and I was like, ‘How in the hell did he hit his mark on that, post and in?’ It was ridiculous,” said Ryan.

The Senators would make their way back to Pittsburgh attempting to win a playoff Game 7 for the first time in franchise history. 

An average of over 5.2 million Canadians would tune in to that game, more than that year’s World Junior Championship Gold Medal game between Canada and the USA, and more than any other sporting event that year save for the Super Bowl. More than 11 million Canadians saw at least a portion of it.

“Everybody's tired and beat up at that point. I remember talking to ‘Stoner’ in Game Seven. I was like, ‘Are you exhausted?’ And he's like, ‘I'm dying.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, it's not just me,’” remembered Ryan. 

“But you just mentally say, 'Okay, you know, compartmentalize that. We'll feel that after the game.’ You're just trying to have an impact every time you get on the ice.”

The Senators fell behind twice in the game but responded with goals from the aforementioned Mark Stone in the first period, and Ryan Dzingel in the second period. Then, an entire nation held its breath for a full overtime period, with nothing decided on the ice. 

What happened just over five minutes into the second overtime period remains seared into the brains of Senators fans, the name of the goal scorer reduced to He Who Must Not Be Named.

“It really sucks that we lost on like, a flutter shot, that didn't really go where it was intended to go,” said Ryan. “Because Andy was in [the right spot], it just fluttered over him, and that part sucked. You'd rather lose on a nice goal, right? [Laughs].”

Some of the Senators had already won Stanley Cups, like Chris Kelly (Boston, 2011) and Viktor Stalberg (Chicago, 2013). Stone would get his in 2023 with the Vegas Golden Knights. But for Ryan and much of the roster, that loss was the closest they’d ever get to winning a championship. 

Pittsburgh, of course, would defeat the Nashville Predators four games to two in the finals, winning their second-straight Stanley Cup and their third in nine seasons.

“Yeah, that series, man… Just so much respect for those guys, because they've been to the mountaintop numerous times at this point, and we're just trying to, you know, find ways to shut them down and make them not feel like they have that flow state, right?” said Ryan.

 “That's what you're trying to disrupt with our system, and we did it to a degree, but those guys just found a way. They're just… those guys answer the bell when they're called upon. That's why they're all three-time Stanley Cup champions and back-to-back in that year, right? It was a hell of a hockey series, though, and we felt like anything could happen with the way that we played, and [the way] ‘Andy’ was playing.”

It would take the Senators eight more seasons to get back to the postseason. When they did in 2025, not a single player from that 2017 postseason roster remained in Ottawa. 

“It's funny how, I didn't realize it was 10 years, but it's starting to come back up more and more,” said Ryan.

“I think the lasting impact is the bond you share from it… the bond, man. The run was so much fun. I don't think I ever had more fun playing hockey — maybe the Olympics, but that's just a short two-week thing. 

“It's the impact that it had on friendships, and the way that I still communicate with [Methot] and [Anderson], mostly, on those things. I'll get a message from one of the guys, a DM of a clip from those playoffs every now and again, and just the way that we can all kind of circle back to that moment in time 10 years later is pretty incredible. 

“Even [though], ultimately, we fell short, right? But the memories that it created on the ice, off the ice, playing poker with the guys until two o'clock in the morning after games because none of us could sleep, and being in the team room. Like, all those things that you kind of neglect day-to-day when you're in it, you think back on. And that's what it comes down to.”

Overall, Ryan was able to rewrite the narrative around what had been a disappointing regular season. He finished ninth in the league in playoff scoring, with 15 points. Only Karlsson had more for the Senators, with 18.

What looked like the most disappointing season of Ryan’s career in April had become, by the end of the playoffs, perhaps his most memorable.

On Saturday night as the Senators take on the Utah Mammoth, the organization is celebrating Alumni Night at Canadian Tire Centre, welcoming back Mike Fisher, Dean McAmmond, Peter Schaefer, and more former Sens. You can purchase your tickets here: https://ottsens.com/48I10S0

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