Nick Cousins has played on playoff teams for the last six seasons, so he’s no stranger to meaningful hockey and loud arenas in April and beyond. The past two springs with Ottawa, though, he hasn’t just felt it in the rink, but wherever he goes in the city.
“It’s certainly the best time of year. You can feel the buzz in the city, weather’s getting a little nicer — maybe not today — it’s an exciting time right now,” says Cousins, a Stanley Cup winner with the Florida Panthers in 2024.
“Actually, when I go to Farm Boy, somebody usually stops me, and says ‘keep going,’ and ‘we’re cheering for you guys,’ and usually stops for a picture and stuff like that. That goes a long way,” says Cousins.
“I’ve been there a couple times with my daughter, and it’s cool for her to see that, and obviously it’s nice to know that they have our backs and they’re pulling for us. That part of playing in a Canadian market is cool and something you don’t take for granted.”
“People at the grocery store, stuff like that, that’s happened. People are very friendly and respectful, and you give them 30 seconds of your time, it makes a lot of their days,” said Lars Eller.
Eller has experienced many springs in his career — some happy, and some sad. Though his teams have made the playoffs 12 out of his 16 seasons so far in the NHL and won a Stanley Cup, those times his season has ended in mid-April still loom large in his mind.
“There’s an excitement and an energy [here right now]. A lot of teams right now, almost half the teams in the league right now are playing almost meaningless games, I’ve been in that position as well, that’s not fun,” said Eller.
“The buildings’ energies are dead, the energy in the room is not great, so we’re in a fantastic position as far as that goes, every game matters, it matters a lot. It just makes it inspiring to go to work.”
After all, a Canadian proverb jokes that there are only two seasons in Canada — hockey season and construction season. The only thing worse than construction season is construction season in a city whose NHL team has long been eliminated from playoff contention.
With a win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators have advanced one step closer to extending hockey season in Ottawa, stringing together their second straight 90-point season for the first time since they did so in 2006–07 and 2007–08.
“I think the energy in the building has been really good, you can certainly feel that especially towards the end of games, yeah, that’s something I’ve noticed,” said Lars Eller about the love the team has felt from the fans lately.
“At our home games, our fans are awesome. They’re very loud for us and they give us a lot of help out there from the seventh man, so it’s been great to hear from them, and hopefully we can make the final push here,” said Michael Amadio.
As those memories of meaningful spring hockey and the return of the Sens Mile come to the forefront of fans’ minds, chants of ‘We Want Playoffs’ have been commonplace at Canadian Tire Centre in the third period of games, encouraged by the 6-2-2 home record the Sens have rolled to since the Olympic break.
On Sunday, though, those chants came even sooner in the game, as a crowd of 16,857 diehards rescheduled their Easter dinners to watch the Sens roll over the three-time defending Eastern Conference finalist Hurricanes in a commanding 6-3 win.
“These last few games, they’ve come out really strong, it’s been fun to listen to them chanting ‘We Want Playoffs’, they always support us, and we know they’re always there, and that’s what we love about them,” said Shane Pinto.
“I think it’s human that you hear it, right?” said Warren Foegele about the chants. “I think obviously you try to stay in the moment, but whenever you have a fanbase that supports you that loud, you obviously are pretty grateful for that.”
