I’ve been in some unique places when big Ottawa Senators news has broken in the past.
I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office when the Marian Hossa-for-Dany Heatley trade broke in the summer of 2005.
When Kyle Turris was traded to the Senators in December of 2011, we were about to take our kids on a Ferris wheel inside Rogers Centre as part of a Sportsnet Christmas party in Toronto.
But nothing will top where I was when Steve Staios phoned me last week to loop me into the fact the NHL was ready to amend the penalty around our 2026 first round draft pick.
This one takes the cake – literally and figuratively.
I was standing inside the Dairy Queen on Terry Fox, waiting for an ice cream cake to be prepared in honour of my podcast pal Jackson Starr’s birthday. (I appreciated the irony of one of the biggest scoops of my career coming inside an ice cream shop).
When you take a phone call from your general manager in a public place, you always must be mindful of the fact that people could be eavesdropping. We work diligently to keep news and information tightly guarded, so the last thing you want is an inadvertent leak to a person waiting in line to buy a Skor Blizzard.
Steve asked me to pop by Cyril Leeder’s office so that we could have a conference call that would include Michael Andlauer. I told him I could be there in a few minutes, but as luck would have it, the Dairy Queen employee was taking a ridiculous amount of time to write a happy birthday message on the cake for Jackson. It probably took a good 15 minutes for them to write the message, which was testing my patience.
I was tempted to just grab the cake and just give it Jackson with the message, ‘Happy birt’ because we didn’t have time for them to write the entire message at this rate.
I raced back to Canadian Tire Centre and went into Cyril’s office, where the details of the amended penalty for the draft pick were shared with me. I was given an advance copy of the press release from the NHL and was asked my advice about the timing of this news being shared publicly. My gut instinct was to sit on it for about 18 hours. I didn’t want the press release to go out in the hours leading up to our game against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. I was worried it would be a distraction and create a big storyline ahead of the game.
So we pushed for a 10 a.m. press release on Thursday morning. The danger at that point is that the story could potentially leak out – but that’s a risk we were willing to take on our end. It was a tightly guarded circle of trust on our side and so as we woke up on Thursday morning, I was constantly refreshing my news feed on X to see if anybody had the news.
The closest anybody got was this post from the incomparable Julio Hashem at 9:48 a.m. – just 12 minutes before the release was distributed. But that was it – none of the big NHL insiders or reporters had this scoop in advance.
It made me wonder if Julio was in line at Dairy Queen and eavesdropping, because that was impeccable timing on his part.
And if Julio really does have the power of manifestation, I think we would all appreciate him willing us into a playoff spot in the weeks ahead.
Trivia time: Thomas Chabot scored a shorthanded goal on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks. It was Chabot’s second career shorthanded goal and first since November 21, 2018.
Can you name the other three defencemen in Sens history who have scored multiple shorthanded goals for Ottawa?
Answer at the bottom of this column.
We’re headed to Germany next season
Just one day after the NHL announced the amended penalty around our 2026 draft pick, we had another piece of exciting news for our fans.
On Friday, we announced that we’re headed to Dusseldorf next season to play a pair of games against the Chicago Blackhawks in December. This was another piece of news that we were trying to guard tightly and I knew about this one for about six weeks.
We had to shoot a bunch of promotional videos with Tim Stützle in advance of this announcement and I have to give full credit to Tim for keeping this pretty well locked down. He even opened his media scrum last week by telling reporters, “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone really, but couldn’t really hold it in.”
Three years ago I had the good fortune of travelling to Tim’s hometown to write a feature on his childhood and upbringing for The Athletic. It was one of my favourite stories that I put together as a reporter and I remember being struck at how proud Tim was to show off his hometown.
There was great support from Ottawa fans when the team made its last overseas trip to Sweden in 2023 and I suspect a lot of fans will want to come to Dusseldorf in December and experience a bit of Tim’s hometown.
If you’re interested in making the trek to Germany in December to watch our two games against Chicago, we’re in the process of taking names and contact information. Make sure you visit this link and fill out the form to keep you posted on the options for fans in the months ahead.
And if you’ve got any ideas for how we can make this trip more unique and special for Senators fans, send us an email to [email protected].
I’ve already had some fans float the idea that we should reserve a block inside the arena in Dusseldorf to create a Sens supporter section for those two games. So keep the ideas coming and we’ll be sure to discuss the best ones internally.
Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.
Steve Staios tackled a bunch of wide-ranging questions from Claire Hanna on TSN’s set at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday afternoon. If you missed the segment live, you can catch it here to watch Steve’s responses to questions about getting our first round pick back, heading to Germany and more.
For the second year in a row, mega Sens fan Adam Copland gathered a bunch of his friends and done a 30km walk to the Canadian Tire Centre to raise money for Tkachuk’s Captains and BGC Ottawa. Catch Adam’s story in this interview with Claire Hanna during Saturday’s broadcast on TSN.
Ivanie Blondin rolled into Canadian Tire Centre with her gold medal last week. Jackson Starr had a chance to chat with her about her Olympic triumph and how coming to Sens games as a kid fueled her passion for sports.
How does prospects guru Scott Wheeler view some of our prospects in the system? Read his thoughts on Carter Yakemchuk, Logan Hensler – and his optimism around goalie prospect Lucas Beckman.
Random thoughts:
Drake Batherson scored two goals yesterday that did not require a shot on goal. One deflected off the stick of a Sharks player and the other bounced off Drake’s body from an Artem Zub point shot. Batherson did register one shot on goal during the game, but it got us thinking: Has an NHL player ever scored two goals without registering a shot on goal? The answer is yes – but it’s been a long time since it happened. Barry Pederson of the Vancouver Canucks is the last player to be credited with two goals without a shot on goal in a game and that happened all the way back on January 21, 1987. One other fun fact: Tim Kerr is the only player in NHL history with a hat trick and no shots on goal, something he did on December 27, 1985.
Trivia answer: The following defencemen have scored multiple shorthanded goals for the Senators: Chris Phillips (3), Zdeno Chara (2), Thomas Chabot (2) and Steve Duchene (2).
In case you guessed Erik Karlsson, he does have one shorthanded goal on his resume with the Senators. It was a shorthanded tally on February 12, 2013 at Buffalo – just one day before Karlsson suffered that severed achilles tendon injury in Pittsburgh.
