I’ll leave everyone with question to ponder, because I experienced an ethical dilemma during our team visit to Lincoln Financial Field. As a Dallas Cowboys fan, I felt very conflicted about visiting the home of a divisional rival. But the Eagles staff were so friendly and helpful to us – they even brought out their Super Bowl trophies and rings for us to see – it was hard not to appreciate this rare opportunity.
After lengthy deliberation, my fellow podcast host Jackson Starr – a die-hard New York Giants fan – decided we would pick up the Eagles Super Bowl trophies and pose for a photo. We figured we might never get another chance to touch a Vince Lombardi trophy, so we went for it.
But were we offside for posing with a championship trophy from a divisional rival?
Fire off your thoughts to our email – [email protected] – and we will read some of the best responses on an upcoming episode of our Absolute Non-Sens podcast.
Trivia time:
Let’s stick with the father-son theme for this week’s trivia question.
How many goalies can you name that allowed a goal to both Keith Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk?
Answer at the bottom of this column. (Hint: It’s probably more goalies than you think)
Some assistance on the TSN blackout situation
I am still receiving messages on social media on game nights from our fans who are saying they remain blacked out from watching regional Sens action on TSN 5. Last week, for example, I received multiple notes from fans in Barrhaven who couldn’t watch the game, which means this is happening to people who live around the corner from me.
The technical team at TSN has been very helpful with me behind the scenes as we search for solutions for this issue.
There are two suggestions the TSN team would like you to try first if you are experiencing issues:
- Please visit TSN’s FAQs here **https://www.tsn.ca/help/faq/#one** under the section“Why Am I Experiencing a Blackout Incorrectly”
- Alternatively, if that doesn’t help, we can direct customers to contact TSN’s Care team directly to open a support ticket, here: https://www.tsn.ca/help/contact-us/. Tickets created by the Care team ensure that they can start working on the problem right away and try to get the issue resolved.
I highly encourage you to try both of these methods. I’ve absolutely heard from fans who have had their issues resolved by using these methods and opening a ticket with TSN’s Care team.
But if you’re still experiencing an issue after going through those steps, please send us an email directly to [email protected].
I will make sure this continues to be a top priority for all of us here.
Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.
Kick off your week by listening to Steve Staios chat with JR on TSN Mornings on Monday. Steve gives his views of the team as we close in on the 20-game mark of the regular season and chats about a handful of newsworthy items around our club.
Jake Sanderson has kind of felt like the best-kept secret in the NHL over the past couple of seasons, but the rest of the hockey world is slowly catching on to how the Sens defenceman can dominate a game. Graeme Nichols takes a closer look at how Sanderson has pushed himself into the conversation as the most valuable skater in the NHL.
Zdeno Chara enters the Hall of Fame on Monday and his trajectory towards greatness started in Ottawa. Julian McKenzie breaks it down how it all started for the Big Z with the Senators – including an obligatory mention of the ragdoll incident with Bryan McCabe.
Paul Amadio took some time with the guys on The Drive to chat about the dads trip and how cool it was to be mic’d up for his son’s goal in Boston on Thursday night. (And with Michael on a four-game goal streak, I told Paul last night that he needs to stick around Ottawa a lot longer).
Adventures in sponsorship
One of the reasons I wanted to launch this column was to give our fans a sneak peek at fun and weird things that occur behind the scenes.
And we had quite an adventure on Thursday in Boston involving our Sport Chek towels for the TSN broadcast. As you may have noticed, our players have a Sport Chek towel draped over their shoulders for their first period interviews on our regional broadcasts. It’s one of the many sponsorship elements in our TSN broadcasts.
It’s the duty of our communications staff to ensure those Sport Chek towels are packed for road trips. Let’s just say one of our staffers – maybe someone who used to work at The Athletic/Sportsnet/TSN 1200 – completely forgot to pack the towels for this recent road trip to Boston and Philadelphia.
But I had a solution that fell into our lap. By sheer coincidence, TSN had a piece of equipment that needed to be driven from Canadian Tire Centre to TD Garden in Boston on Thursday. I asked if they could throw a handful of Sport Chek towels into the car so they could make it on time for the game.
That vehicle didn’t leave Ottawa until almost 12 noon, so I thought I was going to be out of luck. But the sponsorship gods were smiling on me because that vehicle pulled into the parking lot at TD Garden with three minutes left in the first period.
And Shawn Taylor – an excellent behind-the-scenes staffer with Dome productions – came running to the Senators dressing room to deliver the towels to me.
So how much time was left on the clock in the first period when he handed me the towels?
Thirty seconds.
That’s kind of crazy, right?
If that driver was one minute later, we would have missed the deadline. Instead, Michael Amadio did the interview with a Sport Chek towel draped around his neck and nobody at home knew the wild backstory to get it there.
(Note to self: Put a reminder in my phone to pack the Sport Chek towels before every road trip).
Random thoughts:
- Sometimes you get very lucky in this business and that’s exactly how we got the aforementioned special moment with Paul and Michael Amadio wearing microphones on Thursday night in Boston. Our lead videographer Ben Coles had the idea that he wanted to put a microphone on a player and his father to show a simultaneous view of what they were experiencing. We would have a camera locked on both of them throughout the game and hope that something cool or unique happened. It’s a roll of the dice and you’re never sure what is going to happen. Sure enough, we were fortunate enough that Michael opened the scoring on Thursday in Boston, leading to that cool moment being captured. We’ve got a lot more unique, behind-the-scenes stuff from this dads trip that you’ll see on that future episode of Breakaway.
- Being back at the rink in Philadelphia reminded me of my most painful incident during a live television hit. Most people think it’s this infamous moment when I was hit by an errant ball prior to the World Series in San Francisco. But in truth the most pain I ever experienced was before Game 3 of the Sens-Flyers playoff series in 2003. I was preparing for a live hit on Sportsnet, standing with the Zamboni doors wide open and my back to the ice. Rob Ray was on the ice and thought it would be hilarious if he could hit me with a puck, so he was throwing them at me. One of them caught the back of my heel and I was in so much pain that I was limping around for the next two days. I would love to exact revenge on Rayzor, but his 3,207 career penalty minutes have always been a deterrent. (Also, there is a very good chance things would end up like this for me).
Trivia answer:
I was surprised that I could find eight different goalies that surrendered a goal to both Keith and Brady Tkachuk. Here is the list I compiled (in alphabetical order), with a massive shoutout to the ‘Goal Finder’ tool on Stathead:
Craig Anderson (2 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Jonathan Bernier (1 for Keith, 2 for Brady)
Jimmy Howard (2 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Roberto Luongo (9 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Ryan Miller (1 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Pekka Rinne (1 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Mike Smith (1 for Keith, 1 for Brady)
Jonathan Quick (1 for Keith, 2 for Brady)
