We welcome you back from your gravy-induced coma to another home opener at Canadian Tire Centre.
I’ve missed only one home opener in my 25 years around the team and it was to attend the birth of our youngest daughter. My wife had the audacity to go into labour shortly after the morning skate on October 4, 2007, preventing me from attending the Senators-Maple Leafs game that night.
Daniel Alfredsson scored the game winner late in the third that evening, as Ottawa edged Toronto 3-2. A few hours later, our daughter was born.
That same daughter – now 18 years old – will be in attendance at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday afternoon, sporting a Jake Sanderson jersey and cheering on the Sens.
She texted me on Thursday night from her dorm room at Toronto Metropolitan University while we were trailing 3-1 against Tampa, telling me to “trust” – that we were coming back to win.
Sure enough, she nailed it. And she watched the entire game from start to finish.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, I’m feeling very fortunate to have her back from university for a few days.
And feeling even more blessed that her time in Toronto hasn’t affected her Sens fandom.
Trivia time: Who is the only Sens goalie to win seven games in the month of October in a single season?
(Answer at the bottom of this column)
Ignite The Red:
Our new alternate red jerseys will officially be on sale for the first time to the public at our home opener on Monday.
And the players will be wearing them on home ice on Thursday when we host the Seattle Kraken at Canadian Tire Centre.
But we’re actually going to be unveiling those alternate jerseys in a game situation on the road on Wednesday in Buffalo. We’re doing it because we wanted to try wearing the alternate jerseys on the road a couple of times this season. The issue is you need approval from both the NHL and the opposing club to do this.
There are all sorts of things that must be considered – such as colour schemes of the two teams – that impact when and where you can use your alternate jerseys.
And the only date that came back that worked for both us and the opponent was Wednesday’s game in Buffalo. So you’ll get a chance to see us wearing red on consecutive nights this week.
We do have a couple of other fun surprises for our road jerseys planned for later this season, but we’ll keep those under wraps for now.
Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.
- Who would win in a fight between the Tkachuk brothers and the Kelce brothers? Brady gave his answer to US Weekly in an exclusive interview last week. (Now that we’re in the tabloid space, my next goal is to set up an interview with Artem Zub for In Touch Weekly or Hello! magazine).
- You probably forgot that Tuesday of last week was the five-year anniversary of the Senators 2020 draft haul that landed the likes of Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson and Ridly Greig. That’s because the draft was held in October that year due to the pandemic. Our Sylvain St. Laurent had a chance to chat with all the key players in that draft to put together a nice recap of what turned into arguably the greatest draft haul in franchise history.
- I had a chance to sit in Travis Green’s office last week as he was interviewed by Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. It was an engaging, in-depth conversation between the head coach and one of our main beat writers, in a much more relaxed atmosphere than what both men are used to in the daily press conference setting. The result? A nice one-on-one feature, in which Green tells Garrioch, “Our goal isn’t just to make the playoffs. Our goal is to win a Stanley Cup.”
- On the day of our regular season opener, Steve Staios joined John Rodenburg and Steve Lloyd for an interview on TSN 1200.
- I hope you’re noticing, but we’re pushing hard to have better content in both official languages. Our Andrew Wilimek broke down our efforts to improve our connection with Francophone fans by launching new social media channels directed to them.
The ongoing TSN blackout issue:
In this space last week, I shared the response I received from the CRTC about the ongoing TSN blackout issue.
The CRTC told me they were not the regulatory body to field this complaint and that I needed to contact the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. I reached out to CBSC last week and you’re not going to believe this response. Their message reads in part:
This issue does not fall within the jurisdiction of the CBSC. Programs are sometimes “blacked out” in certain regions due to contractual arrangements between, for example, sports leagues and broadcasters or because certain regulations require it (for example, federal elections because there are different time zones across Canada).
Broadcasters are themselves responsible for determining which program broadcasting rights they will purchase and what programming will be broadcast on their stations.
It is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which is an organization entirely separate from the CBSC. The CRTC is the government agency responsible for overseeing the Canadian broadcasting system and for regulating certain aspects of the broadcasting system.
The CRTC has a fact sheet on blackouts which can be found here *https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/b301.htm*
So to recap:
The CRTC says this is a CBSC issue.
The CBSC says this problem can only be resolved by the CRTC.
I just want someone to take responsibility for this issue that is affecting thousands of our fans. I know TSN is just as flummoxed and confused by this as we are, but they don’t have a simple solution either.
In the meantime, I will share one hack from a reader Dave, who says he has been plagued by blackout issues in the past when trying to watch Sens games on TSN 5. Here is what he wrote:
All I did was start the feed before the start time (7PM). I turned to TSN 5 when it was still on SportsCentre and left it on. Usually is pops up “out of area” or whatever, but it worked this time. Watched the game till the end. Didn’t dare change the channel in case it didn’t come back. So just left it on. It worked.
That seems a bit random to me, but honestly, it’s more of an answer than I’ve received from the two regulatory bodies. So keep your suggestions and ideas coming in and we’ll get to the bottom of this at some point.
You can always email us: [email protected]
Random thoughts:
A handful of fans have reached out to me in recent weeks, complaining that the in-house broadcast of Sens games on TSN 1200 was no longer working. The feature allows fans – who bring a Walkman or other listening device – to tune into the frequency 107.5 FM and listen to Dean Brown and Gord Wilson live. The real-time play-by-play is especially helpful to our fans who are visually impaired.
Well after doing some internal digging, I’ve been assured the system is up and running again for this season and should be ready to go for the home opener against Nashville. I’ve given my cell number to one fan in particular who is concerned about this situation, telling him to text me on Monday if there is an issue with this service. We think it’s important to cater to fans who want to listen to our game in real-time and we want to make sure this is firing on all cylinders for you starting Monday.
Trivia answer: Martin Gerber posted a 7-1-0 record with a .940 save percentage and a 1.99 GAA in October of 2007 – making him the only goalie in Sens history to win seven games in a single month of October.
