It was not difficult to choose my favourite moment from the past seven days.
Watching Gavin Giroux selling his homemade calendars on the concourse ahead of Saturday’s game was the type of wholesome content we love around here.
In case you missed the backstory, Gavin decided to make an entire Senators 2025-26 season calendar as an art project. Ryanne Giroux posted some pictures of Gavin’s adorable artwork on her Instagram page a couple of weeks ago and she reached out to the Senators organization to see if we wanted to support his project.
Enter Lauren Coyle – a fantastic behind-the-scenes marketing person on our team – who was able to work out a deal where Lowe-Martin would print out a bunch of copies of Gavin’s calendars without anybody incurring a cost. The only catch? All the proceeds from calendar sales would go to the Senators Community Foundation, who would then earmark the funds to a couple causes close to the Giroux family’s heart.
This was a great example of a handful of our people – Ryanne Giroux, our marketing team, Lowe-Martin and the Sens Community Foundation – all coming together in a small window of time to create something fun and magical for a good cause.
Sometimes the best ideas are born out of luck and circumstance and not endless planning.
I had the pleasure of interviewing a somewhat shy six-year-old Gavin for our promo piece last week. And even though he gave me five or six-word answers, I told him I still enjoyed interviewing him more than his dad.
You can now purchase your very own copy of Gavin's calendar via the Senators Community Foundation website.
Trivia time: Travis Green is on the verge of collecting his 50th win as head coach of the Ottawa Senators. So, I’ve got a fun two-part question for you this week:
- Can you name the other six head coaches who have hit the 50-win plateau as Ottawa’s head coach?
- Can you put them in the order in which they reached 50 wins – from the fastest to the longest?
(Answer at the bottom of this column)
Next podcast guest: Enter Sandman
We had almost universal praise for our debut episode of ‘Absolute Non-Sens’ featuring Tim Stützle, which is kind of crazy because we could post cute puppy pictures on Instagram and we’d still have 10 per cent of people hating on us.
Nonetheless, we are so happy you enjoyed the first episode and we suspect you’ll love our follow-up with Jake Sanderson, which is set to drop on Wednesday this week.
We tackle silly topics with Jake including:
- Why his signature looks the way it does.
- His fascination with ferrets and a trip to the pet store to buy guinea pigs with Shane Pinto and Tyler Boucher.
- We chat about Jake’s passion for racquet sports, which includes an anecdote about winning a co-ed high school badminton tournament with a current member of the Ottawa Charge.
- And Jake reveals which teammate required a rescue mission because he ran out of gas on Terry Fox Drive.
(As a bonus, pay special attention to the puzzled looks on Jake and Jackson’s faces when I try and explain to them who Paula Abdul was back in the day).
It’s a fun episode and we love all your comments and questions. So keep them coming by emailing us to: [email protected]
Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.
If you’re a fan of longform storytelling, grab some popcorn and settle in for this 30-minute episode of our Bell Breakaway series. Tagging along to Thomas Chabot’s elementary school was the highlight for me, but this episode is filled with fun, behind-the-scenes nuggets as we prepared for the start of the season.
The fantasy hockey folks at NHL Edge have some fun stats on Shane Pinto’s hot start, including where he ranks in total skating distance among NHL players this season.
It was terrific hosting Kyle Turris and his whole family for the home opener last week in Ottawa. If you missed the broadcast, Claire Hanna did a nice interview with Kyle on the TSN set during the intermission. I absolutely love it when we bring back alumni and they’re rocking the 2D logo. (As a side note, we recorded an episode of the ‘Absolute Non-Sens’ podcast with Kyle).
Random thoughts:
- TSN announced prior to the start of this season they would be utilizing a rotating cast of panelists for their Senators broadcasts this season. So far we’ve seen Marc Denis and Cheryl Pounder on the desk alongside Claire and on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, we’ll see Paul MacLean making his TSN panel debut. MacLean won a Jack Adams award with the Senators in 2013 and guided the team to a pair of surprising playoff berths during their ‘pesky’ era. Unlike Brandon Prust, I do care what this ‘bug-eyed, fat walrus’ has to say, so I’m very excited to watch him this week. (And I’m hoping TSN finds a way to track down Paul MacClone at some point this season).
- Sticking with TSN, James Duthie will be at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday ahead of our game against the Flyers, for a pre-game book signing in the concourse at Canadian Tire Centre. His new book ‘Certified Beauties’ is follow-up to his 2020 smash-hit ‘Beauties’. (I’m assuming the original was a smash-hit because there is a sequel). James is a very proud Ottawa native and one of our best homegrown talents, so I’m really hoping you can come out and support his book launch on Thursday.
- We put out a brief statement on Thursday, announcing Brady Tkachuk would be out for six-to-eight weeks after undergoing successful surgery on his right thumb. I’ll be honest with you and admit that I really debated using the word “successful” in that statement. I think it’s become one of those industry cliches and it’s a punchline for a lot of people. I’m thinking of moving away from that and simply stating that the player had a surgery or procedure in the future. Let me know if you have strong feelings on this, one way or another.
Trivia answer: The six Ottawa coaches with 50 career wins: Jacques Martin (367 wins with Ottawa), D.J Smith (131), Paul MacLean (114), Bryan Murray (107), Cory Clouston (95), Guy Boucher (94) and Dave Cameron (70).
But the second part of the question is a lot trickier because I asked you to put them in order of the fastest to reach the 50-win mark. So here goes:
Coach Games Needed For 50 Wins
Bryan Murray 74 games
Cory Clouston 90 games
Dave Cameron 91 games
Guy Boucher: 95 games
Paul MacLean: 99 games
D.J. Smith: 130 games
Jacques Martin: 136 games
