Mendes Monday Musings 

I have been around every Ottawa Senators training camp – in some capacity – since the 2001-02 season.

This is training camp No. 24 for me, which means I’ve spent exactly half my life around this. And it’s all been sprinkled through various roles.

Three different seasons in the Senators communications department.

Eleven training camps as a Sportsnet reporter.

Another six with TSN 1200 on the radio and four seasons covering the team as a writer with The Athletic.

Translation: I’m an old man.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that people love to hear the rumblings and musings from an old man.

So, I’ve decided to dust off my keyboard and start writing a weekly column on Mondays on our website.

I have genuinely missed writing over the past 12 months, especially the connection with Sens fans and readers. I want this to be a fun weekly column, where I share my views and insights on a myriad of topics related to the Ottawa Senators. I have a unique vantage point in the communications department and want to share as much as I can.

Granted, a 4-3 loss to the Maple Leafs to open the pre-season on Sunday afternoon isn’t exactly fodder for a lighthearted column.

But I had a chance to witness some cool things during our Fan Fest event on Sunday morning. At the top of the list was Brady Tkachuk taking about 30 minutes to walk the red carpet that was overflowing with Senators fans on both sides. I asked him on Sunday night if he signed about 500 autographs and he didn’t dispute that number.

This fan’s post on X pretty much summed it up.

Meanwhile, I was waiting for Stephen Halliday to wrap up his TSN 1200 interview at Fan Fest when a fan stopped me to ask if he could get Halliday to sign a unique item. The gentleman told me that 26 Senators players had signed his prosthetic leg over the years and he wanted Halliday to be No. 27. Halliday gladly obliged and told the man it was the first time he had signed a prosthetic limb. (I am now curious about the most unique item that NHL players have signed over the years and feel like that’s a future column idea).

But the most meaningful moment I witnessed came about 20 minutes after the final buzzer sounded at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.

In the lower part of Gate 1, Easton Adams – the child who dropped the puck before the game in honour of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – was waiting with his family and friends for a special visitor. Moments after Linus Ullmark spoke with the media in front of his locker stall, he walked down the hallway to connect with Easton and his family, a special meeting that was orchestrated by the Senators Community Foundation.

Linus’ demeanour was the exact opposite of a netminder who had surrendered three goals in one period of work. He was charming and engaged in conversation with Easton, getting on one knee so he could look the young fan in the eye.

After Linus posed for photos and signed autographs for the family, Easton had one final request from the team: He wanted the puck that he dropped in the pre-game ceremony to be signed by Brady Tkachuk.

I took the puck down to our dressing room and patiently waited for Brady to emerge. I explained to him that Easton wanted the puck autographed, but instead of simply handing the signed puck back to me, Brady wanted to go and meet him personally.

Remember, this is the same Brady Tkachuk who probably signed 500 autographs earlier in the day.

He walked down the hallway and took the time to meet Easton and his family. And like Linus before him, he got sure to get on one knee so he could look these kids in the eyes, removing the intimidation factor that is always present when a hulking professional athlete meets someone who is one-quarter their size.

We may have lost a game on home ice to Toronto, but I’m certain we gained some fans on Sunday.

And sometimes – especially in pre-season – that’s what really matters.

Trivia time: Each week, I want to slide in some fun Sens trivia in this column. I have the reputation of being an evil trivia quiz master, so I’ll try and ease everybody into this segment. We’ll start with fairly easy questions and by the end of the season you’ll hate me.

I’m already looking ahead to December when I’ll respond to your incorrect guesses by saying, “I’m so sorry, but the correct answers were Rob Klinkhammer and Rudolfs Balcers.”

With our team headed off to Quebec City on Thursday, I thought it would be timely to pose this trivia question: Who are the five Quebec born or raised players to register at least 100 career points with the Senators? (Answer at the bottom of this column).

Media roundup: Now that I’m quasi-retired from the media game (this new column notwithstanding), I’d like to highlight some of my favourite Sens stories on a regular basis.

1. It’s nice The Athletic finally has a competent writer in Ottawa who can grab a one-on-one interview with Michael Andlauer. I really enjoyed this piece from Julian McKenzie, where I learned how Michael likes to dress his fast-food chicken sandwiches and some insight into a four-hour meeting with Brady Tkachuk shortly after he purchased the team.

2. Djbril Toure gained a lot of online attention for sporting a durag on the ice during a rookie game against the Maple Leafs last weekend. CBC Ottawa’s David Fraser did a good job of capturing that story and sitting down with Djbril at training camp.

3. In case you don’t want to sit through a 32-minute season-opening press conference with Travis Green and Steve Staios, I suggest taking 19 minutes to listen to this interview Steve did with TSN 1200’s morning show. Good recap of the general manager’s mindset when it comes to roster composition, salary cap room and more.

4. And there is a very good chance you weren’t listening to your radio on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, but Cyril Leeder also did a terrific interview with TSN 1200 from our Fan Fest. Cyril talks about how the Canadian Tire Centre was constructed based on the Palace at Auburn Hills, which was the home Detroit Pistons in the 1990s. And when it comes to building a new events centre here in Ottawa, it sounds like we might be going down the path of stealing some more ideas from Detroit. Two great interviews from JR and Steve in the same week? I guess there is a first time for everything.

Random thoughts:

Kudos to the NHL and the Matthew Perry Foundation for collaborating on a unique partnership. For every pre-season goal that is scored across the league, the NHL will donate $50 to the ‘Goals to Recovery’ program in honour of the late ‘Friends’ star. I always loved the fact Perry showed off his passion for Ottawa by wearing a Sens shirt in a scene with Bruce Willis from ‘The Whole Nine Yards.’

With that in mind, my power rankings for the best Senators appearances in pop culture:

1. Rihanna wearing that ‘Heritage O’ Sens jersey in 2013.

2. Matthew Perry with the Sens shirt in ‘The Whole Nine Yards’.

3. The random ’30 Rock’ episode that drops a Scotiabank Place reference.

I appeared on the Coming In Hot podcast a couple of weeks ago and promised I would check every faucet inside Canadian Tire Centre to test if there is hot water coming out of any taps. I haven’t gotten around to this, but I promise it will be done. I’ll report the findings in this space – or if Brent ever invites me back to his podcast.

My absolute favourite regular feature in The Athletic was my ability to write mailbag columns. I always appreciated your questions and submissions and had a lot of fun finding creative and unique ways to answer them. What I love is that I now have the ability to take your questions to anybody inside the organization, so if the appetite is there, I’m happy to re-launch a mailbag column here with the Senators.

Trivia answer: The five Quebec-born players with 100+ career points with Ottawa: Thomas Chabot (304 points), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (182), Alexandre Daigle (172), Antoine Vermette (167) and coming in just under the wire – Derick Brassard, with 100 points on the nose.