As we kick off another season, I’m excited to be back writing in this space on a weekly basis.
The goal is to provide our fans some transparency and perspective on some of the decisions we make from a communications standpoint with the organization. And it also helps us share some fun and insightful behind-the-scenes nuggets with our readers.
Considering we had a very eventful week with Drake Batherson, I figured we can share some anecdotes about him to launch the column for the 2026-27 season.
We’ll start by giving you some additional context on this fun social media post we rolled out at 7:38 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
For those unsure why Steve Staios was doing arm curls, it was a spoof of this Lepine commercial featuring Drake.
If you’re wondering how difficult it was to convince Steve to participate in this video, it really was a breeze. That’s because Steve floated the idea himself on Monday afternoon as he was nearing the finish line for the contract with Drake.
We discussed a handful of scenarios for a social media teaser and Steve suggested he could have some fun with something associated with Drake’s Lepine commercials, which air regularly on our regional broadcasts on TSN 5.
The idea of Steve pushing Drake on a floor cleaner – as seen in this commercial – was briefly on the table. But in the end, we decided the arm curl video would be the easiest to execute.
Steve met our content team in the team gym bright and early on Tuesday morning. And he pulled off his scene in one clean take – that lasted about eight seconds. No need for a second angle or a re-shoot. The man was a natural on camera.
Our social media manager Dan Chisholm hit send on the video a few minutes later and we had an instant classic that I hope one day lands in Sens Wiki lore.
That was a great way to start the week and we closed it out with another terrific moment involving Drake.
Drake was scheduled to do a live Q&A with Dean Brown and Gord Wilson as part of our Fan Fest at the Gate 1 plaza outside Canadian Tire Centre. Drake was told that after he did this session, he could freely return to the locker room.
He was under no obligation to stick around to take photos and sign autographs with the hundreds of fans who had gathered to listen to him speak.
But after his interview with Dean and Gord wrapped up, Drake gave a handful of kids a high-five as he was about to exit the stage. Then a couple of them asked for an autograph and when Drake obliged, the genie was out of the bottle.
For the next 40 minutes, I stood behind him as he signed every item placed in front of him.
One kid asked Drake to autograph the back of an iPhone. Another man presented a rainbow-colored sombrero to be signed. And it seemed like every other person asked for a selfie in addition to an autograph.
Halfway through the session, I knelt down to where Drake was on the stage and asked him if he was okay to continue.
“Yeah man, I’m all good. This is great,” he said to me.
(Afterwards, he admitted his knees were a bit sore from kneeling down in shorts on the hard stage).
He left signing close to 300 autographs (by my rough estimate) and taking countless selfies.
The vibes around that stage were positive and upbeat – perfectly mirroring the feeling around our team right now.
I was happy to see a lot of fans posted their selfies and autographs from Fan Fest. If you’ve got a fun story from this weekend that you’d like to share with the organization, please connect with us via email at [email protected].
Once again, we’re going to invite our readers to connect with us that way and we look forward to hearing from you on a wide range of topics this season.
Trivia time: Let’s stick with the Batherson theme for this week’s question.
Drake has scored 149 career goals with the Senators – without having a shorthanded goal on his resume with Ottawa.
Can you name the other three players in franchise history with 100+ goals for the Senators, without scoring a shorthanded goal? Answer at the bottom of this column.
Where to watch the Sens this week
After a 149-day hiatus, we’ll finally have Senators hockey back on Monday night as we take on the Montreal Canadiens in the annual Kraft Hockeyville game from Trois Riviere.
That game will be available nationally on Sportsnet One and TVA, while being broadcast on radio on TSN 1200 (English) and 104.7 FM (French).
Later this week, we’ll play a pair of split-squad games against Toronto and Montreal and that’s where things get a little more convoluted. Those games will be happening simultaneously, which can make things a bit confusing for the viewer at home.
On Wednesday, we’ll play a pair of split squad games against the Maple Leafs, with both games starting at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
The home game from Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa will be broadcast on TSN 5 in our Sens viewing region.
Our road game against the Leafs from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto will be available nationally on Sportsnet One.
Then on Saturday, our road game from the Bell Centre against the Canadiens will be broadcast on TSN 5. But our home game against the Canadiens from Ottawa – which also starts at 7 p.m. ET – will not be available on English television.
As a result, our plan is to provide a stream that game for our fans on our platforms. We’ll sync up the video to the radio call from Dean Brown and Gord Wilson.
In short, all five pre-season games we play this week will be available on television or your preferred screen, but they’re just sort of scattered all over the map.
We’ll make sure we push out clear messaging on social media later this week, so you know exactly where you need to go to catch each game.
And if you have any fun or unique ideas on how we should cover these simultaneous games on social media, hit us up with an email to [email protected].
Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.
Linus Ullmark has rolled into camp in a terrific frame of mind, looking and sounding as relaxed as we’ve seen him since joining the Senators. Our Andrew Wilimek does an excellent job of capturing Linus’ mood during his initial media session.
Wayne Scanlan has covered this franchise for more than 30 years, so his perspective on why the Drake Batherson signing was important, is a must-read for Sens fans on Sportsnet.ca.
Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch looks at Ben Hutton – a Stanley Cup champion with local roots – who is with the team on a training camp PTO.
Sammy Blais played 15 playoff games with the Blues as they captured the Stanley Cup in the spring of 2019. Murray Pam from Hockey Hot Stove has the story of Blais trying to crack the Ottawa roster in training camp.
Trivia answer: The three players other than Batherson in Senators history with 100+ career goals with Ottawa with no shorthanded tallies: Chris Neil (112 goals), Bobby Ryan (107) and Mike Hoffman (107).
(And newly acquired Andre Burakovsky also has 164 career goals without scoring a shorthanded marker.)
