OTTAWA — After the Summer of Pierre came the fall home opener for the ages.
Ottawa Senators fans were into it during player introductions and nearly lifted the roof off the building when Hall of Fame-bound Daniel Alfredsson walked out from the dressing room to drop the ceremonial faceoff on Tuesday.
“Oh, unreal,” said Senators winger Drake Batherson. “None of us even knew he was coming – I was just putting my helmet on and I heard the crowd going crazy. I saw him up on the Jumbotron.”
How could the Senators lose after these kinds of vibes?
They couldn’t, although they kept the drama in this one until late in the third period, when they closed out a 7-5 victory over the Boston Bruins.
Buoyed by their biggest crowd in nearly six years, the Senators came out of the gate strong, putting up three first-period goals and hanging on, barely, to cap one of the most memorable home games in recent memory.
A capacity crowd of 19,811 was the largest for a Sens game at the Canadian Tire Centre since Dec. 29, 2016, the night Alfredsson’s No. 11 sweater number was retired and 20,011 jammed into the building.
Fans arrived wearing all manner of jerseys (loved seeing a Clarke MacArthur No. 16), but lots representing recent purchases of No. 7 Brady Tkachuk, No. 28 Claude Giroux, No. 18 Tim Stützle and No. 12, Alex DeBrincat.
DeBrincat and Giroux were among the summer acquisitions of Sens general manager Pierre Dorion, which fed the hype leading up to this opening night.
Giroux, who was born in Hearst, Ont., moved here as a youth and grew up playing junior hockey in the area. We’re guessing he led his team Tuesday in ticket requests from friends and family for this occasion.
Asked how many tickets he had to cover, Giroux smiled: “A good amount.”
As much as anyone, Giroux understood the enthusiasm.
“Since I signed here, it’s something I’ve been looking up to,” Giroux said. The flip side of anticipation is expectation, but the 34-year-old veteran says the team isn’t shying away from it.
“There’s a pressure on us that we’re ready to embrace,” Giroux said. “I’m pretty excited to get this thing going.”
So excited, he staked the home team to a 1-0 lead just 1:04 into the first period.
“Hometown kid buries one and the place went crazy,” Batherson said.
It was Giroux’s second goal of the season and sparked a flurry. Little more than two minutes later, captain Tkachuk fired a low shot past Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman to make it 2-0. Drake Batherson had a goal disallowed due to goaltender interference (Tkachuk in the crease), but shortly after scored a legal one.
The Bruins were fortunate to escape the first period down just 3-1, after captain Patrice Bergeron scored off a goalmouth scramble at the 17-minute mark.
Two quick goals by Boston in the second period took the crowd out of it, briefly, but the Sens exploded for three more to take a 6-3 lead. The Bruins added two more late to round out an insane, seven-goal middle frame.
Ottawa needed seven different goal scorers to grab its first win of the season. Fan favourite Artem Zub, usually a stay-home defenceman, scored the unlikely insurance goal off a setup from Batherson. Each member of the Tkachuk-Stützle-Batherson line had a three point night; nine as a unit.
“It was as bit of a rollercoaster,” Batherson admitted, “but getting that late one by Zubie was a big goal, to get a two-goal lead again.”
The expectant crowd first let out screams of “ZUUUUUUUB!” And finally relaxed, as the team finished the game on a power play. Zub, not usually a power-play guy, anchored the point in a defensive posture by Ottawa. In fact, coach D.J. Smith called a timeout to remind his players not to take chances trying to score on that last power play.
“We needed this,” he said.
Tkachuk praised Ottawa fans for bringing their “A game.”
It harkened back to a different time, with the Senators competitive again and fans free to fill the rink as they once did.
“We’ve played in front of no fans, we’ve played in front of very few fans,” Smith said, beforehand, referencing life during the COVID-19 pandemic. “And it’s great that the city’s excited. We’re playing an Original Six team here that’s a perfect 3-0 and No. 1 in our (Atlantic) Division. It’s a perfect setup.”
And it delivered the perfect finish.
Pinto calls it
After the morning skate, third-line centre Shane Pinto predicted his teammates would score in bunches this homestand, after being limited to three goals scored in their first two road games.
“I think a lot of guys in this homestand are going to get their first ones for sure,” Pinto said. “They’re going to get their chances and they’re just too good.”
Sure enough, Batherson, Stützle, Mark Kastelic and Zub all recorded their first goals of the season just one game into this five-game homestand. Pinto, who scored his second goal of the season in the second period, feels this homestand could “catapult” the team to a successful season.
Party started early
Anticipating the largest Ottawa gate in nearly six years, the organization encouraged fans to arrive at the rink in time to avoid a last-minute tangle of cars in the various parking lots. That meant the party started early, with music playing and $5 beer flowing on the Gate 1 terraces more than an hour and a half prior to the 7:15 p.m. ET puck drop.
Morning tuneup
The Sens are among the NHL teams who usually hold an optional skate on game day, but Smith opted to make it mandatory on Tuesday — just to have his group, and especially the younger players, skate away some of the nervous energy surrounding the home pener.
“Sometimes sitting around all day thinking about it might not be the right answer,” Smith said. “So, a quick 12-minute skate isn’t going to make or break anything, but guys just go out there and turn the brain off.”
‘Still tickets to sell’
Senators president Anthony LeBlanc says that ticket sales are up 70 per cent from where they were in the fall of 2019, but admits the team is still working its way back to former levels.
“This is a great starting point,” LeBlanc told reporters on the morning of the home opener. “But we have a long way to go.”
According to LeBlanc, the organization has set a goal of 10 sellouts this season, but adds “we have tickets to sell.
“We can’t sell wins and losses,” he said. “We have to sell the excitement of coming to the rink.”
There will be a number of event nights this season. On Thursday, when the Washington Capitals visit, there will be a tribute to late Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.
