Newsflash: Penguins are old! (Stop the presses!)

 Terry Marcotte, a cherished Ottawa personality while with CTV News, produced a weekly segment for the local channel a few years back highlighting the accomplishments of senior citizens in the sporting community. Too bad Terry didn’t stick around for another few years cause he could have filled a month of

Ottawa’s pipes are calling, while Leafs are done wilting

 Photo: Courtesy Columbus Dispatch The draft is done and the meat-and-guts of free agency – for the most part – in the National Hockey League is over and out. Some outstanding storylines emerged from an intense week of study and action. It’s never a dull time, league-wide, so let’s dip

Let me get this straight – Ottawa is, um, fun?

 If Ottawa is indeed the town that fun forgot, no one stepped up to tell the local hockey community to keep the noise down after sunset. That was pretty evident Tuesday night at the usually vacant, silent-as-a-library (shh!) Canadian Tire Centre during the Ottawa Senators’ home opener. A sell-out? Come

NHL sagas we’re waiting to see unfold

 ABOVE: Early indications are that Juraj Slafkovsky was a good pick. Canadians love a good story almost as much as they love their hockey. So, pairing the two together makes sense, no? In each of our seven centres – Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg (just in case you forgot

Leafs’ killer instinct not to be found

 Here it is Ottawa, your absolute favourite subject . . . hello there, Toronto Maple Leafs. I know what you’re thinking: ‘C’mon man, there’s more than one Canadian team in the playoffs. I mean, c’mon!’ Agreed. But consider the bare facts (or Barefax depending on your positioning on certain matters):

Trade-deadline turmoil in Toronto?

 It’s expected the Ottawa Senators will look a lot like the Ottawa Senators come Monday next week. In other words, don’t expect much noise at the trade deadline (3 p.m. ET March 21st). Outside of shipping out a couple of minor role players and potentially Swiss army knife Nick Paul,

Senators: Productivity required now

 Welcome back. With a full week off – graciously granted by the National Hockey League to the Ottawa Senators due to COVID precautions – it’s given Ottawa Fan plenty of time to think on what has happened so far on the ice this season. Unfortunately for said Ottawa Fan, the

Leafs house in disrepair

 ABOVE: Sheldon Keefe, head coach of the Leafs. (courtesyNHL.com) Supposing you bought a house and decided to invest millions of dollars into upgrades. A few months into renovations you discovered there were enormous cracks in the foundation and all that money you’d shot into the home were wasted. Then supposing you decided

All thoughts remain on Brady as NHL season hits pavement

 And I quote: “When these things stretch on, they take on a bit of a life of their own. And, unfortunately, and this may be a little bit of news for you, you can’t believe everything you see on social media. But, unfortunately, what we’ve seen in the last couple

Rebuild over, next steps please?

 Photo: Courtest OttawaSenators.com Back-to-back against the Ontario rival. Great way to get started, eh? For the Ottawa Senators ‘getting started’ has been the tale of the tape since the spring of 2017. Making it all the way to the Eastern Conference finale – against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh

Senators make ‘slight’ moves at deadline

 Really, when you think about it, it’s the small things that matter in life. So-hope the Ottawa Senators who did a few of the little deals at the trade deadline but picked up a small piece that - hopefully (for them) - eventually makes a difference. Ottawa tapped on its

Who’s tops in an all-Canadian division?

 Last week in this very corner the thought was that an all-Canadian team realignment in the National Hockey League should not only be instituted this coming season but should also be a permanent thing. Great idea? Well, I thought so. To further the discussion, this week’s gripper deals with a

Canadian teams look to post-season and draft

 Above: Morgon Reilley will return to the Leafs lineup (Courtesy NHLI via Getty Images) It’s lonely at the bottom. The Ottawa Senators – as discussed at great length in this space last week – won’t be taking part in the 24-team slap-and-tickle know as the NHL playoffs later this summer.

Work just underway for Dorion after trade deadline day

 If you thought NHL trade deadline day was ripe with activity for the Ottawa Senators, wait ‘til June 26th in Montreal. June 27th too. That’s when general manager Pierre Dorion will strap on his thinking cap for what promises to be an extremely frantic NHL entry draft. Dorion – already

Senators must be asking – where is everyone?

 So, here’s a question – would you hand over your hard-earned dollars to watch a young, mistake-prone yet energetic pro hockey team play in the world’s toughest league? The answer in Ottawa – yep, I’m talking to you – is apparently, not so much. Ottawa’s sad-sack attendance numbers have become

All-star break gives Senators’ brass time to reflect and ponder plans

 The Ottawa Senators’ bye week is upon us. They won’t hit the ice again until Jan. 27th when they host the New Jersey Devils. That’s a break the size of the one in our foundation wall (. . . but that’s another story). Nine-days-plus. A long, long time between games.

Canadian clubs: the good and the bad and the in-between

 We’re right around the halfway point in this NHL season and as we are prone to do a couple of times per season, let’s have a glance at how our seven Canadian teams are faring, and what might lie ahead in the upcoming months. Across Canada? It’s truly a mixed

Senator win string is perplexing for fans

 Winning has never been so confusing. It’s the genesis of the angst Ottawa Senator fans are facing right now. In the case that you’ve been residing outside the nation’s capital (where no one seems to care what’s happening with this hockey club), Ottawa is a tidy 7-2 since Nov. 7th.

Shanaplan in Toronto heading for the dumpster

 You really, truly don’t have it all that bad Ottawa. Check out the guys down the highway. No, not Montreal. Head in the other direction. For all the mea culpa’s running through the nation’s capital the last three years, at the very least there’s some semblance of direction. It might