Mid-season report card sports few surprises for teetering Senators

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images We’re on the brink of hitting the mid-way point in the NHL season. For the Ottawa Senators, the first half had its moments . . . some of them actually good . . . but most, bad. Here’s what we see when evaluating the

From Carleton’s Basketball Championship to Jon Gott’s Beer Chug: Counting Down the Top Ottawa Sports and Social Media Moments of 2018

 2018 was a memorable sports year in the nation’s capital. While not everything was rosy, including the Redblacks loss to the Stamps in the Grey Cup and just about everything surrounding the Ottawa Senators, the year provided plenty of fun and inspiring moments from many of the city’s teams. Before

Not all miserable in Senator land

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images Well now, wasn’t that a party? Not the kind where everyone has a festive time and hugs, good feelings and smiles are shared around the room. Nope, this was more of the kind of party where your guests drink too much, break some chairs, accidentally

Senators roster shuffle is a case of who’s-who

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images Agatha Christie has nothing on the Ottawa Senators. Her classic thriller, And Then There Were None, details the story of a number of guests travelling to a deserted island following a mysterious invitation. One by one the guests are picked off. Ottawa’s lineup plays

Karlsson’s return trip anything but joyous

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images I think for all the parties involved, the day they were looking most forward to was Sunday. Not Saturday. Be it Erik Karlsson or Pierre Dorion or Chris Tierney or Pete DeBoer or Guy Boucher, to a man, getting this circus out of town and

Karlsson returns to capital

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images So, I imagine there will be a little bit of interest in this one. Saturday, the best player in Ottawa Senator franchise history makes his return to the capital. Yup, that would be one Erik Karlsson whose relatively anonymous season on the west coast gets

November blues? Watch hockey

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images November, from where we sit, has to be the dreariest month on the calendar. Windy, cold and dark (most years; this year), November is ‘King of the Blahs.’ With this valuable information in hand we say, thank God for hockey. And thank God for good

Senators need to bear and bare down

 I don’t know Mike McKenna. I sure don’t know Craig Anderson. But I feel for them. Really. The Ottawa Senators are many things – young and untried, but rich in potential in many areas – but giving a crap about helping out their netminders is not one of them. At

Senators can’t stop the onslaught

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images The Buffalo Bills can’t seem to score touchdowns. No problem for the Buffalo Sabres though. (Plus a two-point conversion). That 9-2 pounding by Buffalo’s hockey team on the foreheads of the Ottawa Senators Saturday afternoon represented a very low point in what – to this

Senators up-and-down season so far is not a bad thing

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images National Hockey League brain-boxes like to measure the success rate of their hockey club in 10-game segments. So, here we sit roughly 10 games into the season with lots to mull over. Here’s a glance at how Canada’s seven teams are faring so far .

In the NHL, it’s early but . . .

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images It’s never really too early to start spinning a good tale. So, here we sit, less than a month into the National Hockey League season with plenty of storylines crying for attention. Given we live in an age of relentless social media, news and notions

Youth plunge makes for great entertainment

 Photo credit: NHLI via Getty Images Who knew that the low end of the cycle could be so much – well - fun? Because, I don’t even need to tell you (but apparently, I will) that the Ottawa Senators are clearly at the low end. And this is unlikely to change

Small sample size, but Sens on target

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images The National Hockey League hype machine is officially – as with every season – firing on all cylinders. Happens every year around this time. A couple of games in and the prophecy window is wide open for business. The Senators are this, the Leafs

Senators: They can’t be this bad again, right?

 Photo courtesy of NHLI via Getty Images Is it time for the Ottawa Senators to finally turn the page on what can only be hailed as a year-long tire-fire? Well, duh. Face it, if this bad juju keeps going, we’re talking Harold-Ballard-era material in spades. Yup, it has been that

Ottawa’s hockey base suffers yet again

 Don’t know about you, but I’m certainly looking forward to Eugene Melnyk’s hotly anticipated book: How to Alienate a Fan Base in Short Order. Should be a great, historic and resounding read. After all, the last couple of years have presented plenty of fascinating fodder. The sizzling plot line, though,

Toronto adds while Ottawa – apparently – set to subtract

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images So, how was your weekend? If you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, not too bad. With the signing of John Tavares, the Leafs might not be a certainty for a Stanley Cup, but they’ve sure put themselves in a solid position to compete for the

Patience takes a vacation for fans of NHL draft

 Photo courtesy NHLI via Getty Images What’s the most entertaining fallout from a National Hockey League draft? Rampant speculation. Year after year after year, we get loads of it once the picking gets done. When the Ottawa Senators snagged Boston College forward Brady Tkachuk with the fourth overall pick Friday

Ottawa Senators sinking like the Titanic

 I remember the day clearly. When polishing up the season synopsis of the Ottawa Senators on the ice (back in early April), the thought that this was definitively the worst year in franchise history was right there, smack-dab on the page. Justifiable. The team that came within a Chris Kunitz

Will No. 4 be the one for Senators?

 Cheesy as it sounds – ‘may the fourth be with you’ – is something Ottawa’s suffering faithful sure hopes bears fruit. Because let’s face it Senator fan, the past 12 months have been plagued with more pot-holes than Carling Avenue in April. With a pending nasty legal case involving Ottawa’s

NHL Playoffs: A veritable alphabet soup

 Photo courtesy of NHLI via Getty Images Here we go. It’s the A, B, Z’s (American pronunciation for rhyming purposes please) of the Stanley Cup playoffs, with a few Ottawa references thrown in. (This IS an Ottawa-based magazine after all, right?). So, strap on your ‘well, what a poetic thought’ hat

Building an NHL winner? ‘Zip-a-dee-doo-dah’

 Photo courtesy of NHLI via Getty Images Mimicry goes back a long way in hockey. Watching what the other guy does to attain success and then attempting to imitate the same plan has become an art form. Back in the early to mid-70s, toughness was ‘in.’ Philadelphia knocked the courage out

Draft-day preparation off and running for Senators

 No. 4 and No. 22. Two digits that underline how critical the past week was, and the weeks approaching will be, for the Ottawa Senators. It’s never too early to start preparing for an NHL entry draft that will see you – at this point – selecting fourth and 22nd

Boucher sticks as Buff bashes critics and Knights baffle

 SENATORS: A Week in Review is a weekly column looking back at the week in Ottawa Senators hockey written by OLMSports Dave Gross. Photo courtesy of NHLI via Getty Images Change can be a good thing. Of course, that adage doesn’t apply so much here in Ottawa where the status quo will

Still enjoying the season so far, Ottawa Senator fan?

 SENATORS: A Week in Review is a weekly column looking back at the week in Ottawa Senators hockey written by OLMSports Dave Gross. Feature photo Courtesy NHLI via Getty (Andre Ringuette) Still enjoying the season so far, Ottawa Senator fan? Quite the capper rolled in Friday evening when deputy commissioner Bill Daly revealed

Senator town hall meetings fail to provide much as playoffs push on for others

 SENATORS: A Week in Review is a weekly column looking back at the week in Ottawa Senators hockey written by OLMSports Dave Gross. Feature photo Courtesy NHLI via Getty (Andre Ringuette) So, your team is out of the playoffs, what are you going to do with all this sudden free time? Reminisce? Pontificate