Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Senators celebrate 20th anniversary by bringing back one of NHL’s all-time worst teams for opening night

Montreal Canadiens v Ottawa Senators

OTTAWA, CANADA - APRIL 07: Scotiabank Place is quiet early in a game day before a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators on April 7, 2011 in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images)

Getty Images

It might be hard for some of you to believe, but this upcoming season marks the Ottawa Senators’ 20th in the NHL. Let that sink in so some of you can now dwell on how old that makes you feel.

The Sens have big plans to help commemorate the season including wearing a special heritage jersey (which will look like the one seen at Icethetics) on opening night against the Minnesota Wild. Getting a hockey team back in Ottawa was a big deal for everyone involved and while the Sens have just one Stanley Cup finals appearance back in 2007 to hang their hat on and an avoided bankruptcy thanks to the big money of Eugene Melnyk buying the team, the Sens are doing something else on opening night that’s rather curious.

When Ottawa holds their home opener on October 11 against Minnesota, they’ll introduce the players that suited up in the team’s inaugural game. As the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch points out, it’ll be a special night for the Sens.

All the players from the roster of the franchise’s inaugural game are being invited back to be introduced before the home opener, Oct. 11 against the Minnesota Wild. That should also cut down on the boos directed Dany Heatley’s way.

It seems like only yesterday that captain Laurie Boschman and his new teammates scored a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 8, 1992 at the Civic Centre.

“It does bring back a lot of memories,” said Boschman. “The important thing is that going into their 20th year, this team has been — if you take away the last couple of years — their record has been equal to anybody in the NHL.

“It’s been wonderful to be a hockey fan here and to raise three boys that are Senators fans. That’s what’s really neat.”


In that first game, the newly born Senators beat Montreal 5-3 on the strength of two goals from Doug Smail along with goals each from Neil Brady, Ken Hammond, and Sylvain Turgeon. Getting the win for the Sens that night in goal was Peter Sidorkiewicz while coach Rick Bowness led the way on the bench.

The win would indeed be special because they wouldn’t win another game until late November. That Senators team finished the year with a 10-70-4 record. Defenseman Norm Maciver led the team in points with 63 while Turgeon led the team in goals with 25. Poor Peter Sidorkiewicz would end the season going 8-46-3 with a 4.43 goals against average and .856 save percentage. While that Sens team wasn’t the worst team of all-time, they rank in the top five as one of the worst in NHL history. Hey, at least Mike Peluso was in the top five in the league in penalty minutes with 318. Yeah, he was just fifth that year.

Things have gotten better for Ottawa in recent years as they’ve been able to make the playoffs more often than not, but after a brutal season last year the fans are feeling a bit down. Captain Daniel Alfredsson is at least on the quick road to recovery to start the year, but if Sens fans can take solace in anything, it’s that no matter what, the current Senators can never be as bad as the original team.

At least they’d better hope not.