There is something missing at the Canadian Tire Centre this season.



It goes beyond the thousands of empty seats we’ve seen on a nightly basis in the first half of this campaign. It’s something that’s much more difficult to quantify or measure in numbers. It’s almost as if a little piece of the Ottawa Senators’ soul has been missing and it’s been difficult for even the most diehard hockey fan to embrace this team with open arms.



While everybody has a theory as to why some fans have become apathetic in this market, you can almost trace everything back to July 5, 2013.



That was the darkest day in franchise history – which is saying something, considering Senators fans have watched their team file for bankruptcy, endure four playoff losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and receive numerous trade requests from star players. Toss in a sliced Achilles tendon to star defenceman Erik Karlsson and a Jeff Friesen goal and you quickly realize that Senators fans have endured their fair share of soul-crushing moments in the past two decades.



But in terms of generating a visceral reaction from the fan base, nothing comes close to July 5, 2013, when Daniel Alfredsson opted to sign with the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent after 17 seasons in Ottawa.

In the weeks before that, the Senators had been as popular as they had been in this market since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2007. They made two improbable runs to the playoffs in years when they should have been languishing at the bottom of the standings. The fans embraced the team, nicknaming them the ‘Pesky Sens’ for their ability to show resiliency in the face of adversity.



Even the superstars embodied the ‘Pesky Sens’ identity, as both Karlsson and Jason Spezza made miraculous returns from catastrophic injuries to be a part of the 2013 postseason. The Canadian Tire Centre was electric that spring, as a “Pageau, Pageau” song erupted inside the arena after the most unexpected playoff hat trick in franchise history. And every time the clock hit the 11:11 mark of a period, the fan base counted down to a spine-tingling “Alfie, Alfie!” chant that left no doubt how the Ottawa faithful felt about their captain.



The arena was packed. The fans were fully engaged. The future was bright. And then, just a few weeks later, it all vanished in the blink of an eye.



It didn’t matter who you blamed for the captain’s sudden departure to Detroit – Alfredsson or team owner Eugene Melnyk – because all the goodwill and positive feeling around the club evaporated. And it wasn’t just the fan base who was affected by this seismic move. Every level of the Sens organization felt the ramifications of this change and tried to compensate for the sudden loss of Alfredsson.



Paul MacLean was the toast of the town in the spring of 2013, outcoaching Michel Therrien at every turn during one of the most satisfying playoff series wins in team history. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL coach of the year just a few days before Alfredsson’s decision to leave for Detroit. And as a result of this stunning move, MacLean was a different coach when he rolled back into training camp that fall. Without Alfredsson’s steadying presence inside the room, MacLean felt like he needed to change his tone – becoming a hardline disciplinarian who cracked the whip when dealing with his players. It would eventually lead to a falling out with the new captain Spezza, who politely asked for a trade when that season was done. The change in personality and philosophy would end up spelling the end of the road for MacLean as well.



General manager Bryan Murray quickly tried to mend the fences with the fan base in the hours after Alfredsson’s departure – first by signing Clarke MacArthur and then trading for Bobby Ryan in a splashy deal with Anaheim. But since coming to Ottawa, MacArthur has been sidelined with concussion issues and Ryan has yet to hit the 25-goal plateau. It was always unfair to ask either of these players to replace the former captain, but their subsequent struggles are the perfect illustration of the post-Alfredsson Senators.



Nothing has quite felt right.



Yes, there have been fleeting moments of glory, like the amazing Hamburglar run in the spring of 2015. But that whole magic carpet ride felt like it was grounded in fantasy rather than reality. Deep down inside, we all knew that type of run wasn’t sustainable, so there wasn’t the same type of optimism moving forward. We knew we had just witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime run, rather than a building block for future success.



Sure enough, the team missed the playoffs the following season and fired yet another head coach. It has felt like the Senators have been chasing their own tail for the past three years, but in reality, they’ve simply been chasing the ghost of Alfredsson.



Sens fans have been wandering aimlessly, waiting for something real and tangible to cheer for. Even with the team sitting in a playoff spot here in late December, the fan base has kept them at arm’s length.



Perhaps when they raise the No. 11 jersey to the rafters on Thursday night, it will be a chance for the home fans to genuinely feel the type of emotion they used to experience at the rink. Like the night Steve Duchene scored that goal against the Buffalo Sabres. Or the night of Igor Kravchuk’s empty-net goal against the New Jersey Devils. Or a Kyle Turris overtime goal to win Game 4 of a playoff series – against the New York Rangers or Montreal Canadiens. The constant in all of those great moments, of course, was Alfredsson.



He was the glue who held it all together. When he left, nobody was sure exactly how to proceed. It stalled the progress of this franchise and muddied the picture for three years.



But now that he will have his No. 11 jersey hanging above, perhaps the order will finally be restored in Ottawa.

At least for one night, the apathy in Ottawa will be replaced by real and raw emotion. Maybe Senators fans have refused to embrace the current team because they don’t want to be hurt again. Relationships with sports teams sometimes mirror our relationships in real life; and the break-up period with Alfredsson was messy and awkward for everybody.



It’s taken 1,273 days to get here since that fateful July day in the summer of 2013, but we’re all ready to move on and experience a magical moment inside the Canadian Tire Centre just like we used to.