Eugene Melnyk must be pulling his hair.

First, his Senators fail to draw a full house for the home opener against their provincial rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then they can’t sellout a visit by the Montreal Canadiens.

Attendance for those games was announced at 17,618 and 18,195, respectively, and in both cases it seemed a little generous. But no matter. A capacity crowd ALWAYS shows up to see the Buds and the Habs. Except these days, apparently.

Meanwhile, truly embarrassing was the turnout for Tuesday’s contest with the Arizona Coyotes. Announced attendance was just 11,061 - again, generous.

They should have curtained off the entire upper bowl, moved the fans that were up there to better seats and everybody in the house still would have had plenty of room to stretch out.

What’s going on?

Might have something to do with all of Canada having Blue Jays fever and Ottawa not wanting to miss any of the American League playoffs.

Then again, maybe it is the fans showing their displeasure with a team that keeps running into the hump but never gets over it.

This will be a story to watch closely. You know Melnyk is, with clumps of hair in his hands.

STARTS AND STOPS

Hours before Pierre Dorion said in a TV interview he thinks Clarke MacArthur will return from his concussion problems and play this season, Guy Boucher was asked for an update on the veteran winger. His reply, verbatim: “Yeah, well Clarke, ahhhhh ... Clarke I think, ahhh, is feeling much better. Ahhh, so I’ll wait to get the OK from the doc downstairs. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t want to say anything right now, because I need to talk to him to know exactly. But I think it was more positive, ahhh, in the last days. So that could be encouraging right now.” Expect a firmer announcement coming from the Senators any day now ... Wearing a red Senators jersey with MacArthur’s name and number on the back was Jennifer Silva, who did a fine job with her turn at the anthems ... A trivia question years from now: What do Dylan Strome and Thomas Chabot have in common besides being first-round picks (third and 18th, respectively) in the 2015 entry draft? Answer: The both made their NHL debuts at the scarcely populated CTC on Oct. 18, 2016. People should have showed up just to see them ... Strome picked up his first point, an assist, in the first period. He can thank Craig Anderson for having weak rebound control and the Senator defenders for totally ignoring Tobias Rieder.

BETWEEN PERIODS

Max Domi is starting his second season in the NHL, but his dad is just as excited and proud as he was when the kid was a rookie. Tie Domi was at CTC for this one, wearing a ball cap and sweater with a high collar to cut down on the recognition factor, and asking where he could watch the warmup without going down to the glass. Also on hand was Tie’s uncle Bruno, who still owns his barber shop on Bank St. and used to slide both Tie and Max a few bucks when they reached certain scoring goals as juniors ... At his morning availability, Boucher said he felt like the power play was close to connecting. It was just a matter of getting pucks to the net and screens in front of the goalie. “I haven’t checked lately, but in previous years, 76%, 78% actually on power plays, worse than 5-on-5, of power play goals are what we call ugly goals,” he said, dazzling us with numbers. A few hours later, the Senators scored their first power play of the season on their 10th try, just four seconds after Ryan White was whistled for interference on Chris Neil. It was a bad call, but that’s besides the point. Bobby Ryan was on the edge of the crease and right in front of Mike Smith when he deflected home Mike Hoffman’s point shot ... Hoffman entered the night still looking for his first of the season. “I always say, goals are like bananas,” Boucher said. “They come in bunches. So keep shooting.” ... The ultimate season is like a big fruit bowl for a player then. Full of apples and bananas.

MAKES YOU GO HMM ...

Boucher loves Tom Pyatt for his defensive play and penalty killing, but the 29-year old temporarily pulled himself into a tie for the team’s goal scoring lead when he found mesh in the first period for his second of the season, then set up Zack Smith for a shorthanded goal in the second ... It’s already the second shorty for the Senators, who led the league in the category last season ... Smith almost had a second shorty in the second period, but his backhand went wide. In all aspects of the game, Smith is off to a fine start ... Didn’t realize Chabot’s shot was that hard. Mike Smith made a nice save off his blast in the second … Didn’t know Chabot’s dad, Francois, is a professor in Ste. Marie de Beauce. He made the trip here for the game.

BUTT ENDS

Rookie D-man Jakob Chychrun was denied a chance to play in front of friends and family in Ottawa, as he was a healthy scratch for the Coyotes ... Oliver Ekman-Larsson looked like he had the wind knocked out of him by Jean-Gabriel Pageau on an open-ice hit with the Senators killing a penalty in the first period ... The fourth line became the first line when Derick Brassard dropped down to play with Ryan Dzingel and Neil in the third minute. Neil set up Dzingel for Ottawa’s first good chance of the night ... Mark Stone was naturally disappointed he did not get another chance to play against his brother Michael, a defenceman with the Coyotes who had offseason surgery on his ACL and MCL. “It’s been a long process,” Mark said, “Six months. I think he’s getting close though.” Michael Stone might be somebody you consider for your hockey pools. He had 36 points last season and is expected to see more power play with the Coyotes when he returns.

WHY CUT SLEWIDGE?

Is there nothing sacred anymore?

In celebrating their 25th anniversary season, aren’t the Senators supposed to be recognizing their past?

And this is how they start?

By unplugging Lyndon Slewidge?

Ottawa’s “singing cop” has been belting out the national anthems before the opening face-off of Senators games since Year 1. Back then, and on through the awful seasons, he used to be the home team’s best performer.

His Daniel Alfredsson-like consistency was the key. He always showed up and gave his best. And on the rare nights that he was unavailable, because of work or family commitments, it almost felt wrong to start the game without him.

There was always plenty of theatrics with Slewidge. His towel waiving, his wink, his thumbs up. He held on to the last word in the song so long, players would try to see how many laps they could get in before he let it go.

But like Rene Rancourt, the 77-year old who is entering his 41st season as the Boston Bruins anthem singer, Slewidge is very much a part of the Senators fabric. He is recognized around the NHL as the kickoff to the home game experience in Ottawa.

They’ve been nudging him to the side for a while now, but for all the changes over the next two and a half decades, Slewidge was usually the one constant. And now the Senators say, as part of their 25th anniversary, they want to try “a number of new in-arena activations for the fans, including inviting other performers and artists to sing the national anthems.”

The Senators are apparently also interested in having Slewidge sing at some games, but he wants more. He wants a contract. And he deserves it.

Give the other performers and artists a different stage. This one belongs to Slewidge.

SHOT-BLOCKING TAPPERING OFF

Guy Boucher remains determined to clear up the biggest pimple that was on the face of the 2015-16 Senators.

Since the start of training camp and into the pre-season, he has been obsessed with cutting back on the shots against number which, at an average of 32.8 per game, was the highest in the league.

Along with following his system, he is asking players to “pay the price” by blocking more shots.

Last season, the Senators finished 13th in blocked shots. Through the first three games under Boucher, they were third. Good start, right? Except heading into Tuesday’s game against the Coyotes, the Senators were trending the wrong way.

In the season-opener against Toronto, they had 25 blocked shots. In the Game 2 versus the Habs, they had 15.

And in their first loss of the season, a 5-1 beating by the Red Wings in Detroit on Monday, the Senators blocked just 10 shots.

“It’s a courage thing,” Boucher said Tuesday morning. “It’s not the Senators, it’s any NHL team that wants to win. If you look at the playoffs, whether you’re a more skilled team or a less skilled team, if you don’t block shots you don’t win.

“It’s a mentality we need to have. We had it against Montreal. And we didn’t have it yesterday.”

Of their first 50 blocked shots, Dion Phaneuf was leading the way with seven. Mark Borowiecki and Erik Karlsson were next in line with six each.

Derick Brassard and Mike Hoffman were the only two Senators that had played every game and not blocked a shot.

“It’s something the guys can do, and I’m sure they will,” Boucher said. “It’s just a night where we were a little off in terms of paying the price, in those instances.

“We want to make sure that we don’t let it go. It’s important that we keep our standards high.”