As the Ottawa Senators prepared to play in the outdoor NHL100 Classic in December against the Montreal Canadiens, former Senators defenceman Dion Phaneuf stood off to the side, a few feet away from where Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson was holding court in a media scrum.



The crowd around Karlsson in the Ottawa RedBlacks dressing room at Lansdowne Park was deep as he talked about coming back from his off-season surgery to repair tendons in his left foot.



Phaneuf looked at the crowd around Karlsson and admitted he didn’t see this unfolding quite the way it did. Phaneuf recalled a conversation he had with Karlsson on the phone after Karlsson had his surgery.



“I remember talking to him in the summer and he wasn’t even walking much,” Phaneuf said. “For me, I look at that and that’s a lot of time off. He’s just showing a lot of character in the way he’s come back and come back to our team as quick as he...