Sens appear to have turned the page on last season A newfound chemistry inside the Ottawa dressing room has been a driving force in the team’s early-season success, TSN's Ian Mendes writes.

Guy Boucher stood at centre ice Monday at Canadian Tire Centre, barking loudly at his players.

But the Senators head coach, who has been known to lash out at his team with stern language and tough practices, was actually yelling out the scores of a football-related game that was being staged on the ice.

“14-7!”

“28-14!”

“28-21!”

It was all part of a unique drill in which the players had to try and carry the puck through the neutral zone, past the defence and into an end zone to score a “touchdown.”

“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Senators forward Colin White said afterward. “I may have to take that down south to the boys next summer.”

White’s answer was revealing, because fun is a word that hasn’t been used by anybody around the Senators for the better part of a calendar year. There is no denying that tension and drama filled the team’s airspace at times last season and the players took little joy in practices during a season that saw them finish 30th overall in the standings.

Players rarely smiled on the ice or in the locker room during media availability in 2017-18 – a stark contrast from the upbeat mood that appears when the doors are open to reporters this season.

On Thursday morning before departing for Denver, goalie Craig Anderson was asked if he could elaborate on the mood inside the team’s dressing room – and if the media was correctly reading the situation by suggesting the dynamics seemed to be different this season.

Anderson paused for several seconds before answering.

“My first impression to that question is yeah, everything is great. Everybody is doing stuff together,” Anderson said. “I think people’s personalities are starting to come out and guys are feeling more comfortable to let their personalities out. And that’s huge. If you can be yourself in the room around the guys, the better off you’re going to be.”

Anderson pointed to the fact that the entire team attended the Justin Timberlake concert in Ottawa two weeks ago – something he had never seen in his time in Ottawa. Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson would routinely organize team dinners, but never before had the whole team attended a concert at home during the season.

The Senators became a soap opera last season, with stories of dysfunction and inner turmoil constantly swirling around the organization. Even the newcomers to this year’s team were well aware of the juicy storylines, but they made sure not to be swayed by the rumour mill.

“There was much written in the media about things that happened [before I came], so I have no influence or no knowledge of that,” said Mikkel Boedker this week. “I come in here with a fresh mind. It’s a new start for everybody.”

That appears to be the case for everybody – whether they are new to the organization or a returning player from last year’s calamity. A page has been turned from one of the most disastrous seasons in franchise history and the newfound chemistry inside the room appears to be a driving force in the team’s early-season success. The club is 4-3-1 after eight games and is in the conversation for one of the most pleasant surprises of the season.

“We’re portraying what’s going on behind the scenes on the ice,” Matt Duchene said last week. “We’re a young group that is having a lot of fun together and we really enjoy each other. It’s a lot of fun to be around the guys and we’re playing for each other.”

One month into the season, the Senators are actually a likeable bunch – no small feat when you consider the brand was probably at its lowest point in franchise history. And the recent five-game homestand proved that at least some Ottawa fans are back on the Senators bandwagon. Many wondered if the Canadian Tire Centre would be a building devoid of energy and atmosphere this season, but that has hardly been the case. Yes, there have been empty seats this season, but there hasn’t been an empty feeling inside the arena.

There have been moments of genuine electricity and emotion at home this month – authentic moments that don’t feel forced. From Jonathan Pitre’s mom dropping the puck on opening night, to a touching video tribute to Ray Emery and a unique celebration for Bob Cole, the Senators have been on point with their in-game ceremonies.

And when Mark Stone fired an overtime winner past Carey Price on Saturday night, the building erupted with the kind of emotion usually reserved for big games in March and April.

“That felt like it did when I just came out of college and the playoffs were starting here,” White said, alluding to his NHL debut at the end of the 2016-17 season. “To have that atmosphere and that kind of support in here is a lot fun. And hopefully we get that again soon.”

As expected, the attendance has dipped – but perhaps not as greatly as originally feared. Based on announced attendance, the Senators have averaged 15,082 fans per game through six home dates –about 800 fewer than the average attendance from last season.

Many fans vowed to keep this group at arm’s length, refusing to embrace the organization after an extended run of futility. But the deep freeze between the organization and its fans appears to be in the earliest stages of a thaw. The club is reaching out to engage with social media influencers, inviting them to games and trying to reconnect them with the brand.

The players have been doing their part in trying to re-establish the brand off the ice. A story featuring Ryan Dzingel and a family dealing with childhood cancer was shared thousands of times on social media. Mark Borowiecki invited the Capital City Condors – a hockey league for people with physical and mental disabilities in the Ottawa area – onto the ice after Senators practice this week. Sixteen players and the entire coaching staff stayed on the ice to spend time with the kids and help them with drills. Borowiecki sent a group text to his teammates alerting them to the Condors visit, but even he was blown away that so many players decided to stick around.

“I was getting emotional out there, how proud I am of this group,” Borowiecki said when looking at all of his teammates on the ice with Condors. “We had every guy out there, every coach out there. And they weren’t just going through the motions. They were interacting with the kids. It was so special to see and it speaks to the group that we’ve got in here.”

The Senators are even giving an Ottawa Hydro hard hat to the hardest-working player after each victory – a nod to the countless hours of work done by hydro workers in the aftermath of multiple tornadoes ripping through the region last month.

There was a perpetual dark cloud that seemed to hang over the franchise, as the Senators were unable to shake a cycle of negative news stories. Each time a new story hit the airwaves in 2018, Ottawa fans were left wondering, “Is this rock bottom?”

Now, as the month of October wraps up, it feels like that dark cloud is finally lifting. The Senators won three out of five games during their homestand. And in the month of October they scored massive Saturday-night wins over their two biggest rivals – the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.

For most of September, Ottawa fans feared the talk of the team finishing dead last in the standings and having to surrender the first-overall pick – likely Jack Hughes – to the Colorado Avalanche. As October draws to a close, it feels like Sens fans can dream about battling for a playoff spot instead of thinking about the worst possible scenario.

“There’s always that chance to be the one Cinderella story,” Borowiecki said last week, after the club finished a practice in Gatineau in an attempt to connect with their francophone fan base. “We’ve got a good feeling in here right now and you can probably tell the energy level is really high. The mood is really good and everyone is coming together as a group.”