OTTAWA — Golf has a bit of an uneasy association with professional hockey.
Nearly every hockey player enjoys the pastime, but if the golfing season starts too early, their fan base will get chirped about it.
Few NHL teams have had more extended off-seasons (read, golf time) than your Ottawa Senators. Seven consecutive summers of uninterrupted ball striking.
Oddly, teams use charity golf tournaments as their unofficial start to the new hockey season. And so, as the Senators wheeled off on their golf carts to their various starting points on the Marshes Golf Club on Monday morning, we couldn’t help but wonder if this is the season the Sens play hockey better and longer than they have since 2017.
It’s hard to tell from the interview dialogue, because it always sounds the same the week before training camp opens. And yet, this could be the biggest season in years …
“This time of year, there’s always a new buzz, new faces,” said veteran winger Claude Giroux. “We’re a little bit of an older team (now). We have some great additions to our team … we’re just excited to get going and get the chemistry going.”
Giroux had a good line about players looking forward to the first day of camp, after which they long for the season to open. That is especially true of veterans.
And look at the incoming experience to help Giroux, captain Brady Tkachuk, plus Thomas Chabot and Tim Stützle lead this team.
New goaltender Linus Ullmark. Winger David Perron, a known voice around the league. Right-shot defenceman Nick Jensen. Forwards Mike Amadio and Noah Gregor and the king of nastiness, Nick Cousins.
That is significant change and more of a tilt toward grit and edge than Ottawa has had in recent seasons.
“We’re going to show up and try to outwork you every night,” Chabot said.
Nobody has carried a heavier load in the past seven seasons than Chabot, asked to play too many minutes with too little help.
If that weren’t bad enough, Chabot, 27, has played with a nagging wrist issue that past couple of years. In May, he finally underwent surgery and today he proclaims the wrist “pretty much good.”
How that slots on a scale up to 100 per cent we can’t be sure. But the surgery and recovery have been successful, Chabot says.
Typical of each player asked about the roster changes, Chabot is bullish.
“I think we added some key pieces,” Chabot says. “More depth and talent everywhere.”
It’s likely that Chabot will be paired with Jensen, a more natural fit than the lefty-lefty pairing of Chabot and Jakob Chychrun last season.
Chabot has already spent time on the golf course with Jensen and had a few practice skates with him, too.
“He’s a good skater and plays very well defensively,” Chabot says. “We’ll get to know each other better and just kind of feed off each other on the ice. He’s been awesome. It’s been great getting to know him.”
Along with Chabot, Stützle is another player who used the summer for a physical reset. After suffering a wrist injury early last season and then re-injuring a shoulder, Stützle says he received treatment “every day for the last three months” and declared himself healthy and ready to go.
“We’re really disappointed with how last season went but that’s over now, so we have to look at the future and just go day by day, Stützle said. “Try to get better every day.”
Ottawa’s No. 1 centre says he had a visit with new head coach Travis Green in Frankfurt, Germany, when Green was there for the world hockey championship. The two held subsequent talks over the summer, to get a sense of where Stützle can take his game. A 90-point player in 2022-23, Stützle dipped to 70 points last season, although the drop off was entirely on the goal scoring side, a reflection of Stützle’s inability to shoot with authority while injured.
The coach and player seem to be on the same page.
“He expects a lot and I expect a lot of myself as well,” Stützle said. “I think I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself and I just want to be the best I can be. I think he wants me to do that as well.”
As for expectations of a tough, Travis Green-style training camp, Stützle says — bring it on.
“I kind of like that. I mean, everything has to make sense for the group.”
So many of the Senators have been taking part in pre-camp skates, players figure to hit the ground running when training camp officially opens next week.
Agent change not related to Ottawa: Stützle
Stützle, by the way, stressed to reporters that his decision to change player agencies had nothing to do with his contract with the Senators or intent to move on. It was all about off-ice opportunities in Germany, Stützle said.
“I love being in Ottawa, and I would not be somewhere else,” Stützle said. “It’s a different situation with what’s been going on in Germany for a while now and I just want to get that fixed.”
Stützle recently changed from Octagon to 4sports Hockey. His close German pal, Moritz Seider, is with 4sports Hockey and has enjoyed the relationship.
Baby Watch for Tkachuk
Noticeably absent on golf day was captain Tkachuk, who had the best excuse. His wife, Emma, is very close to giving birth to the couple’s first child.
Moment of silence for the Gaudreau brothers
In a touching and fitting gesture outside of the front of the Marshes Golf Course, Senators owner Michael Andlauer called for a moment of silence to honour the fallen Gaudreau brothers, Johnny and Matthew. Their funeral was held Monday in Pennsylvania.
Johnny Gaudreau, a star forward for the Columbus Blue Jackets and prior to that the Calgary Flames, was killed along with his brother while the pair were riding their bicycles home from a wedding rehearsal.
To a man, the Senators took off their caps in silent memory of these two fine young men. Their senseless deaths have still not registered with many in hockey. Disbelief endures.
Community players
Through initiatives such as the Senators golf tournament, the Senators and their Community Foundation have donated $1.4 million this year to health and wellness programs, especially those involving youth, according to the Senators community impact report. The Senators aren’t just ‘good in the room.’ They are very good in the community.