The Senators and Canadiens christened the Canadian Tire Centre in 1996, and they'll meet again on Saturday to mark the building's 30th anniversary.
On January 17, 1996, the Ottawa Senators played their first game at their newly constructed arena. It was a long-awaited moment of celebration for both the team and the city, because getting the building completed in the early 1990s proved to be nearly as difficult as winning hockey games.
In both cases, it felt like one battle after another.
With the Montreal Canadiens in town for a mid-week game to help christen the new building, Sens fans hoped for a repeat of the magic they’d experienced three seasons earlier, when the Senators somehow stunned the Habs 5–3 in the very first game in franchise history.
There was no such magic this time. Canadiens goaltender Jocelyn Thibault made 26 saves in a 3–0 shutout victory, outduelling Ottawa's Don Beaupre.
It was loss number eight in the Sens' 11-game losing slide and the second-to-last game of Dave Allison’s NHL coaching career. The Senators fired him a week later after a 2-22-1 record that season, and that closed out his NHL career with a 2-22-1 record.
Hockey-wise, those were dark days.
But in the years since, the building has hosted countless unforgettable moments: Steve Duchesne’s goal just one year later that sent the Senators to the playoffs; the runs to the 2003 and 2007 Conference Finals; the 2007 Stanley Cup Final; the World Cup of Hockey; World Juniors and Women’s Worlds; burglar masks and post-game hamburgers; Daniel Alfredsson returning home to retire as a Senator; Wayne Gretzky’s final game in Canada; Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s four-goal night; and the infamous playoff line brawl with the Canadiens, just to name a few.
Now, the Senators host the Canadiens once again at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night, exactly 30 years after they first met to open the Arena Formerly Known As The Palladium... and the Corel Centre. And, to borrow a line from 30 Rock, we’ll never forget making “a hockey-loving face at Scotiabank Place.”
With discussions underway about a potential new arena closer to downtown Ottawa, this feels like the perfect moment to celebrate the memories of the old one. Because the next time the building is honoured, it may be in the shadow of a wrecking ball; but only time will tell.
The Senators will mark the anniversary on Saturday with memorabilia displays and a ceremonial puck drop featuring Sens alumni. Earlier this week, the team even broke out a concrete saw, cutting a three-by-three-foot square out of the lobby floor to retrieve the time capsule buried beneath the building 30 years ago.
Sens founder Bruce Firestone joined team CEO Cyril Leeder for a sneak peek this week at what’s inside the time capsule, and the first item he saw must have been a video cassette.
“Anyone got a VHS?” Firestone joked in a team social media post.
Well, at least it wasn't Beta.
The Senators promise to unveil the contents soon, because just like all the old NHL barns of yesteryear, it’s what’s inside that counts.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News - Ottawa
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