Steve Staios reportedly wants to be aggressive in trade talks. Call it a coincidence. Call it a Swedish hangover. But there's no denying these mid-season trips to Sweden haven't served the Ottawa Senators very well. The Senators have gone to Sweden to play regular season games on three occasions – in 2008, 2012 and 2023. Their collective record in those three trips was 5-1. Not too shabby. But after every trip, they've come home to an epic collapse, including this year. In 2008, the Senators opened the regular season by splitting two games in Sweden against the Pittsburgh Penguins. When they came home, they immediately lost five of their next six games and 12 of 17 overall. They did well after that to finish that season with 83 points, but that was still ten shy of what they needed to make the playoffs. In 2017, a few months removed from losing Game 7 of the Conference Final in double overtime, the Senators were off to a decent 6-3-5 start to the season. They went to Sweden and beat Colorado twice. When they came home, they immediately lost 12 of their next 13 games. The Sens finished second last overall, and the club embarked on the rebuild. In 2023, hopes were sky-high that the rebuild was over (spoiler: it's not). And the Senators went to Sweden once again. They were struggling at 6-7, but it was too early to panic, especially after beating Detroit and Minnesota over there. When they came home, they immediately lost three in a row. Their record since Sweden is now 6-15-0. These collapses may all be a coincidence, of course. Maybe in all three cases, the Senators would have played just as poorly if they had stayed home and hadn't been knocked out of their usual routines. But with the NHL eyeing Germany as the site of the Global Series this fall, German star Tim Stutzle and the Senators might be asked to make yet another European trip. Given their track record and recent soul-crushing history of terrible starts, it might be time to say, "Oh, hell no!" Just to be on the safe side.
