It’s safe to say some Ottawans love their hockey and with the recent success of the Ottawa Senators, in large part due to goaltender Andrew ‘the Hamburglar’ Hammond, many may well feel the team is well on its way to clinching a place in the playoffs.
This includes Ottawa City Council, and more specifically College Coun. Rick Chiarelli, who last month proposed the idea of installing the traditional Sens Mile signs along Elgin Street before the team was even guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
This was an attempt to not only show the city’s support for the team but to also get the street pumped for when the team makes the playoffs.
There was mixed reaction from citizens with some fully engaged in the idea and others questioning whether putting the signs up much earlier than usual would put a “jinx” on the team.
Considering that the team went on to lose the next game played after the whole sign fiasco occurred and has yet to land a spot, suggests it really was a waste of time to think of putting these signs up so early.
Not only that, but the team also had their superstitions about it. Senators president Cyril Leeder wrote to Major Jim Watson expressing the team’s gratitude for the support but felt they would like for the celebration to be held off until the team actually qualifies for a spot.
Although his heart may have been in the right place, Chiarelli was way over his head on this one.
It was clearly a waste of time and instead of focusing on other city-related concerns, he chose to get the motion passed quickly, just as the Senators seem to have a clinched a playoff spot. Or so we thought.
In an interview, Chiarelli didn’t see putting up the signs as a big issue and thought the motion would be relevant to the team’s quick resurrection from being one of the worst teams in the league to quickly moving up in the NHL’s ranking.
Chiarelli said the team’s progress is a “historic run that is magical to this city.”
Historic maybe, magical not so much.
Some of the councillors such as Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney and Coun. Jody Mitic were very much on board for this motion, with Mitic even suggesting he wished he could been the one to propose the motion first.
However, Coun. Marianne Wilkinson and Coun. Scott Moffatt were concerned of the superstition effect.
Either way, the intention of showing our NHL team the support it needs to encourage and boost its confidence was great, but it might have also put more pressure on them.
It certainly was a factor that led to the end of the much-needed winning streak.
Though Chiarelli was just trying to be a great sport so to speak, perhaps leaving the signs down and having some other way to show the city’s support for its team would have been best.
For now, it’s all about the waiting game, which in itself is not a waste.