Outdoor NHL game at TD Place looks likely

By Nathan Caddell

It took some time to get here, but it appears that the NHL and the City of Ottawa have come to an agreement to host an outdoor game at TD Place.

Senators president Tom Anselmi said last month that it was just a matter of “crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s.” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will be in the city in mid-March as part of a four-day celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Stanley Cup, which will feature the unveiling of a new sculptural monument at the corner of Sparks and Elgin streets.

It’s expected that the outdoor game will be held on Dec. 17, almost exactly 100 years after the first NHL game in Ottawa occurred on Dec. 19, 1917.

There was some uncertainty whether or not the game would happen, as the NHL and the Ottawa Senators originally wanted Parliament Hill as the venue. The logistics of holding a game on the Hill proved insurmountable.

“So we’re going to see if we want to play a game somewhere else, and by that I mean in a different city,” Bettman was quoted saying at one point after the federal government said a Parliament Hill game wouldn’t be feasible. “We haven’t made any decisions.”

Since then, the various stakeholders appear to have moved towards a consensus that a game could be played on an outdoor rink constructed on the football field used by the Ottawa Redblacks.

The Senators had expressed some hesitancy to play at TD Place, a venue where the team wouldn’t be guaranteed the cash from concessions or parking. In November, former Sens president Cyril Leeder said that Parliament Hill was the team’s only real option for an outdoor game.

While it appears things have changed, it’s still not known how the team’s agreement with TD Place would work.