{"id":328115,"date":"2025-12-04T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:24:10","slug":"sens-to-mark-35-years-since-nhls-return-to-nations-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328115\/","title":{"rendered":"Sens to mark 35 years since NHL’s return to nation’s capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Ottawa Senators will mark 35 years since NHL hockey returned to the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

The Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning were awarded franchises in the league’s 1990 expansion, setting the stage for the NHL to come back to Ottawa in 1992 after a near six-decade absence.<\/p>\n

Key individuals from the Sens’ expansion bid will be recognized Saturday, when the team takes on the St. Louis Blues at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

One of those individuals is former owner Bruce Firestone, who led the bid.<\/p>\n

“In some ways it was the most important day of my life,” Firestone said.<\/p>\n

\"AOttawa Senators president Cyril Leeder says the memory of Ottawa receiving an NHL franchise is etched in his brain. (Martin Comtois\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n

Current president Cyril Leeder was also part of the founding group and said the memory of the announcement is etched in his brain.<\/p>\n

“I almost remember the words exactly: ‘Today the board of governors awarded [a new franchise] to the city of Ottawa.’ Then there’s a big cheer,” he recalled.<\/p>\n

The group took a few years to build the team, which debuted during the 1992-93 season.<\/p>\n

‘A character test’<\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday’s festivities, Firestone also reflected on how the bid almost fell apart.<\/p>\n

He recalled a member of the board of governors approaching him to say they would “never, ever, ever get a franchise in Ottawa.”<\/p>\n

“[They] wanted to see who would quit and who wouldn’t,” Firestone said. “It was a character test.”<\/p>\n

He said his thoughts went to the millions spent on the bidding process and land for a new arena and he became doubtful.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Guys, it doesn’t look very good. I think we might have lost that.’ And there was a couple of tears, maybe, in my eye.” Firestone said.<\/p>\n

When the board notified the Ottawa camp that their bid was successful, Firestone said he was overjoyed.<\/p>\n

“I went, ‘Oh, my God, we just won this thing.”<\/p>\n

Exceeding expectations 35 years later, president says<\/p>\n

The winning bid marked an end to a decades-long hiatus of professional hockey in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

Then mayor Jim Durrell called it the “the biggest thing to ever happen to the city of Ottawa” at the time.<\/p>\n

“I think Jim Durrell coined it best,” Leeder said. “I think he was right about that.”<\/p>\n

Now, 35 years later, the team has “way exceeded those expectations,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Whatever we thought it was gonna be, it’s been that multiple times over,” Leeder said. “It’s really been a fantastic … part of history for Ottawa.”<\/p>\n

\"ASens owner Michael Andlauer is working with the National Capital Commission to build an arena for the team at LeBreton Flats. (Jean Delisle\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Current team owner Michael Andlauer said he’s excited about the team’s future.<\/p>\n

“I think we’re making good progression on the ice,” Andlauer said. “Every year we seem to have a stronger team as we’re maturing.”<\/p>\n

The team is currently third in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

Off the ice, Andlauer said the plan to build a new stadium at LeBreton Flats is exciting.<\/p>\n

“[It’s] right across the river from downtown Gatineau and two kilometers from Parliament Hill. What an amazing location, too, for people in that region to be entertained,” he said. <\/p>\n

Firestone said the team has been hoping to build an arena downtown since joining the league 35 years ago.<\/p>\n

“If we do get an opportunity to actually build it downtown, I think that would be a good thing,” Firestone said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-328115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}