Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\nFans feel that way, too, especially the guy who rigged the back of his Sens jersey with white tape, turning the 7 into a 72 and the name band Tkachuk into Chabot. Clever work that.<\/p>\n
Chabot must have thought the roof was coming off when he was introduced as captain in the home-opener ceremonies. This is what happens when you\u2019re the leader who always just wanted to be here and you replace a guy who dumped Ottawa for Florida. It doesn\u2019t hurt that Chabot is playing some of his best hockey, skating freely and playing a strong two-way game, eating some of Sanderson\u2019s missing minutes.<\/p>\n
Still, Chabot was taken aback by the crowd reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome and a little overwhelming, I\u2019m not going to lie,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cThey show support to every single guy on the team and obviously a little bit extra special for me tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout their history, the Senators have usually had a player you couldn\u2019t take your eyes off when you went to the rink. Players like Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Erik Karlsson.<\/p>\n
Today, the player you watch the moment he leaps over the boards is No. 18, St\u00fctzle. Move your gaze at your peril. Has he gotten better because he\u2019s out of Tkachuk\u2019s shadow? Tkachuk was like a big brother to St\u00fctzle, roughing up anyone who looked at him the wrong way. The sense is that St\u00fctzle is capable of fending for himself now.<\/p>\n
From the first shift of training camp, it was evident Stutzle was at a different level. And not just with his skating, but his finish around the net. As though that guy who used to miss open nets and look skyward was no relation.<\/p>\n
We are just four games deep into an 84-game season, but St\u00fctzle has the look of a player at the cusp of a special season. He had three goals and three assists over his first three games but was held off the sheet in the Philly grind-fest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think you\u2019re just seeing the evolution of a young player,\u201d said head coach Travis Green.<\/p>\n
In his heightened leadership role, Chabot loves what he has seen so far from St\u00fctzle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s his progress every year, it seems like he gets better and better and we\u2019re seeing it again this year,\u201d Chabot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, he\u2019s our guy up front. He\u2019s the guy taking charge and leading the forwards up there. So, to see him play like this right now, it\u2019s huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against the Flyers, St\u00fctzle had his work cut out, losing his winger, Eklund, early in the game. There was little open ice for the centre\u2019s finesse.<\/p>\n
As groans began to greet the Senators\u2019 flailing power play, rookie D-man Carter Yakemchuk made everyone forget the team\u2019s 1-for-17 conversion rate when his power play blast gave Ottawa a third period lead to last. It was hilarious to see the usually laconic Yakemchuk drop to one knee for a glove-swiping celly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited,\u201d said the 21-year-old. \u201cWe battled hard all game and to finally get rewarded with one on the power play, it felt really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crazily, Yakemchuk wasn\u2019t the only 21-year-old defenceman on Ottawa\u2019s blueline, with Hoyt Stanley having been called up from AHL Belleville that afternoon because Cameron Crotty was sick.<\/p>\n
On game day, Stanley drove to Ottawa from Belleville (about three hours) in a car he shares with his brother, fuelled by a prepared meal from a local Metro.<\/p>\n
Stanley described his NHL debut as a \u201ckind of like a dream,\u201d and one that won\u2019t sink in for a while. It was a night that any defenceman, young or old, could appreciate, Ottawa closing out the win with bodies flying in front of pucks as the Flyers did everything but tie the game and force overtime. Dylan Cozens provided one memorable game-saving block.<\/p>\n
May we present the .750 Senators for the moment \u2014 a determined hockey team in the nation\u2019s capital at a particular time in our history when we\u2019re sensitive to hockey players and entire provinces talking about leaving our nest.<\/p>\n
And yet here are a couple of gamers \u2014 one Canadian, one German, happy as can be to be here with us.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a beautiful thing. If these Senators regain some health and win some big games, they have a chance to be one of the most popular Ottawa hockey clubs in years.<\/p>\n
In a moving pre-game ceremony, the family of late Senators goaltender Ray Emery clanged the bell to launch Ottawa\u2019s season. Emery, just 35, died of a drowning accident in Hamilton Harbour in 2018. <\/p>\n
Emery’s nephew, Michael Raymond, wore one of Ray\u2019s goalie masks as he energetically worked the bell. <\/p>\n
Emery was the Senators’ goaltender during Ottawa\u2019s only modern-day visit to a Stanley Cup Final, in 2007. As he was a boxing aficionado, a ringing bell seems the perfect note to sound for Razor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 October can be a scary month and not just because of the pending goblins. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-926692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791561131_494_32-Thoughts-podcast-Elliotte-Friedman-Kyle-Bukauskas-640x360.jpg\")
32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n