Sens' hot streak could spark new ownership announcement

The Ottawa Senators are wowing fans with win after win and all the excitement around the team could spark an announcement of who will soon own it.

With five wins in a row, the longest streak of the season, the team is turning heads, and businesses, around.

“When it’s game day the building gets pretty packed and there is people here enjoying some drinks and enjoying some food and hoping for a Sens win,” says Ahmed Mahfouz, owner of Creekside Bar & Grill in Manotick. “Whenever they score a goal there is some noise in this place, absolutely everybody in Ottawa’s been waiting a few years for a playoff game here.”

In 2007, the Ottawa Senators had their closest run at the Stanley Cup, ultimately defeated by the Anaheim Ducks, and in 2015 there was another, much shorter playoff run against Montreal. But in both cases, the city was absorbed by ‘Sens Fever’. Downtown, Elgin Street became the ‘Sens Mile’, the fans were electric and so was the vibe.

“This city is always buzzing for playoffs and you can feel it right now with 20 games left to march into the playoffs,” says AJ Jakubec, sports broadcaster with TSN 1200. “It’s going to be challenging. They play a lot of tough teams but we will see if they can keep things rolling and keep things interesting on this road trip.”

While the Senators push to win a spot in the playoffs, during their next five away games beginning Monday in Chicago, more than 15 groups are competing to purchase the franchise - which could fetch beyond $800 million.

Toss-in Canadian movie star Ryan Reynolds, who’s keen to buy-in with Remington Group, hockey hall-of-famer Daniel Alfredsson, who has expressed interest in working in the front-office, which he calls a “dream job”, and the excitement of a developing team surpassing expectations, sports economist and professor at Concordia University, Moshe Lander, says an ownership announcement could be imminent.

“This is the type of thing that can stimulate fan interest that’s been lagging for a decade,” he says. “You want to make this announcement when the Ottawa Senators are hot because that’s the type of thing that creates that accelerant… what you want to try and do is get this done before they are officially eliminated because at that point everyone starts thinking about the Redblacks or they start thinking about something else… possibly looking at a wildcard this is when you want to close the deal and say all right it’s maybe a little too late for it this year but wait for training camp in September, this is going to be a really exciting franchise to be with.”