You just knew this was going to end badly.
In the hours before the Ottawa Senators stumbled and fell 5-1 to the New York Rangers, the players one by one declared themselves without superstition – some with fingers crossed behind their backs, some with four-leaf clovers tucked in their helmets, some with garlic hanging round their necks.
The word "jinx" was in the air.
Thinking it a splendid idea, Ottawa Council had voted – unanimously – to start up the "Sens Mile" 10 games and more than two weeks before the end of the 2014-15 NHL season.
Why not? they reasoned. Hadn't the beloved locals come from 14 games out to stake their surprising claim on the eighth and final playoff position? And wasn't the Elgin Street Sens Mile a "Sens-ation" back in 2007, when the Ottawa Senators made it all the way to the Stanley Cup final?
It seemed a foolish step, given that Ottawans regularly ridicule Toronto fans for planning parade routes any time their Leafs go on even the slightest of runs.
There was even a silly conspiracy theory making the rounds: The councillor who suggested this, Rick Chiarelli, is a cousin of Peter Chiarelli, general manager of the Boston Bruins, the very team Ottawa just caught to reach its precarious playoff position. The Ottawa Chiarelli, some said, was doing family dirty work, trying to throw off the local team.
Many others, however, just thought it a silly thing to do – something that just might jinx the Senators and their Cinderella goaltender, Andrew (Hamburglar) Hammond.
"You don't scratch your ass if it doesn't itch," one irate fan Tweeted. "WAIT 'til they actually make the playoffs … DUH!"
Senators management moved quickly, thanking council but begging them to back off. Council agreed. The red banners, barely out of their storage box, were again packed away.
Despite the denials, the Ottawa Senators have long been concerned with the mysterious ways of the hockey gods.
Forward Chris Neil puts new laces in his skates for each game. The team once had Tom Chorske carry around a little Buddha statue in his shaving kit for good luck. Bruce Gardiner once snapped out of a scoring slump by flushing the blade of his stick in the toilet – causing several teammates to follow suit. They have tried séances, dyed hair and not bothering to change their underwear – all in the belief that there are matters in the hockey world analytics cannot break down.
Up against the powerful New York Rangers on Thursday night, the Senators needed no such worm-turning thoughts. Over the past 20 games, the two teams had almost identical records. Hammond, the Hamburglar, needed one win, or even a tie in regulation, to tie Patrick Lalime's 18-year-old NHL record for most consecutive starts (16) without a regulation loss to launch an NHL career.
There was, right from the start, a perceptible uneasiness to both rink and team. Some who smuggled McDonald's burgers in to throw should Hammond win wondered if they might as well eat them before the first period was out.
The Rangers, themselves battling for first overall in the east, struck first at the 12 minute 38 seconds mark when Chris Kreider, who has been a particular Senators nemesis, gathered up a long pass off the boards, skated fast into the Ottawa end and ripped a shot past Hammond's blocker.
Ottawa came back 19 seconds later when 20-year-old Curtis Lazar danced his way around the New York defence and blew a wrist shot past Cam Talbot, who has been an excellent replacement for injured goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
But the returned euphoria did not last long. The Rangers scored again when defenceman Dan Boyle, an Ottawa native, caught up to the play and rifled a hard wrist shot past Hammond, this time on his glove side.
Having scored from both sides, the Rangers now tried from above, centre Derek Stepan firing a shot that Hammond let bounce high and over his head, only to have the speedy Kreider arrive in time to plow the puck into the net.
4-1, reality.
Finally, a game the Hamburglar couldn't steal.
Early in the second, it was Rangers again, when little Mats Zuccarello finished a pretty pass from Kevin Hayes by ripping a shot past Hammond on the short side.
And then matters turned really sour …
Some of the 17,753 fans booed a dismal Senators power play. They booed even louder when their team could not score, or do much of anything, on a five-on-three advantage.
The Ottawa power play over, Tanner Glass leaped from the penalty box into the play and fired yet another wrist shot past Hammond to make it 5-1. That's five goals on 22 shots.
And so, on a day in which they opened and closed Sens Mile, the charming story of the unbeatable Hamburglar came to an unfortunate end.
He was yanked by head coach Dave Cameron and replaced with Chris Driedger, another unknown from the minor leagues.
Who promptly stopped every puck thrown at him.
Say, there could be a story here …
Roy MacGregor