The Ottawa Senators may honour their own version of a Canadian Heritage Moment this season.
The Senators released their promotional calendar for the 2025-26 campaign during Media Day on Wednesday at the Canadian Tire Centre, and they noted on Jan. 10, they’ll honour a significant moment in club history with a souvenir bobblehead.
Judging by the graphic that was featured on the promotion in conjunction with a game against the Florida Panthers, the Senators appear to be planning to give feisty winger Ridly Greig a bobblehead to mark his now-legendary empty-net goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Nobody in the organization will confirm this is the case, but it would be a fairly good guess.
The Ottawa Senators have hinted at a Ridly Greig slapshot bobblehead.
That move will only help stoke some fuel to the fire of the Battle of Ontario that was reignited last spring when the two clubs met in the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.
That came on Feb. 10, 2024, when Greig, then in his first season in the National Hockey League, iced the club’s 5-3 victory over the arch rivals at home by firing a close-range slap shot into an empty net and that sent defenceman Morgan Rielly over the edge.
A fuming Rielly cross-checked Greig in the head and, as a result, was given a six-game suspension by the NHL’s department of player safety for his actions. The goal came with 5.1 seconds left on the clock in a season they hadn’t had a lot to cheer about.
Senators owner Michael Andlauer called it his “favourite moment” of what was a difficult season with the club missing the playoffs for the eighth straight year.
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Of course, everybody in the National Capital region will love this move by the organization. The good people in Leafs Nation who believe their team should be a Stanley Cup contender every year will hate it and have a vociferous response.
There is nothing wrong with poking some fun at an opponent. This is still a game after all.