The Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens turned back the clock to the old days of the Battle of Quebec.
The puck hasn’t even been dropped on the regular season, but the bad blood is building up between these two arch-rivals, and that was on display in Ottawa’s terrible 5-0 loss to the Habs on Tuesday night at the Centre Videotron in Quebec City.
The two teams combined for 150 minutes in penalties, and that left everybody wondering what a National Hockey League playoff series between the Senators and Habs would look like.
Before that can happen, if both clubs manage to make the playoffs next spring, there’s still a pre-season game at the Bell Centre on Saturday night and four regular-season contests to be played.
There will be a little fuel on the fire in Montreal on Saturday night after Ottawa winger Nick Cousins slashed Habs winger Ivan Demidov in the third period, and he went to the dressing room.
That left Montreal coach Martin St. Louis fuming.
“There’s no need for that,” St. Louis told reporters in Quebec City. “It’s an exhibition game, both teams are trying to get ready for a long season. I don’t think there’s any need for that in the game.”
Cousins was given a $2,100 fine by the NHL’s department of player safety on Wednesday. So was winger Hayden Hodgson for his hit from behind on Montreal’s Alex Newhook.
There was also Jayden Struble’s stick to throat of the Senators’ Jan Jenik in the first, but he got nothing, as did Ottawa defenceman Donovan Sebrango, who decided to jump Kirby Dach in the third period when it was well out of hand.
The Ottawa Senators’ Jan Jenik and the Montreal Canadiens’ Florian Xhekaj fight in Quebec City on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.
“It’s a strange play,” Dach said. “It’s not a hockey play. It’s definitely something that if you did on the street you’d be in a lot of trouble.”
Even Ottawa coach Travis Green didn’t like Sebrango’s actions.
“Sebrango has probably got to control himself there,” Green said. “It’s an emotional game, though; it’s easy to say from the outside.”
You knew there was trouble when you looked at the lineups for both teams heading into the game.
Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk wasn’t in the lineup against the Habs, but you have to think he was watching from the press box with bated breath as three separate melees broke out between the two clubs.
The Xhekaj brothers, Florian and Arber, both played central roles in the bad behaviour by fighting twice. Florian dropped the gloves with Jenik in the first, and then, just for good measure, Arber went at Jenik in the second.
If that wasn’t enough, the dynamic duo was at it again the third. Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves for the second time, this time with Arber, and Florian went after rookie defenceman Carter Yakemchuk.
The game was out of control, and this is exactly what happened last year when the Senators met the Habs late in the pre-season. Meaningless games offer the opportunity to send messages.
“It was my first time playing with Ottawa against Montreal, but I had heard there were a lot of battles in the pre-season,” said centre Dylan Cozens. I expected there to be a little bit.
“They’re a team that has some guys who like to mix it up, and so do we, so you know, there are going to be some battles.”
The Senators face the Blues on Thursday night in St. Louis, but the lineup will be light on NHL players.
The club recalled Tyler Boucher, Hunter Shepard, Jorian Donovan, Oskar Petersson, Xavier Bourgault, Tomas Hamara, Keean Washkurak and Scott Harrington from Belleville on Wednesday to play.
You wouldn’t have known it from the way the Senators performed against the Habs, but there are still some battles for jobs.
A lot of the decisions have already been made before the final roster is set by Monday at 5 p.m., but that doesn’t mean Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, and Green don’t have to decide where everybody will fit.
Many of those determinations will be made after the club has determined if forwards Drake Batherson and Lars Eller are going to be healthy enough to start the year, along with defencemen Tyler Kleven and Nick Jensen.
Eller and Jensen are both recovering from off-season surgeries and have yet to suit up in the pre-season. They haven’t been ruled out, but Jensen is just over four months removed from major hip surgery, and the club will take every precaution with him.
Eller, who had sports hernia surgery, is closing in on getting healthy.
Batherson suffered a pulled upper-body muscle in practice last week, and the Senators are hopeful he’ll return to start the season. If he can’t play, the expectation is that veteran David Perron and Claude Giroux will play in top-six roles along with Fabian Zetterlund.
Most of the boys on the bubble suited up on the bottom two lines against the Habs.
Forwards Olle Lycksell, Arthur Kaliyev and MacEwen all had another chance to show they deserve to start the season here.
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