Bad blood boils over between Senators, Canadiens

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It was a costly night for the Ottawa Senators.

While the Senators scored a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens to kick off the final week of the preseason, they were forced to finish the game without captain Brady Tkachuk and top centre Tim Stutzle.

Both left the game with undisclosed upper-body injuries at 9:59 of the second. That’s when this already chippy game turned ugly. In the third period, the club said defenceman Thomas Chabot wouldn’t return for “precautionary reasons.”

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Coach Travis Green told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson that all three will be reevaluated Wednesday.

“It was an emotional one for sure,” Green said.

Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj caught Stutzle with a dirty hit near centre ice. He was able to get up, but went to the dressing room and Tkachuk immediately tried to make Xhekaj pay.

He could face discipline from the league, while Tkachuk also went to the room and he also left Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins briefly.

“Anytime you see a blatant elbow to the head you don’t want to see that.” Green said of the hit on Stutzle. “I was upset about the hit.”

The reality is there was no need to bring either Tkachuk or Stutzle back with the regular season set to get underway Oct. 10.

The bad blood started to boil over after Ridly Greig got under the skin of the Habs when he hit Kirby Dach in the first, which led to Montreal players chasing him around the rest of the period.

Dach and Greig dropped the gloves in the third. Greig also went to the room.

“They set the tone with that hit so we’ve got to answer that,” Habs’ forward Emil Heineman told TSN after the first period.

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Carter Yakemchuk, Michael Amadio, Adam Gaudette and Greig did the scoring for the Senators while goaltender Linus Ullmark was solid.

Four goals came on the power play for the Senators.

This final stretch will go a long way in determining who will make the roster on opening night. The Senators elected to take a look at 19-year-old Yakemchuk in a pairing with Jake Sanderson.

Yakemchuk, the club’s top pick in the National Hockey League draft in June, hasn’t looked out of place, but a costly giveaway in his own zone resulted in the opening goal by Montreal’s Jake Evans at 13:05 of the first.

That play doesn’t mean that Yakemchuk won’t start the season here. Just for good measure he scored his second of the preseason to give the club a 4-2 lead in the third and set up Amadio for a goal on the power play in the second.

That goal by Amadio was one of three power play goals by the Senators in a span of just over four minutes to give the club a 3-2 advantage.

“Exhibition is for a lot of different things and evaluation is one of them,” Green said.

“There are players on your team that you know are on the team and then there’s guys where you have to find out where they’re at as far as their maturity level or really how good they are.”

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Luke Tuch appeared to tie it for Montreal but the officials ruled the goal crossed the line after the buzzer sounded on the period.

BIGGER CHUNK OF SENS

Michael Andlauer has a bigger stake in the Senators.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed after Tuesday’s board of governors’ meetings in New York that the Senators’ owner has purchased another 12% stake in the franchise.

Andlauer bought out Halifax-based billionaire George Armoyan, the club’s alternate governor, in a transaction that was approved by the board. He played a key role in the negotiations with the National Capital Commission for a deal at LeBreton Flats.

It’s not known why Armoyan is exiting from the ownership only a year after the sale closed on Sept. 21, 2023, but he was one of the biggest investors in Andlauer’s purchase of the franchise from the estate of the late Eugene Melnyk.

Based on the selling price of $950 million U.S. last year, Armoyan’s share would be worth in excess of approximately $115 million.

Normally, if a partner wants to sell their share, the majority owner has the first right of refusal to purchase them back, which is why Andlauer likely made the move.

He faced a similar scenario last spring when Montreal owner Geoff Molson opted to buy Andlauer’s 10% share of the Habs after he completed his purchase of Ottawa.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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