Sparks will always fly against the Canadiens

In the beginning, it was a friendly rivalry.

When the Ottawa Senators made their grand return to the NHL, they faced the storied Montreal Canadiens, a franchise that would go on to win its 24th Stanley Cup in the spring of 1993.

But on the night of Oct. 8, 1992, it was considered mostly cute and fun that the expansion Senators, a patchwork band of castoffs that would only taste victory 10 times all season, would win their first game in the new era of the Senators, 5-3 over Montreal.

Little brother surprised big brother, and no one seemed to mind.

Those were days of innocence, given what has happened between the Senators and Canadiens over the last few seasons.

Boom. Two teams that hadn’t met in the playoffs over the first 20 years of the Senators, met twice over the past three seasons, 2013 and 2015, with enough hostility generated to fuel the fires for years to come.

IGNITED BY GRYBA

While the franchises had engaged in competitive regular season games in a division rivalry that was considered a poor cousin to the Battle of Ontario or Canadiens/Boston Bruins, a single moment in the first playoff meeting changed everything.

After receiving what hockey and rugby players would term a “suicide pass” from “Player 61,” Raphael Diaz, Canadians forward Lars Eller received a devastating high hit from then-Senators defenceman Eric Gryba.

Eller’s limp form crashed face first to the ice, causing massive bleeding.

Later in the game, a line brawl ensued, Gryba ultimately received a two-game suspension, a war of words broke out between the Senators and Canadiens and the rivalry was forever altered.

Senators head coach Paul MacLean rather coldly said if he were Eller he’d be “mad at Player 61, whoever he is, because he passed the puck in the middle of the rink when he wasn’t looking.”

The Habs were incensed by MacLean’s insensitivity to Eller’s situation; he was quickly ruled out for the series with a concussion and facial fractures.

Brandon Prust famously referred to MacLean as a “bugeyed, fat walrus,” which led MacLean to suggest Prust only had two of the three right.

“I am not fat,” MacLean insisted.

Throughout, MacLean pushed all the right buttons, the upstart Senators (7th in the East, to Montreal’s second place) were loose, and the Canadiens never recovered.

First, head coach Michel Therrien lost his mind, overcome with emotion, then his team lost the series, Ottawa winning Game 5 in a romp, 6-1 with Peter Budaj in net when Carey Price got hurt in Game 4.

Last spring, the hostilities were renewed in Game 1, as defenceman P.K. Subban got out the axe to chop young Senators star forward Mark Stone in the hand.

Now it was Therrien’s turn to be insensitive, calling the slash an old-fashioned “Sherwood whack.”

The slash introduced us all to the term “micro-fracture,” which defined the injury, and reduced Stone’s effectiveness, though he soldiered on.

Senators head coach Dave Cameron, who took over from MacLean in December, threatened street justice over the Subban slash.

“You either suspend him or one their best players gets slashed, and you just give us five (minutes),” Cameron said.

Later in the series, as Craig Anderson took over in goal for miracle man Andrew Hammond, Anderson was involved in a wild stick exchange with Prust.

It wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Slapshot sequel. The incident led to this quote from Anderson.

“Did he spear me? Yes. Did I hack him and whack him? Yes. Tooth for tooth and eye for an eye. The players took care of it.”

In the end, the Canadiens prevailed in six games, but not without controversy.

What would have been a gametying goal in the second period of Game 6, by noted Habs-slayer Jean- Gabriel Pageau was called back due to a quick whistle, and the Senators couldn’t get anything else past Price in a 2-0 Montreal win.

A little over six months later, and 23 years almost to the day since the Senators faced the Canadiens in Ottawa’s franchise rebirth, the teams meet in the Senators home opener Sunday. Gone is MacLean. Gone is Prust. Gone is Gryba and “Player 61,” Diaz.

Otherwise, little has changed since last spring. The Canadiens are still favoured by experts — mostly due to Price — and the Senators are still the team that owns them most nights.

Last season, Ottawa took three of four games against Montreal and outscored the Habs 14-9. In the past three seasons, the Senators overall record against the Canadiens is 7-3-2.

In the games that matter most, the teams each have a playoff series win.

The Senators playoff victory meant more to them.

In 2012-13, the hockey club was two decades into its renewal and the victory over Montreal in the spring of 2013 marked the first time in modern franchise history that Ottawa had defeated a Canadian rival or an Original Six team. It’s on, once again. The Sens and Habs. Tradition says the Canadiens and Bruins are bigger rivals, but with Boston rebuilding, it’s Ottawa-Montreal that burns newer, hotter.

As Senators hard-nosed defenceman Mark Borowiecki told a Montreal Gazette reporter last spring about the passions when Ottawa meets Montreal:

“I like that we’re making our own history right now. For whatever reason, it’s always combustible when we play.”