Senators owner Andlauer embraces underdog mentality ahead of playoffs

Michael Andlauer resides his finest life. 

On Thursday, he was strolling the grounds of Augusta Nationwide together with his two sons, up shut and private with the most effective golfers on the planet enjoying The Masters. The place all of us wished to be that day. 

“It’s like a cathedral there — the grass is ideal,” Andlauer stated. “It’s simply such an amazing stroll. My canine are barking proper now.”

At some point later and the owner of the Ottawa Senators was again within the Canadian capital on Friday to observe the primary hockey recreation since his group clinched a playoff berth — dealing with, as destiny would have it, the Montreal Canadiens group that when counted Andlauer amongst its minority house owners. 

In a lounge at ice degree, Andlauer tells a small group of Ottawa media how he fell in love with this Senators group, which he got here to personal within the fall of 2023. How rapidly did this Montreal native kind an actual allegiance together with his new group?

“The day I needed to fork out that huge cheque,” he says, laughing. Andlauer is almost all accomplice in a bunch that paid the Eugene Melnyk property about $950 million for the franchise. 

So is Andlauer, a giant man who instructions a room. He’s expressive and forthcoming, fast to smile, however so intense about his hockey he has little interest in socializing throughout a Sens recreation. 

“Gary Bettman (the NHL commissioner) observed that after we had been collectively and he revered the truth that I simply wished to observe the sport,” Andlauer says. 

He tells us that he nonetheless will get these pinch-me moments, as would any childhood fan who grows as much as personal an NHL group towards all odds. 

“You notice you’re the man who grew up on the opposite facet of the tracks in Montreal, raised by your mother, that you just by no means thought you’d be on this place,” Andlauer says. “After which you’re. And also you type of say, ‘OK, now you might have a duty.’”

Ottawa was the right touchdown spot for this self-made billionaire. As one of the smallest markets within the league, Ottawa has all the time been Canada’s most underrated franchise. Andlauer embraced that as a brand new owner.

“It was straightforward to fall in love with this group, beginning with the town,” Andlauer says. “I feel you’ve heard me say it earlier than. This metropolis matches me greater than the bigger cities, perhaps as a result of I’ve all the time been the underdog. It’s type of neat that we’re going into these playoffs because the underdog.”

Common supervisor Steve Staios, who took an excellent younger core and added a number of important items, has additionally tapped into that darkish horse theme. 

“We’re underdogs and we’re OK with that,” Staios stated this week because the Senators ready to shut out the common season, virtually sure to complete within the first wild-card spot after Friday’s 5-2 victory over the Canadiens. 

Staios was the primary individual Andlauer referred to as when the Senators clinched their berth, strolling via a facet door when the Habs beat Detroit on Tuesday evening. 

Andlauer and Staios have waged hockey wars within the OHL and AHL, and gained championships collectively. They’d a pact that if Andlauer ever grew to become a majority owner of an NHL group, he would rent Staios to run it. 

Now right here they’re, presiding over a playoff contender of their second season.

The method hasn’t been all that completely different from their junior days collectively, Andlauer says, bringing an operation to a extra skilled degree, high to backside.  

To cite Staios: “We wanted to alter the extent of accountability all through the group.”

Andlauer lauds Staios for his veteran participant additions, “not simply individuals who had gained, it’s those that had character, the correct of character, to be mentors for this younger, nice core we have now.”

Staios had the gumption to land No. 1 goaltender Linus Ullmark in a commerce throughout the 2024 Stanley Cup ultimate, sprinkled in different veterans like David Perron, Michael Amadio and Nick Cousins and pulled off a deadline deal for second-line centre Dylan Cozens. 

In head coach Travis Inexperienced, Staios employed somebody that might embody what he was making an attempt to determine, the owner says. 

If Staios was Andlauer’s first cellphone name after qualifying for the post-season, his second was to captain Brady Tkachuk. Andlauer thought to himself – Brady should be so excited!

“And so I reached out to him and simply instructed him how blissful I used to be for him, in gentle of every thing he’s gone via and to be on this place now,” Andlauer says. 

Tkachuk, although nursing an damage that has him sidelined, is predicted to be the face of Ottawa’s playoff push. Together with defenceman Jake Sanderson, Tkachuk had his popping out celebration on the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“He’s every thing that Ottawa followers consider in him, he cares a lot, each on and off the ice,” Andlauer says of his captain. 

The owner contacted defenceman Thomas Chabot as properly — the opposite participant to have logged greater than 500 video games whereas enduring no small quantity of ache, each emotional and bodily, for this group.

“They had been drafted right here… they’re hungry for the playoffs and now they will style it,” he says.

Andlauer isn’t any much less happy for Senators followers to lastly see some playoff hockey once more after an eight-year drought. 

“I’ve stated, the followers are our lifeblood,” Andlauer says. “And I’m a fan. That second (of clinching a playoff spot) was like, wow, we did it.”

Prodded a few most popular playoff opponent, Andlauer performed it cool, ceding to president Cyril Leeder’s remark that it’s “unhealthy karma” to want for a matchup.

Nonetheless, Andlauer rapidly added: “If I’m sporting my fan fats, convey on the Leafs! Please.”

The owner was nonetheless sporting that fan hat when he declared the notorious Ridly Greig slap shot into the empty web of the Maple Leafs final season as his “favorite second.” He made it a key half of his season-ending handle to his gamers. 

“It was extra of an announcement about their followers than Toronto’s group, as a result of we had so many Leafs followers in our constructing,” Andlauer says. “I talked to (Greig) and typically in these conditions I feel gamers have blackouts and don’t know what they did. 

“However for me, it’s an amazing rivalry and that’s the wonder of the sport, proper? It’s constructing these rivalries and making our metropolis proud.”

The town is amped up, there is no such thing as a doubt. Even the Canadian Tire Centre safety guards are high-fiving Andlauer in regards to the coming playoffs. 

This week, the ‘Sens Mile’ indicators had been erected on Elgin Avenue because the group’s celebration place and Andlauer proudly famous that his daughter, who manages a merchandise outlet, introduced that Senators automobile flags had been fully bought out. 

Andlauer longs for the day when his constructing is, too, not from walk-up patrons however season ticket holders — the most effective defence towards invading hordes of Leafs and Habs followers. 

“Frankly, our gamers don’t prefer to have all these (enemy) followers within the constructing and I don’t prefer it,” Andlauer says. “With extra season tickets, we are going to outnumber these followers and drown out the noise. That’s the target. This constructing did have 11,000, 12,000 season-ticket holders earlier than. We’ll get there. I’m in no rush.

“However making the playoffs goes to assist that.”