There’s always a bit of a come down when the trade deadline passes, as it did on Friday afternoon. For the previous month or so, every time you log onto your preferred sports app there’s an anticipation high as you wonder what spicy swap may have occurred since the last time you looked.
Once that’s behind you, things in the hockey world can feel a bit mundane for a minute. That is, until these stars who switched teams throw on their new threads and start ripping goals.
This weekend saw a swath of players still getting their feet wet in new colours and, man, did a bunch of them deliver.
We can’t start anywhere but Canada’s capital, where Jakob Chychrun made his home debut for the Senators.
I think we can safely assume everybody associated with the Sens felt fantastic about this deal from the moment it happened, so it stands to reason the positive emotions were off the charts when Chychrun wired home a goal that put an exclamation point on the entire week for Ottawa. The Sens cruised to their fifth straight win on Saturday with a 5-2 smashing of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
If those on the outside were loving it, it didn’t compare to how a fired-up Chychrun reacted at the moment before telling Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas post-game he was going to tear up watching footage of his grandfather — Chychrun has strong family ties to the area — celebrating in the stands.
When was the last time vibes were this good in Ottawa?