With Ryan Reynolds in Attendance, the Skid Reaches 6 Games, & Thoughts on the Senators Retiring Chris Neil's #25
The rumours held true. One night after appearing on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ and confirming his genuine interest in buying the Ottawa Senators, Ryan Reynolds showed up at the Canadian Tire Centre to take in last night’s action between Canucks and Senators.
Not only was Reynolds just there, but the organization went out of its way to highlight his presence.
Reynolds shared a box with Senators president Anthony Leblanc and alumni Chris Phillips. What drew some attention was the entourage that Reynolds brought to the game. During the second intermission of last night’s broadcast on TSN, Bruce Garrioch believed that the individuals Reynolds was hanging with were bankers.
“Some of those bankers are from Inner Circle Sports who did the deal that he did with Wrexham FC - the football club that he bought in Wales. What’s interesting about Inner Circle Sports is that they represented Eugene Melnyk in his refinancing of this team in 2013. They’ve also done work with the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, and New Jersey Devils among others. In 2009, they represented George Gillette of the Montreal Canadiens when he sold that team back to the Molson family. What am I saying here? They’ve got experience with the league, they know what they’re doing, and they could help Ryan Reynolds in his pursuit of partners.”
I don’t know if any members of Inner Circle Sports were in attendance last night, but after quick glance at their website’s ‘Team’ page, I don’t believe I saw any of these individuals in that box with Reynolds last night.
So, who were the two individuals who were featured so prominently throughout the course of the broadcast?
After looking at Reynolds’ Instagram account that shared their handles and in doing some quick detective work using Google, the two men are George Dewey and James Toney of Maximum Effort.
Maximum Effort is a film production company and digital marketing agency that was founded by Reynolds and Dewey in 2018. Dewey was named the company’s president while Toney is its chief strategy officer and founding partner.
If Garrioch is confident Reynolds is working with Inner Circle Sports, it is encouraging for many of the reasons that he laid out. Having familiarity with this organization and working with other franchises in the NHL to facilitate sales is important.
All that is great, but what really has me excited is that Reynolds brought his Maximum Effort colleagues to the game. Considering the marketing capabilities of their group, it could be such a powerful vehicle to have to support and grow the Ottawa Senators’ brand.
The buzz around having Reynolds even involved in an unofficial capacity is tremendous. Judging by the responses and engagement around the city, the league and prospective buyers should be doing everything within its power to get him involved, even if his efforts to land the team fall short. Reynolds needs to be involved moving forward because this lasting image of him and Spartacat should not be the last Senators memory we have of him.
Senators to Retire Chris Neil’s Number
Not lost in all the Reynolds hype last night was the announcement that the Ottawa Senators would be retiring Chris Neil’s #25 on February 17th before their game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Flesherton, Ontario native played 1,026 games across 15 seasons for the Senators registering 112 goals and 250 points. The pugilist was never known for his production, he was a beloved teammate who has renowned for his willingness and ability to stick up for his teammates. He finished his career with 2,522 minutes in penalties, which is the 20th-highest recorded total in NHL history.
Despite never being the true heavyweight fighter that every NHL team seemed to have during the 90s and 2000s, Neil was a middleweight who seemed capable of holding his own against anyone. His eagerness to take on the world endeared him to the fans here and when his mother tragically passed away in a car accident in 2005, the community here embraced him as one of our own.
Whenever I think of jersey retirements, I always maintained this view that the fewer, the more meaningful the recognition is. I certainly would never say that only Hall of Fame calibre players deserve the honour, but these players should be pretty damn good to meet the criteria.
Whether Neil deserves the honour can make for an interesting debate.
Raising #25 may lower the bar for prospective candidates and force players to wear untraditional numbers at some distant point in the future. This could be a small market example of the organization overcompensating and attempting to create a history that just is not there yet. There may also be suspicion and cynicism that alumni like Phillips and Neil sat by and watched a ton of employees stomach a lot of bullshit during the Melnyk era, to potentially put themselves into this position instead of leaving like Alfie. The occasion may even be an event to boost ticket sales for a game against a relatively weak Western Conference team. (As an aside, I think it would have been more fitting to see Neil’s number retired against a rival like the Bruins, Sabres or Maple Leafs.)
The creation of the ‘Ring of Honour’ in 2016 was meant to be the perfect mechanism to recognize the achievements of employees like Bryan Murray or pay homage to players who were very good but not at that jersey retirement level. Unfortunately, many ideas and initiatives have been shelved because of constant employee turnover, but the ‘Ring of Honour’ is an underused relic of the past.
As much as I recognize and can understand the arguments of the detractors, I just cannot bring myself to get too worked up over a jersey retirement. It could be a sign that I’m softening with age.
I have not looked at the point production for all of the 174 players who have had their jerseys retired by NHL franchises. I imagine that Chris Neil’s production is at the bottom of the list, but making this all about his production and play misses the point.
Number 25 going to the rafters is not about goals and assists. It is about a player who gave his all each and every time he stepped onto the ice. It is about a guy who made this city his forever home and has been a staunch ambassador for the organization and city. It is about a player who lived out the dreams of every Senators fan by punching Darcy Tucker in the face. Considering he spent his entire career playing for this franchise and continues to do a ton of philanthropic work representing the organization, there are a ton of merits to this honour.
Chris Neil was never going to be the perfect candidate for this distinction, but he meant a lot of things to many different people. As a player and a person, he meant a lot to the fans, his teammates and to this community.
It is a phenomenal recognition of his career and I am thrilled for Neil, his family and all those who have been positively affected by him.
Other News and Notes:
Judging by the line combinations used at practice today, Mathieu Joseph was skating as an extra during the morning line rushes. Dylan Gambrell occupied Joseph’s spot on the third line. It is hard to read into it now because just the other day, Zaitsev was in a similar position, but drew into the lineup for last night’s game. Joseph could possibly be nursing an injury, but if he is a healthy scratch, it is a weird one. He has obviously not played at the level that he demonstrated last year, but not many of his teammates can say that about their game either. As one of the team’s best penalty killers, his absence could be an interesting one to watch.
After Chris Neil’s jersey retirement announcement, I went down the rabbit hole exploring Chris Neil’s career on HockeyFights.com. The site alleges that Neil fought 176 times in his NHL career with his most regular opponents being Shawn Thornton and Eric Boulton with five fights apiece. The team that he fought most regularly was the Boston Bruins with 18.