Old Scores, New Goals: The Story of the Ottawa Senators

Glynn A. Leyshon is a professor of physical education at the University
of Western Ontario, a former weekly columnist for the London Free Press
and author of 18 Sporting Stories.

Ah, nostalgia. To read this book is to wallow in it. A hockey book
written by a woman may at first blush cause a double take, but this
author is different. Finnigan’s father was a legendary Ottawa Valley
hockey player who starred not only with the old Ottawa Senators of the
1930s but with the Maple Leafs as well. Her access to materials is
incomparable—everything from early photos to intimate interviews.

The mixture of approaches in this hockey history makes the text seem
jarring and uneven at times, but the rich detail compensates. Not only
is the chronology of the evolution of the NHL present, but the minutiae
of how some of the players and teams achieved their status in the Ottawa
Valley are elaborately presented. Riding to play the next village on a
horse-drawn wagon, with their feet on heated bricks, these old-timers
demonstrated an impressive hardiness and devotion to hockey. A stick
that lasted an entire season, although unheard-of today, was the norm
for the time, as were the potato-sack goal nets. There were even
girls’ teams as early as 1920!

The Ottawa Valley produced a disproportionate share of players in the
NHL, partly because of the passion for the game that the area held and
partly due to the interest of the wealthy timber and mining magnates who
bankrolled teams such as the Renfrew Millionaires and the first Ottawa
Senators. Now, of course, the rejuvenated Ottawa Senators are back in
the NHL after a hiatus of 58 years, and, fittingly, the author’s
father, Frank Finnigan—“The Shawville Express”—lived just long
enough to have his old number retired by the team before it began its
first season, in 1992.

The combination of straight reporting, verbatim interviews, and an
abundance of photos maintains a good pace in the book. Unfortunately,
there are several lapses in the editing, including spelling mistakes,
incomplete sentences, and repeats of lines of text. Too bad such an
interesting account should have such avoidable distractions.