Senators Owner Admits Putting The Team's Mascot In A Quebec Nordiques Jersey Was A Bad Idea

The Ottawa Senators are very much in the playoff picture this season, currently sitting in third place in the tight Atlantic Division.

So, you'd think that everything in Sens World is pretty alright, wouldn't you?

Well, you'd be wrong and it was all thanks to a weird controversy involving the team's mascot Spartacat.

It started when the Senators announced plans to play a couple of playoff games in Quebec City. Nothing weird about that. Plenty of teams play pre-season games in other cities, but the issues started when the team posted — and later deleted — a photo of Spartacat wearing a half-Quebec Nordiques, half-senators jersey.

According to Sportsnet, this came around the same time that team owner Michael Andlauer suggested that the Senators could possibly play regular-season games in Quebec City.

That made things worse, because the Senators have been having trouble getting a new arena deal finalized, and it's no secret that Quebec City — which hasn't had a full-time NHL presence since the Nordiques left for Colorado back in 1995 — is dying for a new team.

This angered a lot of Senators fans who felt like these were early signs that the team was considering a move.

And that's why on Thursday, Andlauer had to do some damage control.

"Well, obviously, the jersey first," he said about what he would have done differently but noted that he had not been in on the decision to have Spartacat throw on that half-and-half sweater.

Andlauer also copped to having made a mistake by floating the idea of some games in Quebec City.

"This is where I erred," Andlauer said. "I don’t dwell in the past, and what I didn’t realize is, I guess there was talk about playing five games in (Quebec City).

"I didn’t know that."

He denied that this was a tactic in the team's current arena negotiations, and said that instead he just saw it as an opportunity to grow the Sens' fan base.

"My mind is going, and I’m like, we played two games in Sweden," Andlauer said. "I’d rather be playing two games in Quebec City than playing two games in Sweden, both from a hockey ops standpoint and from our fans."

It seems like it's all been sorted out, but it's nice to see an owner admit a mistake and be so transparent with fans.