Music: {allcanada} Senators experience team-building exercises at CFB Petawawa

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

{allcanada} Senators experience team-building exercises at CFB Petawawa

CFB PETAWAWA—At 8 a.m. Monday morning, the Dalton family took their place at the front door of the Silver Dart Arena. They were the second family in line.

There was mother Laura, children Noah, 9, Morgan, 11, and Matthew, 3, and grandmother Beth, newly arrived from Nova Scotia.

The only one missing was father Geoff, an aircraft mechanic at CFB Petawawa. But that was OK, they had a hat they were going to get autographed for him — among the pennants, jerseys, and cards they had brought along.

It was a good thing the Daltons got in line early.

By the time the Ottawa Senators arrived at 9:10 a.m., dressed in military fatigues, to sign autographs, the line stretched around the front of the arena. That made the Daltons one of the lucky ones.

Because only 20 minutes had been allocated to sign autographs, there were maybe 100 or so people still in line when the Senators left to dress for practice, though captain Daniel Alfredsson (notes) made a valiant effort to sign as many hats and jerseys as he could by leaving his seat at the autograph tables and moving along the line that snaked out the door.

It wasn't a total loss for the fans who missed out, however, At 10:30, the players came back out for an hour-long practice. The small arena was crammed. The Daltons had lived at CFB Petawawa for 13 years before moving to CFB Borden for one. They only got back to Petawawa two weeks ago.

"This is awesome," said Laura.

"We're huge Sens fans. The bathroom is in Sens, the bedrooms are in Sens. It's the reason we wanted to come back to Petawawa.

"I didn't sleep last night and everyone was awesome. They signed everything and they shook hands with all of us."

The autograph session and practice were part of the team's two-day, team-building stay at Petawawa.

Much like Canada's junior team did two years ago, the Senators were put through various exercises on Sunday afternoon.

They rappelled off a 65-foot tower. They did a march. They did a race in which they pulled LAVs (light armoured vehicles). And they ran an obstacle course. Not always were they successful

"When we did the obstacle course, I think I broke the record for the worst performance ever," said Pascal Leclaire (notes). "Yeah, that's scary. But it's been pretty good so far. It's obviously different from what we're used to.

"We got the chance to spend a lot time together, so it's always good. You can go out to dinner (at home), but it's not the same thing, so we're having a lot of fun right now.

"But I didn't shine in a few events, that's for sure."

In the past, especially when Jacques Martin was coach, the Senators would usually head out for a two-or three-day team-bonding session before the start of the season. But this is the first time they went to CFB Petawawa.

Coach Cory Clouston said it was good for the players to see the training that's required of Canada's soldiers.

"Obviously it's just a small portion of their activities, but we at least got a glimpse of how hard they train and what they have to go through and how dedicated they have to be," he said.

"This was a real good opportunity for us to do something away from the rink, something other than hockey.

"It was just a real good situation for all of our guys."