Sens opening night marketing gimmick results in spilled beer and injured children

In another move by the Ottawa Senators that can only be described as, “Who the Hell thought this was a good idea?”, the team’s marketing department had giant, heavy beach balls dropped on the crowd last night prior to the team’s home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks. When the balls dropped from the arena rafters, unsuspecting fans were reportedly injured and spilled untold amounts of beer. You read that right: BEER WAS WASTED. As anyone knows, in a hockey rink, that’s a crime worthy of jail time. Someone must pay.

This wasn’t marketing’s greatest idea. These giant beach balls are heavy… And are knocking people’s beers over including mine :/

And they hurt when they get dropped from the rafters #headache

Again… who thought this was a good idea? Did Sens owner Eugene Melnyk devise this plan himself? Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised given the poor moves that he has reportedly been behind over the past calendar year.

Regardless of the intent, the beach balls obviously did not have the desired effect. As for the one ice entertainment, well the Sens dropped their home opener 4-3 to the Blackhawks. 

In the one positive that the Sens can take from the evening, Sens rookie Maxime Lajoie made his NHL debut last night and boy… did he EVER make a first impression.

Midway through the first period with the Sens down 2-1 to the Hawks, Sens forward Matt Duchene picked up the puck down low behind the Hawks net, found Lajoie crusing down mainstream and hit him with a perfect pass. Lajoie made no mistake, rifling it over the shoulder of Cam Ward and into the back of the net for his first career NHL goal.

Check out this snipe and check out the reaction from Lajoie’s parents sitting in the crowd:

How sweet is that? No word yet on whether Lajoie's mother's tears are a result of the emotion of seeing her son score his first NHL goal, or from getting smashed in the back of the head with a stupid, over inflated beach ball, but we're inclined to think it's probably the former and not the latter...