Chris Phillips is waiting with anticipation for Feb. 18.
He’s touched and he’s a little bit surprised, but mostly he’s honoured that before the Ottawa Senators face the Buffalo Sabres at the Canadian Tire Centre that night, the No. 4 jersey he put on 1,179 times during his career with the National Hockey League club will be raised to the rafters.
Phillips, 41, who was drafted by the Senators and spent his whole career here, will join former Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson as only the players in the modern-day history of the franchise to have their numbers retired. Alfredsson’s No. 11 was retired on Dec. 29, 2015.
As the day draws closer, Phillips is excited by what will be a special night to celebrate a great career for the franchise-leader in games played, one ahead of Alfredsson, who suited up for 1,178 with Ottawa. The decision to retire Phillips’ number was made last summer by the club’s player honouring committee.
“It was an honour to be recognized to put my number up in the rafters,” Phillips said Tuesday while participating as a guest with this newspaper’s weekly “Sens Panel” discussion. “Quite honestly, it’s almost surreal right now, thinking about it.
“I know once (the No. 4) is up there and just the legacy of that always being up there and going to games with my kids and for them to go and to see that up there, it’s really hard to find the words to describe how special that’s going to be.”
Phillips, who has settled into the community with his wife, Erin, and children Niomi, Ben and Zoe, is proud he was able to start and finish his career with the Senators. He was drafted by No. 1 overall in 1996 and hung up his skates because of a back injury following the 2014-15 campaign.
He has become a big part of the community.
“From the hockey standpoint of being on one team my entire career is very special and there’s a lot of pride to go along with being a Senator for life,” he said. “Off the ice, my wife being from here, raising the kids and the charity stuff we were able to get involved with because of the people that we met and the relationships we’ve made here.
“I couldn’t have really scripted it any better. You don’t expect when you get drafted to play as long as I did and let alone all with one team. It’s nice to be recognized. I know that my career had some big moments, but really, for the most part, a journeyman guy. In that aspect of having loyalty to the team, and vice versa, I’m very proud of that, but to be recognized with my jersey being retired really puts the feather in the cap for that.”
As noted by colleague Ken Warren during Tuesday’s panel discussion, Phillips didn’t give himself enough credit by calling himself a journeyman. He played a big role, mostly as a shutdown defenceman, from 1997 to 2015 and was part of Ottawa teams that had a lot of postseason success.
He went to the Stanley Cup final in 2007 against the Anaheim Ducks, but scored the biggest goal of his career in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final in 2003 against the New Jersey Devils in overtime, sending the series to a dramatic Game 7 back in Ottawa.
Yes, the Senators lost that series, but nobody could forget the jubilation throughout the city when Phillips scored to give the Senators a chance after trailing the best-of-seven series 3-1. Phillips noted a dramatic speech by assistant coach Roger Neilson, who was in the final stages of a battle with cancer, sparked Senators players.
“That was definitely at the top of the list,” Phillips said. “When you grow up playing street hockey, you dream of scoring in overtime in Game 7. That was Game 6, but it was close enough to being a goal you dream about and how would you score it and celebrate.
“It was a certainly a highlight of mine, with the whole back story of Rog and his big speech, it was certainly an emotional time, and to factor in by pushing that one game further was huge.”
The Senators are currently going through a rebuild, but Phillips believes the team is being built the right way for plenty of success down the road. He sees a lot of promise and hope with the pieces already here plus additional assets the club will acquire through the draft.
“Where they are is very similar to where I was when I first started,” Phillips said. “When I first came here, Marian Hossa was a draft pick, Wade Redden was in his first year. Alfie had won the Calder, but was coming into his own.
“They weren’t finishing high, but they had drafted well. Nobody knew who Martin Havlat or Mike Fisher or Chris Neil or Anton Volchenkov was … Guys likes Jason Spezza, who really became household names, or the trade for Zdeno Chara or Dany Heatley. They drafted well and those guys were impactful, had success.
“I see that’s where this team is right now. They’ve got some great guys in Belleville, some really good players here with some young leaders like (Brady) Tkachuk, (Thomas) Chabot and (Colin) White. Not only are they talented players, you can see the character they have.”
As we all know, Phillips is pretty good judge of character because that’s one of his finest attributes.
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