Game 1 of Senators first-round series with Hurricanes set for Saturday afternoon

The Carolina Hurricanes' Jordan Martinook battles with the Ottawa Senators' Nick Jensen in front of the Senators' net during the first period in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by KARI DEBLAKER /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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It will be Hockey Afternoon in Canada for the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

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The National Hockey League announced on Thursday that the Senators will start their first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

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The Senators and the other 15 teams competing in the playoffs will be informed of the final schedule for the first round by the National Hockey League on Thursday, but even getting a start time wasn’t easy.

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The full schedule for the first round won’t be released until after the Western Conference wraps up on Thursday night, but the expectation is that Game 2 will be played on Monday before shifting to the Canadian Tire Centre for Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Saturday.

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League executives told the Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday that there was a battle over scheduling for the playoffs, which involved executives from Sportsnet — the NHL’s rightsholder in Canada — along with representatives of ESPN and TNT, the American broadcasters.

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Sources said that at some point on Wednesday night, the Senators were told they may not start until Sunday because of requests made by TNT and ESPN, because, let’s be honest, Ottawa-Carolina won’t be a huge draw in the United States.

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One of the sticking points was the start date of Ottawa’s series against the Hurricanes. It took time to find a resolution.

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Will Senators and Habs play on the same day?

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With three Canadian teams in the playoffs — including the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers — the only request that Sportsnet made to the NHL’s head office was that the Senators and Habs not play on the same day.

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Why? Both teams play in the East and, if the club’s games were scheduled at the same time, it would hurt ratings for the network across the country.

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We believe the NHL told Sportsnet it would try to honour that request, but made no guarantees until it was learned that the Habs couldn’t start their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday because the building wasn’t available on Saturday.

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We’re also told that Sportsnet wanted a Canadian team to play at night, but that must have fallen on deaf ears. The Dallas Stars will face the Minnesota Wild at 5:30 p.m. and the Philadelphia Flyers will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins at 8 p.m.

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The Senators were always operating under the impression that they would play on Saturday afternoon, so the start time won’t bother them but it took some heavy lifting to get here.

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This hasn’t made planning easy for the Senators.

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If the club had known earlier that it will be starting the series on Saturday afternoon, the Senators might have packed their bags on Thursday to skate in Raleigh on Friday because they wouldn’t be able to take a morning skate.

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Instead, the Senators will be on the ice at the Canadian Tire Centre on Friday and then fly to Carolina in the afternoon.

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