About time.
One of the true greats in Senators’ history will finally have his jersey raised to Canadian Tire Centre’s rafters on Feb. 18, five years and two weeks after he played his last game.
Yes, the Big Rig’s big night has at long last arrived.
Chris Phillips is the franchise leader in only a single statistical department – his 1,179 games played is one more than Daniel Alfredsson’s total. During that time he scored 71 goals (24th most in team history), recorded 217 assists (seventh most), had 288 points (12th) and 758 penalty minutes (second) to go along with a plus-68 (sixth). He also played 114 playoff games, second most behind Alfredsson’s 121.
And if class was a category, Phillips would already be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Along with being one of the best defensive defenceman to ever play in Ottawa, he was very much a respected leader. That Phillips was overlooked as team captain in favour of Erik Karlsson – after publicly stating how much he wanted the ‘C’ – remains a terrible injustice.
To teammates, he was just as worthy of the top letter as Alfredsson.
The following is a Top 10 tribute, listed chronologically, of the third and final player to ever wear No. 4 for the Senators, an easy going man whose goal song was “Save a Horse”, who celebrated scoring with a one-arm raised salute, and who will forever be remembered as Big Rig.
FIRST OVERALL – June 22, 1996
At the Kiel Center in St. Louis, the Senators made a tall skinny defenceman from the Prince Albert Raiders the first pick overall.
“It was never a guarantee I’d be No. 1,” Phillips, who was atop Central Scouting’s list with Barrie Colts forward Alex Volchkov, told former Citizen sportswriter Martin Cleary. “If Ottawa didn’t pick me, San Jose would have taken me. I knew where I was on the radar, but I went through hockey with my blinders on and I focused on playing the game. I wasn’t overthinking anything too much or questioning what could happen. I just let things fall into place, worked hard, played my best game and helped Prince Albert win games.”
Over 17 seasons, only three players from that draft suited up fore more games in the NHL: Islanders’ third-round pick (56th overall) Zdeno Chara (1,540 games), Flyers first-rounder (15th overall) Dainius Zubrus (1,293) and Ducks’ second-rounder Matt Cullen (1,516). Phillips was the only one of them that spent his entire career with the same team, and only Chara – who in the early 2000s lined up beside Phillips to form the best shut-down pairing in Senators history – had as much of an impact.
Volchkov was selected fourth overall by Washington and played three games.
THE DEBUT – OCT. 1, 1997
Phillips played his first NHL game against the league’s most storied franchise – the Montreal Canadiens – in what was then the one-year old Bell Centre.
He had 17 shifts and 11:15 of ice time in a 2-2 draw.
“I remember going through ‘O Canada’ (and thinking) this is really happening,” Phillips recalled years later. “It was a great time and a great memory.”
HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES – Oct. 30, 1997
Phillips registered his first NHL point, an assist against the Toronto Maple Leafs, in his seventh game. He scored his first goal in his 11th game, on Florida’s Mark Fitzpatrick. The goal erased a 1-0 Panthers lead and the Senators would never look back in what became a 5-2 victory. Drawing assists were Alexei Yashin and the now late Sergei Zholtok.
Phillips went on to score five goals and had 11 assists in 72 games as a rookie.
MOVING ON UP – Jan. 20, 1998
Trying to get him in the lineup and use his size in the offensive zone, coach Jacques Martin used Phillips as a left winger for a road game against the Penguins. It didn’t happen often but it also wasn’t the only time the then-teenager had a chance to see how the other half lives.
“It was pretty strange, starting at a morning skate in Pittsburgh,” Phillips told Cleary. “Coach asked me if I had ever played forward. I said not really, but he said ‘you will be tonight. Go out there and figure it out.’ Certainly there was some frustration at times as I tried to figure it out. It’s one thing to not play forward and another thing to start playing it in the NHL.”
A DENVER HIGH – Oct. 10, 1998
Phillips second season couldn’t have started any better for both the Senators and himself. In Colorado, he played a game high (and what would be a season high) 28:18 and twice erased a lead Joe Sakic had given the Avalanche en route to a 4-3 victory for the Senators.
It would be the first of four, two-goal games in his career, with the others coming against the Pittsburgh Penguins, his home town Calgary Flames and, on a historic evening you can read about further down, the Nashville Predators.
HERO OF THE DAY – May 21, 2003
Being a team player, Phillips will tell you his favourite games ever were those he played in the 2007 Stanley Cup finals against the Anaheim Ducks. He was that close to the championship he chased and so desperately wanted. But in reality, that series came with much disappointment, as the Senators were eliminated in five games. In the Ducks clincher, Phillips mishandled the puck into the Ottawa net for one of the most infamous own goals in playoff history.
Phillips did score one of the most memorable playoff goals ever by a Senator four years earlier, for what might have been the best Ottawa team, when he notched the overtime winner of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference final. The scene of him jumping up and down and being mobbed by teammates along the boards in New Jersey is forever etched in the minds of Senators fans.
His, too.
“Since you’re four or five-years-old you dream about scoring goals in overtime,” Phillips said that night. “In an elimination game, to get us to a Game 7, it’s just an unbelievable feeling.”
The Senators went on to lose Game 7 at home, while the Devils won the Stanley Cup.
RED HOT RIG – Mar. 27-Arpil 2, 2004
At the risk of harping on the scoring exploits of a stay at home D-man, Phillips never before carried a stick on fire like he did for four games near the end of his seventh season. Entering the final week with four goals, he scored three in consecutive games against the Leafs, Lightning and Panthers, and then extended his point-collecting streak to four games with an assist against the Flyers.
MOVIE SCRIPT MOMENT – Feb. 9, 2012
The 1,000th game of Phillips career started with the the usual presentations and worthy acknowledgments. The most unique part of it was the ending.
How many other players celebrated reaching quadruple digits by scoring twice, including the winner, to end a seven-game losing streak? Probably none. Certainly, none that played the defensive role Phillips did.
“This is unbelievable,” he said afterwards. “The whole hype around it was fun and exciting, to be in my 1000th game, and to top it off with a couple of goals and one ended up being a game winner? You can’t write that stuff.”
You can, I just did. But he’s right – it was unbelievable.
THE ‘D’ ALSO STANDS FOR DURABILITY – Feb. 5, 2015
Phillips played all 82 games in five of his seasons and was especially Ironman-like during a six-year stretch in which he missed just three games.
It all set him up for what he referred to as the highlight of his career – setting the most games-played record against the Washington Capitals. It would be his last.
“When I came into the league, I thought that if I could play 10 years that would be a long career,” Phillips told Cleary. “To be able to stick around as long as I did, I didn’t think that was possible. Being a defensive defenceman, what my role was what I was proud of. Lots of nights I had various injuries and when I look back, it’s almost stupid the things I did just to play the game. There was a large number of games I played when I wasn’t 100 percent but I went out to battle and did the best I could to try to help the team.”
ENTERING THE HALL – May 31, 2019
Being inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame was a thrill for Phillips.
“It’s a huge honour to be recognized among the people of Ottawa,” the Calgary native, who was raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta, told Cleary. “It’s not where I’m from, but being with the Senators organization for more than 20 years and calling Ottawa home, it’s very exciting.”
Next up comes an even higher honour – the raising of his No. 4 to the roof of Canadian Tire Centre, alongside Frank Finnigan’s No. 8 and Alfredsson’s No. 11.
It’s very much a deserving tribute for the Big Rig. And long overdue.
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