Ottawa dubbed ‘plain’ as NHL team assigns teams a chicken wing flavour

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Is Ottawa lacking flavour? An NHL team says yes

Is Ottawa really a plain chicken wing?

The City of Ottawa and the Senators are lacking a little flavour, according to an NHL team that is adding some spice and sauce to the summer off-season.

The Buffalo Sabres released photos of their 2025-26 season opponents as chicken wings Tuesday night, ahead of the release of the NHL schedule on Wednesday.  The Anchor Bar Restaurant says the Buffalo Wing originated in Buffalo in 1964.

The flavour for the Ottawa Senators is “plain.” The photo posted on social media showed a plain wing sitting on a plate.

The Senators and Sabres will meet three times during the 2025-26 season. Ottawa visits Buffalo on Oct. 15, and the Sabres are in Ottawa on Dec. 23 and on April 2.

In the Senators schedule release video, Spartacat is seen loading wings into a Master Blaster and then firing the wings towards a dark shirt.

The Senators-Sabres rivalry has been tame the last few years after meeting in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, the Senators beat the Sabres to win the Eastern Conference Championship and advance to the Stanley Cup finals.

Ottawa already has several nicknames, including Bytown, the self-proclaimed “Shawarma Capital of Canada,” and it has been referred to as the “town that fun forgot.”

The Sabres assigned a wing flavour to its 31 opponents in the NHL. A video posted on the Sabres website shows Rob Ray sampling custom wings to match their opponents for the 25-26 season.

The Montreal Canadiens flavour is “Steame,” with the wing wrapped in a hot dog bun. The Toronto Maple Leafs flavour is “choking hazard,” while the Edmonton Oilers flavour is “Oil Slick” with the wing covered in a dark substance.  

The defending Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers received the “Rat” flavour, with the wing decorated to look like a rat.