I attended an Ottawa Senators hockey game recently and noted the team had fallen on hard times with lowered expectations.

On offer was a special promotion sponsored by McDonald’s. If the Senators were to score three goals in the game, then you could score a Big Mac the following day for just three dollars. That is a savings, though I must admit not a large one. Though I had to look up the regular price to make sure – I don’t remember when I last ate a Big Mac.

The Senators are picked by many experts for a last-paced finish this year, just as they ended up last season. Three goals is a stretch most nights. I don’t think McDonald’s is losing any money on this promotion.

I guess they learned a lesson from Pizza Pizza, the chain that sponsored a similar promotion in the Senators glory years. They gave away a lot of free pizza slices about 15 years ago when Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley were scoring goals by the bucketful.

When that promotion was first introduced, a ticket stub from the game could be redeemed for a free slice of pizza the day following a Sens win in which the team scored five goals or more. For a couple of seasons that seemed to be every night.

The line soon became known as “the pizza line” with the fan chant starting when the Senators would score their third goal of the game. It was so successful that the promotion had to be adjusted.

I don’t remember whether it was mid-season that the change was made, but they moved the goalposts, so to speak. Instead of five goals qualifying you for pizza, it was changed to six. Still, the Senators continued to score goals in bunches. I remember collecting a few times, and I was only attending a couple of games a year.

This year’s Ottawa Senators seem hard-pressed to score six goals in a week, let alone in a game. I doubt too many Big Macs are being handed out at the reduced price.

The fans, those few who are left, are dreaming of the “pizza line.” Long may they dream.