After a 72-game campaign, the Cleveland Monsters barely escaped the clutches of the Ottawa Senators’ affiliate club.

The American Hockey League final standings show the Sens missed out on the second season by a couple of points. 

What the ledger doesn’t indicate is how hard Coach David Bell’s club worked to claw its way back into Calder Cup contention during the late stages of the regular season.

Injuries played a role, both in Belleville and Ottawa. The Baby Sens helped staff the parent club while dealing with their own maladies. Still, the Sens soldiered on. They were finally eliminated from the AHL post-season on the second-to-last night of play.

A point here and a point there during the campaign would have made a difference. A more equitable administration of AHL justice in an April 12 overtime loss in Providence would have helped even more.

Engaged in Every Game

The Gazette caught up with Coach Bell at the Senators’ 613 Country Town Hall at Galaxy Cinemas August 13 at a meet-and-greet to celebrate recent club achievements. The Senators and the City of Belleville have agreed to a three-year lease extension, keeping the AHL and the Sens in the Friendly City through at least the 2029-2030 season. Part of the pact includes a club option for five years afterwards.

A former Ottawa 67’s defenceman who was coached by the legendary Brian Kilrea, Mr. Bell said one of the keys for his club was to be engaged every game.

“You go all the way back to the very first game of our 23-24 season,” Coach Bell recalled. “We opened up in Hershey against the Bears and it was their Calder Cup banner-raising night. That’s going to be a hard game. And we talked about it. ‘Don’t throw this game away’. It’s an easy one to throw away.”

But the Sens didn’t throw that game away. Belleville blanked the Bears 3-0 — and the squad made the playoffs that season by two points.

“Every night matters in this league. There might be a game on the road early in the year where it’s an empty barn but you have to be up because those points count the same as they do in February and March when you are on the hunt for your playoff spot.” 

Part of Mr. Bell’s role in Belleville is to teach and prepare his young players for the ultimate level in professional hockey. When players coming out of the junior or college ranks receive heaps of praise from agents, advisors, and fans on social media, Mr. Bell describes his role as “The Jerk.”

“I’m the jerk,” he said with a laugh. “I’m that one who tells you what you need to do better to get to the NHL. My role is to make them aware first and foremost that professional hockey is very hard. They’re not going to be given anything and it’s a job. You’re trying to steal somebody’s mortgage payment, or car payment, their alimony payment, maybe all the above.”

Comfier Confines 

Mr. Bell captained the 67’s for three seasons. His career intersected with that of a number of Wellington Dukes.

Former Dukes puckstopper Seamus Kotyk donned the pads for the Barberpoles in Mr. Bell’s final OHL season, 1996-97. He also played a season in Bakersfield, CA, where Wellingtonian Paul Rosebush was in the midst of carving out his seven-year career in the East Coast Hockey League with the Condors.

He knows the city well. He was happy to walk into the former Quinte Sports Centre for the first time as a bench boss to see the big ice in Belleville was a memory.

The city did away with the 100’ x 200’ olympic-sized surface in favour of the 80’ x  200’ NHL regulation-sized sheet. “I don’t remember playing a lot of good games here in Belleville,” laughed Mr. Bell. “It was like trying to play hockey on the ocean.

“I remember playing against Richard Park who had just come back from a half-season with Pittsburgh and he came down my side with the puck,” Coach Bell recalls with a laugh. “He turned his back on me like he was posting up. I leaned to my right and he cut to the left and was by me in less than a second. Nobody had ever tried that on me before.”

Coach Bell and the Belleville Senators open their season with a two-game road trip to Lehigh Valley, PA and Bridgeport, CT October 11-12.

The Senators open the home portion of their 2025-26 AHL regular season Oct. 18 when they host the Toronto Marlies.  

For single game tickets and packages, visit the Belleville Senators.