Algonquin students were the butt of an embarrassing, yet good-natured prank on Oct. 23 when Ottawa Senators rookie defenseman Max Lajoie showed up, disguised as a CTV News reporter.
Students were approached by a CTV employee and asked if they were Sens fans. The ones who said yes were then asked if they were interested in participating in a segment about the team.
Then they were told that they would be talking to an “intern” who was doing his first on-air report.
Once they agreed, the 20-year-old defenseman started by asking their thoughts on other Senators young players. Most students mentioned 2018 fourth-overall pick Brady Tkachuk or highly-touted, second-year defenseman Thomas Chabot.
One student, Daniel Katz, even mentioned Lajoie himself a couple times.
Senators rookie defenceman @max_lajoie poses as 'Max the Intern' to talk to @Senators fans about the team’s youth movement.https://t.co/JdXDBFNOPI
— CTV Ottawa (@ctvottawa) October 24, 2018
“It was hilarious because I mentioned his name like, twice in the interview,” said Katz, a 28-year-old, second-year interactive media design student. “I was a little embarrassed but it’s all in good fun.”
Lajoie then showed the students a picture of teammates Craig Anderson, Bobby Ryan and Mark Stone before brandishing a picture of himself. Even though he was standing right in front of them, they still didn’t put it together.
“They showed the picture of the one guy, player number 58 with his helmet on, on the ice,” said Katz. “I said, ‘I don’t know who that is.’ I didn’t really look closely. Then I looked and I looked at the guy talking to me and I realized it was Max Lajoie.”
Lajoie, though, thought it was funny and really enjoyed the experience.
“It was pretty funny to see the reactions because you just don’t know what you’re going to get,” said Lajoie. “I didn’t think anyone would recognize me. A couple people did, which was cool, but it was pretty funny for me to see all the reactions from the people.”
He even gave students a big clue as to who he was and they still didn’t get it right away.
“It took them a while sometimes, even when I put the helmet on and showed them the pictures of me,” said Lajoie, who hopes his new fans come out and support the team this season. “Hopefully they can cheer us on and get out to a couple games, that would be awesome.”
Many expected the Senators, one of the younger teams in the NHL, to finish near the bottom of the league standings this season but as of Nov. 4 the team sits sixth out of eight teams in the Atlantic Division and just four points back from the Eastern Conference’s wild-card spot with a 5-6-2 record.