Announce Duchene

In December of 2016, star centreman Matt Duchene requested a trade from the Colorado Avalanche, who were rebuilding at the time. The Ottawa Senators were rumoured to be interested. In January of 2017, Sens fans on Twitter got into the habit of tagging the official Senators account to request that they "announce Duchene." The first recorded tweet of this nature was from user @NotMStone.

"Announce Duchene" was a Sens Twitter refrain for months, as trade rumours continued throughout the 2017 offseason and into the 2017-18 NHL season.

On November 5th, 2017, the Senators did as requested, and announced Duchene.

Unfortunately, the Duchene trade cursed the team. Duchene's arrival coincided not only with the Senators' nosedive in the standings, but also with an unbelievable series of off-ice controversies. To make matters worse, the Senators had given up a first round pick in the Duchene trade, with the expectation that they would continue to be a competive team after nearly making the Stanley Cup Final the previous year. That pick ended up being the fourth overall pick in 2019, after the Senators finished dead last in the standings.

"Announce Duchene" was a humbling experience for Sens Twitter, and a perfect example of "be careful what you wish for." These days, the meme lives on in a more limited capacity. Fans will occasionally try to manifest an acquisition by tweeting "@Senators announce [insert player]." Other versions of the joke include "@Senators announce the Tkachuk contract extension" or "@Senators announce the rebrand" or "@Senators announce relegation." You get the idea. However, given how badly the Duchene trade worked out, it is mostly used as a joke, and Sens Twitter's days of manifesting important player acquisitions through coordinated social media harassment campaigns have come to an end.