SEN-TIMENTAL FAVOURITES
They’re Canada’s last playoff hope, and ‘people don’t care enough to hate them’
It’s in the heart of tobacco country, a place known more for barbecue and NASCAR than hockey and Zambonis, where you will find the unofficial president of the Ottawa Senators fan club — when he’s not on the golf course, that is.
Brad Fritsch grew up cheering for Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. But when his family moved to Ottawa around 20 years ago, he bought a Daniel Alfredsson jersey and joined Sens Army. Today, the PGA Tour professional lives in Raleigh, N.C., but still finds plenty of time to cheer on his favourite hockey team. And with Ottawa as the lone Canadian representative still left in the playoffs, he believes the rest of the country should cheer them on as well.
“You’re never going to have as many Sens fans in Canada as Montreal and Toronto, but maybe enough casual fans hook on where Ottawa becomes their second team,” Fritsch said. “Maybe they’re going to love Ottawa because of Erik Karlsson. I think just the exposure is what is going to drive popularity.”
Of course, it doesn’t work that way.
With the drought on a Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup now at 24 years, it’s nice to think the country will link hands and cheer as one.
But just because the Senators managed to outlast the Oilers, Canadiens, Flames and Maple Leafs does not mean hockey fans from all over will jump on the Senators bandwagon.
After all, fan is short form for fanatic, and fanatics are a passionate — if not petty — bunch. It’s not just that they love their team, it’s that they hate every other team.
But there is something different about this year’s Senators. It’s easy to hate Toronto’s welltravelled fans or Edmonton’s luck in the draft lottery. Certainly, fans in Vancouver and Calgary have built up a certain level of animosity.
However, most people outside of Ottawa don’t know enough — or care enough — about the Senators to hate them.
Maybe it’s because they are smack in the middle of Montreal and Toronto, literally playing in the shadow of the Maple Leafs and Canadiens, that the Senators are sometimes overlooked or forgotten. Even within their own market, hockey fans are not necessarily Senators fans.
This is still a relatively new team, having rejoined the league in 1992-93. The Senators don’t have the same rich history as the Leafs or the Habs or even the Canucks. And yet, in the last two decades, you’d be hard-pressed to find another Canadian franchise with more success — though it hasn’t always felt that way.
Ottawa, which reached the Stanley Cup final in 2007, has qualified for the playoffs in 16 of the last 20 seasons and is making its third trip to the conference final. But the Senators, who lost in five quick games to the Anaheim Ducks in the ’07 final, have also failed to advance past the first round nine times during that span.
Heading into this year’s postseason, the team had won just one playoff series in the last nine years. As Fritsch said, “It doesn’t seem that good and it doesn’t seem that bad either.”
Even now, with a mostly no-name roster and facing insurmountable odds against the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators aren’t feeling much hate — nor should they. How can you hate a smallmarket team with a fan base so small it cannot sell out Game 1 of the second round?
How can you hate a goalie in Craig Anderson who has somehow managed to play his best hockey while his wife battles cancer? How can you hate Kyle Turris, who shortly after scoring an overtime winner, rushed over to an end-of-year banquet so he could celebrate with a team of developmentally challenged hockey players?
How can you hate Clarke MacArthur, who came back from a career-threatening concussion, or Marc Methot, who weeks ago looked like he would have to live the rest of his life with one less finger?
How can you even hate Karlsson, who has been the NHL’s most entertaining defenceman since Bobby Orr?
“Who doesn’t admire what this kid has done?” asked former NHL defenceman Larry Robinson, who was born just outside of Ottawa and is the director of player development for the San Jose Sharks. “And the big thing is he’s done it in a manner where he doesn’t take the accolades. Whenever he’s being interviewed, he’s very complimentary. He’s
They are a really good team, but really they are the underdogs. Who doesn’t like an underdog?
just a great kid — not only a great player, he’s a good person, too.”
At the Garrick’s Head, a sports pub in Victoria, general manager Mark Morrison has a rule: No Leafs games on the TV. But the Senators are fair game.
Part of it is because Morrison spent five years living in Ottawa. But the bigger reason, he said, is people don’t mind the Senators the way they do other visiting teams. The best example is Dion Phaneuf, who was polarizing during his time in Toronto, but is now almost invisible despite logging close to 30 minutes a night in a Senators jersey.
“Years ago, during the 2007 run, the place was crazy,” Morrison said. “We had people with jerseys on and stuff like that. We usually have a Sens flag hanging on the outside of the pub. There’s not as many Sens fans as there used to be. It’s a different feel. There’s just not a lot of knowledge. It’s a small-market team. People don’t care enough to hate them.”
Even now, with Ottawa in the final four of the playoffs, the Senators don’t get respect. This isn’t 2007, when Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza formed the Pizza line — named because fans would receive a free slice of pizza every time the team scored five or more goals — and when the team was expected to not only make the playoffs, but challenge for the Stanley Cup.
Aside from Karlsson, there are no stars on the Senators. This is a mostly no-name team, one that finished with the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference and the only playoff participant with a negative goal differential.
After losing 10 of their last 15 games of the regular season, most expected they would lose to the Boston Bruins in the first round. They won in six games. Heading into the second-round series against the New York Rangers, head coach Guy Boucher again positioned the team as underdogs. Again, the Senators won in six.
And yet, with a berth in the conference final, the respect still isn’t quite there.
“You’ll get some fans who will take any opportunity to point out a slight towards Ottawa,” Fritsch said.
“Someone said the other night that Sportsnet is already running the Blue Jays as their top story instead of Ottawa winning the series. What can solve that is a deep playoff run.”
That’s not going to be easy. Right now, most Canadians can probably name more Pittsburgh Penguins than Senators. But if Karlsson can continue his Conn Smythe-worthy play and Anderson can remain red-hot, maybe the Senators can keep surprising.
Maybe, with four more wins, they can even attract fans from across the country to put away their allegiances and hop on board a bandwagon that is always accepting new members.
“They are a really good team, but really they are the underdogs,” Robinson said.
“Who doesn’t like an underdog? They are a meat-and-potatoes-type team that has some talented players. All you have to do is watch that game (on Tuesday) and you’re looking at Bobby Ryan falling in front of pucks and everybody doing their part.
“A lot of people forget that Ottawa was one of the original teams way back in the day. But they’ve built themselves a great franchise and come a long way and deserve whatever is coming to them.
“Yeah, it’s a feel-good story.”