‘People don’t care enough to hate them’
There’s a lot to like about the Ottawa Senators, Canada’s last team in NHL playoffs
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.
That is, when he’s not on the golf course.
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 is living in Raleigh, N.C., but still finds plenty of time to cheer on his favourite hockey team.
And with Ottawa as the lone Canadian team 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 outlasted the Oilers, Canadiens, Flames and Maple Leafs does not mean hockey fans all over will start growing a goatee like Karlsson’s and jump on the Senators bandwagon. After all, fan is short for fanatic. And fanatics are a passionate — if not a 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 well-travelled fans or Edmonton’s luck in the draft lottery. However, most people outside of Ottawa don’t know enough — or care enough — about the Senators to hate them.
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 small-market 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 played his best hockey while his wife battles cancer? How can you hate Kyle Turris, who shortly after scoring an overtime winner rushed to an endof-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 hate Karlsson, who has been the NHL’s most entertaining defenceman since Bobby Orr?
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 that people don’t mind the Senators the way they do other visiting teams.
“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. 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 contender with a minus 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 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.
Most Canadians can probably name more Pittsburgh Penguins than Senators. But if Karlsson can continue his Conn Smythe-worthy play and Anderson can remain redhot, 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.