Sens back in empty arena, due to Ontario restrictions
No fans allowed at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday
Home, sweet home?
Not really.
The Ottawa Senators will have an empty feeling when they return to Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night to face the Buffalo Sabres.
The Senators would rather be greeted by their fans when they return home and try to stretch their winning streak to three straight against the Sabres, but restrictions in Ontario mean there won't be anyone in the stands.
While the Senators have tried to avoid playing in an empty building, the NHL has decided it can't postpone many more games in Canada, so it looks like this one and next Tuesday's visit by Buffalo will be played with no fans in the house.
From there, we'll see what happens. Word is the rest of the NHL schedule will be released Wednesday.
While the Saddledome in Calgary and Rogers Place in Edmonton weren't full when the Senators paid a visit last Thursday and Saturday, the two Alberta venues were allowed 50 per cent capacity with no food or beverage sales. While it's understood this is being done for health and safety reasons in the middle of the current Omicron wave of COVID-19, it's not something anybody enjoys.
“You can't replace (having fans),” Senators coach D.J. Smith said Monday.
“With our young guys, one of the things we've talked about is getting going at home. You want to be feeling good with the fans and having an atmosphere.
“There's some good, young players that are going to be here for a long time and we want to make this a place that teams don't want to come in to or, when they do come here, they're going to get your best every night. You can say that about Florida right now; teams have been going in there over the last week and they 're losing by a touchdown or so.
“You want to be one of those teams that when you come to Ottawa, and it's a hard building (to play in), but when you're here, you're going to get our best. It's hard to do that without fans.”
Winger Austin Watson noted recently it's like the NHL is two different leagues right now. Turn on a game at TD Garden in Boston and the stands are packed.
At the same time, you can flip to a Toronto Maple Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena and there's nobody in the seats. Teams in Canada
did this all last season and they thought those days were in the past.
Unfortunately, with this fifth wave of the virus, that's not the case and that's why the building will be empty Tuesday.
The province has said it will revisit the current level of restrictions on Jan. 26.
“It's not great. There's a lot going on in the world right now, not just in Canada, but all over the world,” Watson said.
“I think we're seeing a time right now where it's a tad confusing. Some places are open and some places that aren't. The new strain is being treated differently in different places.
“It can be difficult to go from one scenario to the other. It's above our pay grade, there are experts and doctors who are working on this all over the world. But it's a little confusing to us how there can be fans some places, half capacity other places and no fans in Ontario.
“If you think about it too much it can be a little bit frustrating and confusing but we're just going to try to take it day by day and work with what we're given. It's not ideal but you play without fans so you try to create your own energy and hopefully, we don't have to do that too often.”
Trying to build energy isn't easy. There will be fake crowd noise piped into the rink, but that's not the same by any stretch.
“You've got to be a little bit more vocal, and you don't want to make light of any situation, but I think you've got to be a little bit more upbeat,” Watson added. “Just within the group, trying to pump each other up and really just using your voices within the group to help keep the morale up.
“You saw it during that New Year's Day game (in Toronto) and watching the replay of that, it just looks dead. It can feel like that if you don't get engaged into the details of the game and being supportive of your teammates. You've got to try to keep that vocal level up because it's easy to get quiet. So we'll work on that. We'll try to work each other up and be as loud as possible.”
The league is hoping that, by the end of the month, the variant will have peaked and fans will be able to return to every rink in Canada. The players in Ottawa sure hope that's the case.
“It's not great. We love playing in front of fans and we miss them,” alternate captain Thomas Chabot said. “When you go into the buildings in the United States, they're packed and you can feed off the crowd. They bring such an amazing energy.
“We all want to play in front of our fans. We miss our fans a lot, especially because we've been on the road for a little bit.
“It's always fun to come back and see the fans.”
When you go into the buildings in the United States, they're packed and you can feed off the crowd. They bring such an amazing energy.