Ottawa never really seemed to have their skating legs last night and made life pretty easy for the Leafs defence. To Toronto's credit, they did a fantastic job getting in shooting lanes and forcing Ottawa into deperate attempts on goal. This is an issue that has reached near epidemic levels for the Sens as both Montreal and Toronto blocked a ton of shots.
After going 0/9 on Friday night, the Sens power play struglled again, ending up goaless in three attempts. You have to think this is something Paul MacLean will focus on leading up to Tuesday's game.
It's hard to fault Ben Bishop last night but with Craig Anderson close to a return (perhaps by next weekend) I think it may be time to give Robin Lehner one more look. Has nothing to do with Bishop who has looked solid in his six starts but it's more about giving Lehner another opportunity to prove what he can do. We'll see what Murray and MacLean decide to do in the coming days.
While the product on the ice was pretty ugly, some of the action in the stands was even worse.
I guess it was to be expected but last night was another heated chapter in the Leafs/Sens rivalry off the ice. Speaking from my experience only, I can say that some of the Leaf fans I encountered were reasonable people that were just there to watch a hockey game. But as you would expect from a Saturday night, St. Patrick's Day crowd, there were also a number of guys (fans of both teams) there just to start trouble.
Full credit to the ushers and secuirty in the building for defusing a couple of incidents that could have turned ugly in a hurry.
There's no time for the Sens to dwell on this loss as they have another pivotal game coming up on Tuesday night when they host the New Jersey Devils. Ottawa then has a couple days off before closing out the week with back to back games on Friday and Saturday against the Canadiens and Penguins.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/03/17/bobby-orr-a-big-karlsson-booster
Why not have designated sections for leaf/habs fans?
European soccer does exactly this and produces a much more exciting atmosphere for the fans. Imagine having chants back and forth from across the arena. Everyone would be in more of a positive mind frame because you're not ticked off by what ever teams fans who are winning. Conversation among fans would be better as you can discuss your own teams instead of just chirping back and forth with dumb ass Phaneuf fans. You would simply be cheering your own team on.
If you happen to be a casual hockey fan without a "favorite team", well I say you could group those together on the ends which would create a sort of separation between Sens and leaf fans
Thoughts? Maybe now that Chirp has a media pass he could mention it to some team execs
I like this idea on the surface. Don't know about the logistics of it and how tough it would be from the ticket sales perspective but you'd have to think it's something they are looking at.
Whenever I see how he plays and how dominant he has been this year i can't help but think back to when people were pissed at Murray for drafting him. For that reason, whenever makes a move I always try to curve any skepticism if there is any.
As for the game...
I think you're very right in saying that we didn't have our skating legs last night which caused us to take bad shots or try to force them. Every good chance seemed to get blocked just like the game before.
Also the power play has just been so ugly to watch. They keep trying to set up one timers for Alfie, andthe entire arena knows it's going to him so I'm not surprised they were easy to block. A few weeks ago our power play was sooo beautiful to watch. They were passing through seems all day. Now all they're doing is passing on the perimeter and setting up obvious one timers only to see them get tipped or blocked and shot down the ice.
I also agree it's time to play Lehner. I actually think it's one game too late. Why not give him the second of back to back games. Plus it must be tough facing the habs and leafs back to back as a goalie while getting chirpped in your own barn. But I guess better latr than never. He needs at least 1 or 2 games to motivate him for the offseason
Hopefully we win Tuesday and Boston loses tomorrow... even though it seems like we are going to play them regardless.
Let's hope NJ loses too. maybe boost us to 6th and play a desperate WAS or FLA
GO SENS GO. not the best ending to St Pattys but could have been a shutout like last time...
Good point. There would definitely be many details to iron out. I just think if a European soccer club can do it with fans from many different countries and in a 100,000 seat stadium they could do it here.
I just really think this would make the experience more enojoyable and would most likely raise ticket sales from Sens fans as it would once again attract the people who were scared off by the un-enjoyable blue jersey gatherings
Exactly! You cannot segregate fans, the reason they do this in Europe is to prevent actual riots, which really don't occur in the NHL.
4 times this year I have paid $100 to sit in the 100's and enjoy the game close up. Why can't I do this for a Leafs game?
The organization should really question if the slight revenue increase is worth the feeling of playing on the road, in your own building.
That's honestly not even that bad. I'm a Sens fan living in Toronto, and trying to get tickets to the ACC for a Sens/Toronto game can cost upwards of 2k, for crappy seats.
Scalpers in line will be walking up and down asking for 1k for ONE ticket (crap section).. and yes I've seen some chap buy them. I'm glad Ottawa has one of the lowest ticket prices of all the teams!
excellent point, to the soccer games ive got to see (mostly in the english premier league, its pretty obvious which stands are the away teams. some staduims have had the away stand seats coloured different even. Its well known to everyone that which sections are the away stands since it is well advertised when buying your tickets.
whenever a "tough guy" fan purposely sat in the wrong section.. well he usually never made it out of there in 1 piece. but that will obviously never happen in a hockey game.
and the best part sbout this is, the home arena can chose to limit the size of away fans by giving them a small section.
It's essentially only a discount if you're Leaf fan...
I like it!! Hahaha
Imagine how epic the big rivalry games could become. We could be the first to take it to a whole new level!
More importantly, they don't like to go to these games when the Sens can't seem to beat the opposition. It would be much more fun if the Sens would be able to beat up on the Leafs physically & on the score board, that would attract more fans. Rather than have to sit there & listen to crap when our tean doesn't even show up. Not sure why the Sens always seem to come up so empty against our biggest rival but they do, on too many occassions, why? Why can't our stars like Spezza, Alfredsson or Karlsson have those great games against the Leafs like their stars (Kessel/Lupul) seem to always have against us? Why are their guys up for these games & our guys always seem flat? Why do they pick these games to lay an egg? I don't get it & I can't stand it.
Anyway, you want more Sens fans at the games then give them a reason to go & start playing against them like it was a Stanley Cup final game. Otherwise, don't complain about us not coming to Leaf games, if the players don't show up for the Leaf games either.
As a business owner it would just be a stupid decision not to do this. If someone is willing to pay 30% more for your product, you let them.
And let's be honest if it wasn't for the douche bag leaf fans at the game, there would still be a higher demand from Sens fans for these games. Just like playoff tickets are more expensive because of supply/demand, the leafs/habs/brui n/redwings/ games will be more expensive.
There just is no avoiding it
Twice this year I've gone to a Sens-Sabres game with my friend who's from Buffalo, and we both wore our respective jerseys. Should we have been separated?
And what could possibly stop someone from Toronto, or a Leaf fan in Ottawa, from getting a hold of 'home' seats?
Wouldn't trying to tame Leafs nation so boldly and officially only make them more likely to want to dominate our building, not to mention make us sound insecure?
not meaning to make an excuse but maybe having to play the leafs on the 2nd night of a back to back might be a part reason for fatigue esepcailly if the night before was also a pretty long game.
its just really a shame that hockey fans really dont stand up for their home team by physically not allowing away teams on their territory, i dont mean fight it out or anything. in all sporting events across the world it is done as the above proposed way by separating the crowds, just n.america doesnt.. for whatever reason. if im not mistaken, its even done in the SEL
These fans travel because they can because of the distance but also because you don't get as many games. There are only 19 home games in a premiership season. Here it is a vicious circle, the atmosphere isn't the best at habs/leafs games and fans can easily think they can just wait another couple of days until somebody else is in town, that in turn means less demand for these tickets from sens fans and therefore more opportunity for leaf and habs fans to get them.
Even for the English football team that I support (which is a smaller team, the stadium holds 35,000) we would get 5 or 6000 people traveling the length of the country to watch the team play in an opposition stadium. That routinely doesn't happen here.
Each stadium has a specific allocation of tickets that are available ONLY for fans of the opposition and are sold by the opposition on their website etc. The idea of segregating fans is idealistic and would only be necessary for Montreal and Toronto games but it still won't work.
What you would have is the solid block of Toronto fans sat somewhere and then the usual situation of leaf fans interspersed every where else.
The obvious truth is that if Sens fans don't want as many leaf/habs fans at the games then the sens fans should buy more tickets - but it isn't going to happen. We are a young franchise without an established historic fan base. That will change in time but until it does it's always going to be this way.
It will continue to be used as a tool against the team and the supporters until it changes but trying to force that change isn't going to really work and just makes us look childish.
They went .500 during the Mtl & Leaf games... but they should have had a lot more.
Great going against Pitts after playing Mtl the night before...
If the schedule next season has the Sens playing the Leafs again all 6 games when they are back to back.. then the league is fixed. Once was questionable.. based on the number of games the computers select... but twice it is fixed.
The NHL needs the Leafs in the playoffs. Gets them more revenue. This year they figured to get 12 easy points from the bottom feeding Senators... well they got 6 -- and they are still way out. I wonder what they will try next season?
Good luck kiddo! Show em what you got!
do you think since we are bringing him to bingo, does this maybe lead to ottawa calling up someone like petersson or da costa (or really anyone else since we saw this year when weve called up well deserved hard workers like daugavins and k-hammer) but i really hope its someone that has top 6 talent.
and we can sit anyone of butler condra khammer daug for some games
Sens were lucky to get by the Habs, but luck ran out
against the Leafs.
Bishop has now played 6 straight games, and has done an average job in goal. Anderson did meet with his doctor,who said he needs to be at least a full 4 weeks off, before returning to play. This brings him to March 20th, next Tuesday. Sens play that night vs the Devils.
MacLean should call up Robin Lehner, to play another 2 games
and then start Anderson on March 24th, at SBP vs the Pens.
This will give Anderson at least 6 games, to get ready for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leafs suck
They suck so bad the league had to give them back to backs on all our games to give them a chance.
Them taking over our building just makes me hate them that much more, if that is even possible.
There season is over shortly, that has a good feel to it still.
http://www.twitvid.com/GE4MO
That's the brawl between Sens and Leafs fans.
This is the reason why most sens fans don't show up to these games.
Sad.
this ringing endorsement from Bobby Orr will go along way towards Karlsson snaging the Norris - Orr is very highly respected in hockey circles.
That's great.... get an idea on how he will transition to the pro leagues.
But CBC said with this win they still have a chance to make it? Leaf fans believe in that... they say all they have to do is beat Boston...LOL what fools.
pretty excited for the preds. they are that type of team i neither hate or like, but i would love to watch fisher succeed.
It is sad.... BUT if the Sens season seat holders actually keep their tickets and go to the games.. there will be less Leaf fans...
The fights generally mostly happen during Leaf games... dealing with those drunken arrogant morons -- you need a thick skin.
It really makes me wonder... with the lack of success the Leafs have had... with a lot of their followers not even alive to see their last Cup victory.... what have they to be arrogant about? Beating the Sens last night? That is their joy? They are pathetic....
Brawl is a bit of an exaggeration... That being said this is the exact reason I stopped going to Leaf games. Last 2-3 times I went essentially this exact thing happened, and the time prior to that a fight broke out around my 7 month pregnant sister....Was glad to be able to handle my own/know a high up in Sens Security.
The real sad part is a good portion of our season seat holders are probably Laff fans to begin with. I can recall my first year as a full season seat holder my buddy and I would go down to the 100's to watch the warm ups. One game the couple that owned the seats we were in came early so we moved over for them obviously. The following game was a Toronto game, same couple showed up early... wearing LEAF jerseys!
While one instance doesn't prove that a portion of the season seat holders are Leaf fans, you still you have to wonder how many are.
Would be funny if the ticket scanners had a button on each scanner they could push when scanning opposing teams fans that would automatically charges the person more money if the ticket was purchased via credit card or paypal. Yes I do realize that is a severe breach of the law but hey, one can always dream *evil grin*
If I recall, he was doing alright. Nothing too crazy though. Pretty vanilla season.
I don't know where your getting your tickets from lmao.
It's been 3 years now that I pay off my entire half season ticket package by selling my 2 leaf games and habs games...
It's just not worth it to go to those games...
I don't blame you. I'd do the same. What's the point of going to a home game that feels like a road game?
Any thoughts??
I Was listening to the radio this morning, guy says in reference to Saturdays game...
"Leafs had good goaltending, scored some goals. won the fights"
Then he went on to say he was disappointed in Chris Neil for "going after" Grabovski. Then he said Neil is just a Thug, Which just proves this guy isnt a real hockey fan at all. Typical "I heard it through the grapevine" based opinion.
Just like Karlsson is a "diver" haha
He conveniently didn't mention Ottawa's back to back games, Or adjusting to a new goaltender (which opened up the scoring)
...Just another reason why being a sens fans is the high road I guess.
I'm not a big fan of Gonchar at all. At least this stage of his career.
I can remember a good 5-6 times lately on the PP where he completely couldn't handle the pass at the blue line and the puck usually leaves the zone. At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt, maybe they were bad passes, but it's pretty regular. After a while you gotta find a way to knock that puck down and control it. Im sure Karlsson could find a way.
And he is really bad at races for the puck in our own end. it cost us the game the other day, he is too soft. I thought he might have been injured a few weeks ago because he just slows down skating during races for the puck.
If you aren't doing what you were brought in here to do (elevate the pp) then you might as well hit the road.
The dude has won the cup, he has no desire to battle day in and day out anymore, and it shows.
No sense signing an expired last name for the sake of it
The Sens players (and most likely the Leaf players) do NOT share our passion for these games(hate is a ugly word but most of us are there).If they had half of our passion it would make for a much different game.
But it is true, as much as it sucks, as bad as it gets, WE should all go to these games as much as possible. I was at the Habs game, brutal fans too (although not as bad as leaf fans. I must say I have never been seeing I would most likely punch someone for booing Alfy), I converted the little kid in the seat ahead of me to be a Sens fan! haha His dad was a little pissed when he turned to let us know the Habs sucked (as he is wearing a Habs jersey). We gave him a Sens sign they were giving out at the game. His mom rolled it up so he would not be seen with it. When Kuba scored the OT winner what does the kid do!? Pulls out the sign and holds it up cheering!! haha One at a time... One at a time.
You have to think at thins point it is a bit planned to take over the arena
Ottawa is a federal town and a lot of people who live here aren't from here. For my sins I work in a large federal office and far and away I see more Habs jerseys and Habs fans than Sens fans.
Next would be Toronto and then the Sens. Then you have Canucks and Bruins. A group of us get together and chat about hockey more than we should and of the 7 or 8 of us that do so regularly, I'm the only sens fan in the group.
Given that these guys live hours from their home rink (so do sens fans but that's the fault of the city planners) and tickets at their home arenas are hard to come by, why wouldn't they snap up as many tickets as they can for games against the sens - it's the only time they'll get to see their team live - i don't blame that at all for being there, but i do blame them for being so obnoxious once they get there mind.
So they come over and take over our barn three times a year, doesn' change the fact than when they look at the standings or in the mirror their teams sucks dead donkey dick.
If it's cheaper to drive to Ottawa for the weekend, stay at a hotel for one night and buy tickets than it is to simply get a hold of a ticket in Toronto I wouldn't be surprised a lot of them are actually driving over from Toronto.
I would love to attend a game at the ACC next year and boo Phaneuf every time he touches the puck.
However I also feel we should stop selling Leafs Suck jerseys, it reeks of insecurity; let's define our franchise by our love for it, not the hate of another. We don't sell Habs Suck jerseys and usually MTL_OTT games aren't nearly as obnoxious.
issue with this of course is that you can't just move a season ticket holder...
i think these sens / leafs games are long over due for a big dust up in the stands...
if there was a way to separate them that would be great but the only way to get rid of the leafs fans is to weed them out over the next couple generations. most kids growing up in Ottawa are Sens fans and that is what will fix this over time.
More importantly, if the Sens want to finish at least in 6th place, tomorrow's game against the Devils is a must win. No guarantees and I'm stating the obvious, but Florida sounds a lot better than Boston, Pittsburgh or the Rangers in the first round.
Well, the leafs lose when they need to win and win when they need to lose so we might have a chance lol.
Yeah just like the Habs lol. TonightI'm gonna take for many teams that I don't normally root for. GO Tampa Go, Go Rangers Go, Go Detroit Go, Go Leafs Go ! lol
Another idea would be to make Leafs and Habs games only available to season ticket holders and Sens Insiders. That way the other Habs and Leafs fans can only buy their tickets through tickets exchange or kijiji.
Not necessarily true... you have to remember that the majority of the season ticket holders are corporate buyers. These companies buy season tickets for their clients (and obviously for tax breaks)... and those clients are not necessarily Sens fans. As the Sens are so dependant on companies to buy season tickets, you will almost always see a surplus of opposing team fans in the stands... nothing we can do about it.
Although we have a better team and should win, often we don't. One of the reasons that everyone is pointing to for this is the fact that the Sens, for every Leafs game this year, have to play a back to back, sometimes a third in 4 nights. This is shrugged off by the media as a scheduling anomaly.
It made me think back to last year when I remember the same sort of thing. So, I looked up last years schedule - http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=532260 . Guess what??????!!!!!!
Last year the Sens had to play 5 of their 6 games against the Leafs on a back to back. So in two years of the 12 games against the Leafs, we play back to back for 11 of them.
It doesn't take a statistics major to determine that this is not a random event.
The point is to have more sens fans then leaf or habs fans at home. But that will never happen if everybody thinks like you. Stop being a pussy and stand up for your team!
Hehe good thing you dont post your name... illegal to sell tickets above the list price ;)
Naturally I was stuck in that same rut until I was old enough to grow out of the trend. The senators were a fresh option with current and up-incoming talent.
Hossa was a treat on the PP him and Alfie lighting it up with point a game avg. seasons
That and The rise of Jason Spezza from the OHL was enough for me to wake up
Luckily I broke free haha
I think at this point the hockey itself isn't even important to some of these people. They care about W's and winning the battle of the fans. All the petty shit. Just mindless cheering.
That is why Gonchar is disposable
Kuba and Karlsson have been great together the issue is up front
Or a Brixton / Millwall English soccer game.
Except everyone does it. Just Kijiji any sens/sporting event and ppl sell the tickets above the price. Any enforcement unit could just call up to ''purchase'' those tickets and get people doing it, but they don't.
AS tix were going for like 1k each at some point and those only cost 475.
Weird
Right, I did stand up for my team well I was out celebrating St. Patty's getting bickered the whole night by Leaf fans because my team could only put it in their own net. I'll be at the Devils, Hurricanes & Bruins games. I don't mind paying for reasonable tickets. Not an arm and leg for the shittiest seats in the building against one of the shittiest teams in the NHL. Sorry but I'd rather see 3 games instead of 1 for the same price.
The actual law is very outdated and rarely inforced (depending on the medium they're sold), but if someone reports a complaint on a seller with proof (such as a posting on ebay - which is inforced btw -, classified (less monitored), and other sites (which can be tracked down by IP) law enforcement are obligated by that law to fine the individual and they actually do (even if its a law they do not put any effort in enforcing)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130664656848?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
Brixton don't have a professional team. Millwall's biggest rivals are West Ham - I've been to enough of those games to know that the atmosphere at sens/leafs game is nothing in comparison. At least you aren't fearing for your life here.
All the suggestions to try and weed out leaf fans from the games ignore the one thing that's most important - if more sens fans went to the games there would be fewer leaf fans.
The talk of only opening the games up to season ticket holders and insiders is laughable and makes us look like a bunch of babies.
The leaf fans pay their money and have the right to be there, suck it up and go or don't go.
Yes we would all much rather we were 30th in the standings. In fact lets forfeit all the remaining games of the season - because, you know, we might lose them.
EEEEEEEEYORE !
I think just the Schneider one and I guess they want Danny DeKeyser as well as every other team in the NHL.
My thoughts exactly... now if it happens next season -- then what do we make of that?
A norm? Standard deviation?