If the team won and scored 5 or more goals the fans would get a free slice of pizza from Pizza Pizza...
- SensFan25

lots of teams have similar promotions...
Habs if they score 5 goals (win or lose), you get 8 free wings at La Cage Aux Sports (don't even need to have a ticket or be at the game)
Ducks, if they kill a powerplay (sad really), you get free tacos at Del Taco
Sharks, if they win, you get a free small pizza or salad at Round Table Pizza
Coyotes: it depends on the day of the week. On Saturdays when I went, if they win, you get a FREE ticket for any games in the future!

those are the ones I can remember from going to see games in those rinks...

Cap space yes... an owner who is willing to shell out what it takes? Absolutely not. Sorry to say Sens fan but with Uncle Eugene at the helm a Stanley Cup is not coming to Ottawa.
- poopstash

well, going 2-3 rounds in this year playoffs might help for El Cheapo...
But once they move the team to Lebreton Flatts (pretty much downtown for people that don't know), that should open up the wallet...
But that's still 4-5 years away as they have the land approval & plans done but still lots of work to do...

Still, making it to the 2nd round and maybe even further this year, will help get Karlsson to want to re-sign long term. Plus the addition of Chabot & White will also help!

lots of teams have similar promotions...
Habs if they score 5 goals (win or lose), you get 8 free wings at La Cage Aux Sports (don't even need to have a ticket or be at the game)
Ducks, if they kill a powerplay (sad really), you get free tacos at Del Taco
Sharks, if they win, you get a free small pizza or salad at Round Table Pizza
Coyotes: it depends on the day of the week. On Saturdays when I went, if they win, you get a FREE ticket for any games in the future!

those are the ones I can remember from going to see games in those rinks...
- Raven33

I think Montreal started it with the free hat if you score three goals during the game...

The Leafs are 1 Matthews DUI away from finishing 31st in the NHL next year...

See how that works?
- riceroni

Actually not at all.

We have so much offense.

I think Montreal started it with the free hat if you score three goals during the game...
- Queenie_5_hole

really!? never heard of that one! LOL that could be pricey but they rarely score hat tricks...

really!? never heard of that one! LOL that could be pricey but they rarely score hat tricks...
- Raven33

Just for the player who scored the goals though. That was back when a well made custom hat was kind of a big deal. We're talking about chapeaus here.

Actually not at all.

We have so much offense.
- Fakepartofme

Actually, yes.

The Leafs made the playoffs by one point, over two teams.

Something as simple as missing Matthews for one game could have been the difference.

Lame but didn't not expect anything more. Can't wait until game 2 when there will be 5000 empty seats.
- Matthews_Auston

I can't wait until another NHL team is just north of downtown Toronto....!

You are the lame one for trolling an Ottawa Senators blog after your team was eliminated. It shows how sad your life is to go poop on other teams. Sad...
- SensFan25

The guy is a complete tool... He's lashes out at Sens fans because he's angry there's another NHL franchise in Ontario...

You have a friend?

CONGRATULATIONS!
- Stalemate

....

Fair enough. The issue is the Senators are in the 1/4 finals and their fans couldn't be bothered to sell the joint out. You may not think that is an issue, but it is. Ian Mendes, noted Senator fanboy was even discussing this sad fact on lunchtime radio in TO this afternoon.

No doubt the Senators have a passionate fan base. There just is not enough of them. I'll bet half of them are on this site, digging up irrelevant Leaf facts right this moment. It will never change, the is a sad fact
- EugenesAxe

I'm pretty sure its you, along with the many other idiot laff fans that don't get it. The team is what, like 25 years old..? The Blues have been in the league since what, the 60's? and they didn't sell out their first home game of the 2nd round—it least, that is what it looked like on TV... many empty seats. Montreal couldn't even sell out the final at the World Juniors, but I don't hear you or anyone else harping on that fan base. Moreover, attendance in Toronto for juniors (round robin) looked dismal as well. In my opinion, the rink in Ottawa is far too big for its population. The rink in the Peg holds what, 15,000? and its one of the noisest!

You can't use other fan bases as a measuring rod for the Senators fan base, it just won't work. The way the league is headed anyways, pretty soon it'll just be Toronto and Montreal playing for the cup—a two team league and the rest of North America will have forgotten the NHL ever existed, kinda like Lacrosse now.

Toronto was LUCKY to go through the year with the least number of injuries of any team in the league. What Marner missed 5 games? And Bozak 4? Wow.

The Sens played half the year without their starting goalie for god sakes! And that's not to mention the games missed by our other impact players (EK, Stone, Ryan, Methot, Hoffman, Smith etc)

Toronto is also LUCKY to have collected the most loser points of any team in the NHL.

Technically, the Leafs were the luckiest team in the league this season so it makes you look really ridiculous to be talking about other teams being lucky this season.

Toronto was far luckier than Ottawa was to be in the playoffs this season.

Dumbest post of the day. Congrats.
- Charliebox

Missing your starting goalie doesn't mean much when your back-up comes in and performs just as well. Leafs had Andersen recovering from his off-season until December, and no back-up until what, February?

As for the "loser point" argument, those represent points lost, not unfairly earned- the Leafs had a hard time maintaining leads in the first half of the season. OT is also generally a coin toss, but the Leafs had an awful time there this year. If anything, this argument points to a lack of luck on the Leafs' behalf this year, one that resulted in them facing a much tougher opponent than Ottawa in the playoffs, which is the only reason the Sens are still playing, and the Leafs aren't.

Oh well. Maybe go see a playoff game live, the franchise's impending regression means you won't get that chance again for a while.

Missing your starting goalie doesn't mean much when your back-up comes in and performs just as well. Leafs had Andersen recovering from his off-season until December, and no back-up until what, February?

As for the "loser point" argument, those represent points lost, not unfairly earned- the Leafs had a hard time maintaining leads in the first half of the season. OT is also generally a coin toss, but the Leafs had an awful time there this year. If anything, this argument points to a lack of luck on the Leafs' behalf this year, one that resulted in them facing a much tougher opponent than Ottawa in the playoffs, which is the only reason the Sens are still playing, and the Leafs aren't.

Oh well. Maybe go see a playoff game live, the franchise's impending regression means you won't get that chance again for a while.
- Feeling Glucky?

If the Sens were eliminated in round 1 and the Leafs had moved on, I would have been too embarrassed to go into a Leaf thread and run my mouth.

You guys do know that the best way to deal with trolls is not to respond to them right? Just asking because it has been really frustrating reading through a post talking about a good victory only for the whole conversation to be about how the team is not selling out. I would rather they go far in the playoffs than worry about selling out. Leafs and Habs are both out and ok they sell out but again who cares?

Sens fans I know in Ottawa talk about how much they despise the leafs and their fans and to be honest it is not hard to see why.

Nice blog Jared, wish it hadn't migrated to a referendum on attendance and Sent vs. Leafs.

It's great if you can afford to go to a bunch of NHL games and not feel the financial burden as a young person. Good for you. You're a rare breed. Sort of makes those of us who couldn't/can't afford it feel like crap.

It's great if your favourite team sells out constantly, but you're never there, then rant and rave about a crappy Sens fanbase is. Something truly ironic with that.

Personally, I can't afford to go to a bunch of Sens games a year. I also don't really feel like paying an arm and a leg when our owner is constantly penny pinching. I can't speak for all Sens fans, but those are my reasons I am not in attendance all that often. I have more important things to spend/waste my money on as a 29 year old. In a perfect world, I'd like to be at about 10-15 regular season games and all the playoff games. But alas, life doesn't always go that way.

Seeing the attendance last night was embarrassing. No way to sugarcoat it. Logical arguments to why the game wasn't a sell out are fine, but it's still embarrassing to see.

There are thousands of people in Ottawa and the Valley who can easily afford to go to games and then some. You would think you'd fill a building.

Maybe the Rangers and/or Round 2 playoff hockey isn't exactly all that popular right now? There was very little hype for this series if you don't check sports constantly. Round 2 just always seems to start randomly. And then the NHL scheduled Eastern Conference games on the same night. Maybe this stuff plays a role somehow?

If the NHL gave a day or two more in between series to promote and created a more logical schedule for all NHL playoff games, maybe there would have been a few more bums in the seats.

Then you have the old "arena in downtown argument" instead, which is another can of worms. (Which I believe would help attendance in general)

I'm not really taking a side on the attendance issue. It's embarrassing, but there are also reasonable arguments for a certain segment of fans, but not all.

Sens probably played their most complete playoff game last night. Too bad the main talk is attendance.

It's great if you can afford to go to a bunch of NHL games and not feel the financial burden as a young person. Good for you. You're a rare breed. Sort of makes those of us who couldn't/can't afford it feel like crap.

It's great if your favourite team sells out constantly, but you're never there, then rant and rave about a crappy Sens fanbase is. Something truly ironic with that.

Personally, I can't afford to go to a bunch of Sens games a year. I also don't really feel like paying an arm and a leg when our owner is constantly penny pinching. I can't speak for all Sens fans, but those are my reasons I am not in attendance all that often. I have more important things to spend/waste my money on as a 29 year old. In a perfect world, I'd like to be at about 10-15 regular season games and all the playoff games. But alas, life doesn't always go that way.

Seeing the attendance last night was embarrassing. No way to sugarcoat it. Logical arguments to why the game wasn't a sell out are fine, but it's still embarrassing to see.

There are thousands of people in Ottawa and the Valley who can easily afford to go to games and then some. You would think you'd fill a building.

Maybe the Rangers and/or Round 2 playoff hockey isn't exactly all that popular right now? There was very little hype for this series if you don't check sports constantly. Round 2 just always seems to start randomly. And then the NHL scheduled Eastern Conference games on the same night. Maybe this stuff plays a role somehow?

If the NHL gave a day or two more in between series to promote and created a more logical schedule for all NHL playoff games, maybe there would have been a few more bums in the seats.

Then you have the old "arena in downtown argument" instead, which is another can of worms. (Which I believe would help attendance in general)

I'm not really taking a side on the attendance issue. It's embarrassing, but there are also reasonable arguments for a certain segment of fans, but not all.

Sens probably played their most complete playoff game last night. Too bad the main talk is attendance.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

Well written and good points

You guys do know that the best way to deal with trolls is not to respond to them right? Just asking because it has been really frustrating reading through a post talking about a good victory only for the whole conversation to be about how the team is not selling out. I would rather they go far in the playoffs than worry about selling out. Leafs and Habs are both out and ok they sell out but again who cares?

Sens fans I know in Ottawa talk about how much they despise the leafs and their fans and to be honest it is not hard to see why.
- kratosmr

Ok so just to recap small market teams and newer teams (and hence newer small market teams) don't draw as much as long established big market teams. Shocking revelation. Now we can move on...

Go Sens Go!

Nice blog Jared, wish it hadn't migrated to a referendum on attendance and Sent vs. Leafs.
- airjan23

I couldn't agree more.... Yet, the migration of topic falls squarely on the shoulders of one of the most smug and arrogant fan bases in all of professional sports—Toronto maple leaf fans...

Best of luck in the game tomorrow and may the better team win; which of course, I hope is us...

Ok so just to recap small market teams and newer teams (and hence newer small market teams) don't draw as much as long established big market teams. Shocking revelation. Now we can move on...

Go Sens Go!
- Queenie_5_hole

Well said ...!

If the Sens were eliminated in round 1 and the Leafs had moved on, I would have been too embarrassed to go into a Leaf thread and run my mouth.
- forbetterorWORSE

Rightfully so.