OTTAWA – They are not discussing the dangerous-looking power play or Erik Karlsson’s brilliance or a quietly effective night for Craig Anderson.
It is the morning after an emotional playoff win in the nation’s capital and all the talk on the local sports radio station is devoted to what wasn’t present in a 2-1 victory by the Ottawa Senators to open the second round.
Namely, the fans.
There were about 2,000 empty seats in all at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday – noticeable swaths of unclaimed real estate in both the upper and lower bowls. It would be a stunning sight to see in any of the eight NHL cities where there are still games to be played.
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In a Canadian one? Almost unimaginable.
Karlsson, the straight-talking Sens captain, was asked on Friday if he noticed the poor turnout for a game he described as the team’s best of these playoffs.
“Yes,” he replied.
So, what did he make of it?
“It is what it is,” said Karlsson. “That’s something that we as players can’t control. We go out there every day to do the best that we can for this team and this city. Whatever reason it was for not being full, again, I have no knowledge of.
“It’s not something that I control or it’s not my department. It is what it is, but I feel like we have great support all over the city and we have great fans.”
The truth of the matter is that this was not some one-off or random surprise. You can point to the fact the arena is inconveniently located in an abandoned cornfield well west of the city, or that parking has been bumped from $20 to $30, or that the game started at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 7:30 p.m.
But attendance has been an issue here all season.
The Senators didn’t sell out the home opener back in October against the Toronto Maple Leafs – the night where Auston Matthews made his four-goal debut. They had 11,000 people for a game against Arizona a couple weeks after that and averaged 16,477 across the 41 home dates overall, their lowest total in any of the last 15 seasons.
That same number – 16,477 – was the announced attendance for Game 1 of Round 2 against the New York Rangers.
The building was still quite loud, especially in the final four minutes after Karlsson scored the eventual winning goal. But overall it was not the sort of atmosphere you would expect given that the home team has a chance to reach its first conference final in a decade.
“It’s one of those things where you see it in warmup and right when the start of the game is and then it’s just out of your mind,” said Anderson. “You don’t even think about it after that. Earlier start time than normal for our weekday games so I just chalked it up to (the thought) that people just weren’t here yet.”
Many never came.
They should do better in Game 2 with a 3 p.m. start on Saturday – a scan of Ticketmaster showed many fewer available seats, as of Friday afternoon – but there is guaranteed to be at least one additional home playoff date beyond that.
Ticket sales have been a hot-button issue behind the scenes for the organization, with emails between owner Eugene Melnyk and former chief marketing officer Peter O’Leary on that topic included in a lawsuit O’Leary filed last month alleging that his termination was in breach of contract.
Melnyk also replaced longtime president Cyril Leeder with Tom Anselmi in January, citing a need to change how the team is marketed in the community.
“We need to reinvigorate the brand, we need to re-position things and re-brand,” Melnyk told reporters. “There’s a ton of work to do. Cyril was here for 25 years, we came to a crossroads and it was simply time for a change.
“I don’t know exactly what was missing, but there was something missing is the best way I can answer it.”
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My brother-in-law, Alex, just happens to share in season tickets here and he’s detected a malaise among the fan base. He has friends who have chosen to start spending their disposable income on the CFL’s RedBlacks instead and knows others affected by the federal government’s flawed new pay system.
Anecdotally, there are all kinds of different contributing factors to the unfilled seats.
When you consider where the team is, and how good they looked in beating the Rangers in the opener, you’d have to think the enthusiasm will return. The Sens have growing aspirations and one of the top players in the world in Karlsson, who just happens to be two years away from unrestricted free agency.
Head coach Guy Boucher wasn’t asked to address the attendance issue specifically following Game 1, but he had a telling comment when talking about his No. 1 defenceman.
“Our fans have to appreciate what we have here,” said Boucher.
