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Car horns blared, yet it had nothing to do with the slow crawl out of the Canadian Tire Centre parking lots.
Horns of celebration mixed with screams of delight could be heard as fans of the Ottawa Senators emerged into the heat of the night after a 5-1 romp over the Penguins in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final.
The Cup final now two wins away, they partied like it was 2007. But does anyone care out there beyond our little world?
Beloved within, the Senators, a microcosm of their city – the one that fun forgot, according to the rep – have always struggled to find love and respect outside the region.
Western Canada has its four teams from Winnipeg to Vancouver while the eastern fixation with the Original Six Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens results in the total eclipse of the Sens.
There was never any chance the Senators would become ‘Canada’s Team’ just because they’re the last Canadian club standing in the NHL final four. Yet, there is every chance the country is watching this Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins now that the NHL playoffs boil down to one game per night, east and west alternating a prime time TV slot.
And the first reaction, from fans and media outside the 613 and 819 area codes? That the Sens play a boring style. A 1-3-1 trap that clogs the neutral zone but can result in, as centre Kyle Turris said, the team neglecting to turn on the offensive tap. When Ottawa failed to generate a shot in a roughly 19-minute stretch of play during a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 2, the external media had a field day.
Dave Lozo, writing tongue-in-cheek for Vice, said the Senators are more repulsive than a naked statue of Donald Trump, along with a few other analogies best left unrepeated in a family newspaper. He accused the Sens of being the “first team to intentionally sleepwalk to a Stanley Cup.” Has he seen Erik Karlsson play?
The digital ink was barely dry on that missive when Ottawa launched a first-period blitz on the Penguins in Game 3, an offensive explosion that resulted in a goal at the 48-second mark and three more before the game was 13 minutes old.
The Senators fan base, waiting for just this moment, launched its own counter-offensive, a string of tweets mocking Ottawa’s reputation as hockey’s latter-day, trap-happy New Jersey Devils. This from the official Senators Twitter account: “The boring Ottawa Senators lead 4-0 in the first period.”
Cheeky.
If you think the Senators are defensive, you should hear their fan base, which has been known to punctuate tweets with #trustthesystem, in defence of coach Guy Boucher’s defensive zealotry. In the third period Wednesday, a chant rang out in the upper reaches of the Canadian Tire Centre as the romp ensued: “1-3-1! 1-3-1!”
For Sens Army, the battle for respect is ongoing. Their team finally gets on a big stage and critics focus on the Senators “luck” and attendance issues in the early playoff rounds. Now it’s their style of play, which is clearly not for all tastes.
Winger Bobby Ryan makes no apologies for it.
“Critics and ratings be damned at this time of year,” said Ryan, reborn in the post-season after struggling in the regular season.
Their staunchest defenders would admit the Senators missed an opportunity in Game 2 when the Penguins were down to five healthy defencemen, already missing their best D-man, Kris Letang. Ottawa was too cautious in a scoreless game, only turning on the attack after Pittsburgh scored late in the third period.
Adjusting, finally, the Senators started Wednesday “like gorillas coming out of the cage,” to paraphrase goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics after Canada’s ambush of Russia.
Boucher had all but admitted having too much respect for the Penguins to try to play an aggressive style.
“It’s the Stanley Cup champions on the other side,” Boucher said. Yes, but wounded. And reduced.
No playoff team in the east plays with more energy than the Senators – it just happens they use that energy to check like demons. How long this lasts is anyone’s guess, but the best-before date is perhaps sometime in June.
This is a tight group, and plays like one. As Tom Gulitti of NHL.com observed of the Senators players, “it looks like they’re having a lot of fun while almost everyone else obsesses over their system.”
What is it about Ottawa hockey teams and the years ending in the lucky Number 7?
The year 1927, when Canada was turning 60 as a nation — the Senators recorded their last Stanley Cup win; 1997 was their first modern day playoff appearance, 2007, a Cup final berth and now 2017 . . . .?? The potential for Canada’s 150th birthday party is off the charts.
“We know we belong here,” said defenceman Marc Methot, who has been a beast in this series – as has Dion Phaneuf.
Their fans know they belong, too.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
Horns of celebration mixed with screams of delight could be heard as fans of the Ottawa Senators emerged into the heat of the night after a 5-1 romp over the Penguins in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final.
The Cup final now two wins away, they partied like it was 2007. But does anyone care out there beyond our little world?
Beloved within, the Senators, a microcosm of their city – the one that fun forgot, according to the rep – have always struggled to find love and respect outside the region.
Western Canada has its four teams from Winnipeg to Vancouver while the eastern fixation with the Original Six Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens results in the total eclipse of the Sens.
There was never any chance the Senators would become ‘Canada’s Team’ just because they’re the last Canadian club standing in the NHL final four. Yet, there is every chance the country is watching this Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins now that the NHL playoffs boil down to one game per night, east and west alternating a prime time TV slot.
And the first reaction, from fans and media outside the 613 and 819 area codes? That the Sens play a boring style. A 1-3-1 trap that clogs the neutral zone but can result in, as centre Kyle Turris said, the team neglecting to turn on the offensive tap. When Ottawa failed to generate a shot in a roughly 19-minute stretch of play during a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 2, the external media had a field day.
Dave Lozo, writing tongue-in-cheek for Vice, said the Senators are more repulsive than a naked statue of Donald Trump, along with a few other analogies best left unrepeated in a family newspaper. He accused the Sens of being the “first team to intentionally sleepwalk to a Stanley Cup.” Has he seen Erik Karlsson play?
The digital ink was barely dry on that missive when Ottawa launched a first-period blitz on the Penguins in Game 3, an offensive explosion that resulted in a goal at the 48-second mark and three more before the game was 13 minutes old.
The Senators fan base, waiting for just this moment, launched its own counter-offensive, a string of tweets mocking Ottawa’s reputation as hockey’s latter-day, trap-happy New Jersey Devils. This from the official Senators Twitter account: “The boring Ottawa Senators lead 4-0 in the first period.”
Cheeky.
If you think the Senators are defensive, you should hear their fan base, which has been known to punctuate tweets with #trustthesystem, in defence of coach Guy Boucher’s defensive zealotry. In the third period Wednesday, a chant rang out in the upper reaches of the Canadian Tire Centre as the romp ensued: “1-3-1! 1-3-1!”
For Sens Army, the battle for respect is ongoing. Their team finally gets on a big stage and critics focus on the Senators “luck” and attendance issues in the early playoff rounds. Now it’s their style of play, which is clearly not for all tastes.
Winger Bobby Ryan makes no apologies for it.
“Critics and ratings be damned at this time of year,” said Ryan, reborn in the post-season after struggling in the regular season.
Their staunchest defenders would admit the Senators missed an opportunity in Game 2 when the Penguins were down to five healthy defencemen, already missing their best D-man, Kris Letang. Ottawa was too cautious in a scoreless game, only turning on the attack after Pittsburgh scored late in the third period.
Adjusting, finally, the Senators started Wednesday “like gorillas coming out of the cage,” to paraphrase goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics after Canada’s ambush of Russia.
Boucher had all but admitted having too much respect for the Penguins to try to play an aggressive style.
“It’s the Stanley Cup champions on the other side,” Boucher said. Yes, but wounded. And reduced.
No playoff team in the east plays with more energy than the Senators – it just happens they use that energy to check like demons. How long this lasts is anyone’s guess, but the best-before date is perhaps sometime in June.
This is a tight group, and plays like one. As Tom Gulitti of NHL.com observed of the Senators players, “it looks like they’re having a lot of fun while almost everyone else obsesses over their system.”
What is it about Ottawa hockey teams and the years ending in the lucky Number 7?
The year 1927, when Canada was turning 60 as a nation — the Senators recorded their last Stanley Cup win; 1997 was their first modern day playoff appearance, 2007, a Cup final berth and now 2017 . . . .?? The potential for Canada’s 150th birthday party is off the charts.
“We know we belong here,” said defenceman Marc Methot, who has been a beast in this series – as has Dion Phaneuf.
Their fans know they belong, too.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
