There have been more blue and white nights either welcome to the Canadian has been drawing in recent years that the inhabitants do not remember before a rebuilding battle of Ontario.
To tell the truth, fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have rarely encountered a lot of opposition while picking up tickets on the secondary market and transforming the building into a house far from home.
Ask any seasonal ticket medium from Ottawa senators, why it was the case and they tend to indicate a dilemma of chicken or confusing egg: games against leafs (and Montreal Canadians) have become such an unpleasant experience as much that many have simply started to withdraw. But if the most passionate fans choose not to be in the building, how does the pendulum never swing in the other direction?
“This has been permanently nourished by himself,” said Kevin Lee, holder of the senators’ season ticket since 2010-11. “Some fans are bored by the opposition, then they sell (tickets) wherever and it ends up being more fans of thab or leafs there. As, I understand. It’s really weird to be in the home building, but it’s like an outside game.”
Chris Allard, originally from Ottawa and another holder of the season of around 15 years, recognizes that he has often missed the visits of the Leafs in the past. But he felt a change of attitude since Michael Andlauer bought the team in September 2023 and thinks that the organization’s approach to distribute qualifying tickets will allow fans to create an appropriate advantage on ice in his next series.
“I think things have changed with Andlauer,” said Allard. “They really make it difficult to sell tickets to other types of fans and I am absolutely for that. Listen, I want us to be in an environment where we had more faithful fans, and I think we are there.
“Everyone I talk to is so excited for this series and everyone joined this idea that for once, we can have a barn full of meaningful fans instead of a barn full of leaf fans.”
Senators and their fans actually behave before their first appearance in the playoff series in eight years.
It started with the organization offering a strategy to get as many tickets in the hands of its seasonal ticket base. Not only were these customers to buy their usual seats from a discount compared to the general sales prices, but they also had the possibility of obtaining tickets for up to two additional seats for all the playoffs.
This was followed by a third wave of sales earlier this week where holders of the season could buy up to four individual tickets for each eliminatory match to distribute friends and family directly, although with a warning – these tickets cannot be transferred. This means that they cannot be placed on secondary ticket websites and easily swallowed by fans more likely to be encouraged for Leafs.
“What we do is first take care of our owners of seasonal seats and add new seats owners,” said Senators President Cyril Leeder. “I think it’s the best medication. The way to get your building full of your own fans is to have lots of seats.
This should lead to an Ontario battle that seems and seems different from previous versions when the series travels to Ottawa for match 3 Thursday after the matches on Sunday and Tuesday in Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
The last visit to the regular Leafs season in Ottawa came on January 25 and included the senators striker Shane Pinto, saying to the “hockey evening in Canada” that the number of blue sweaters in the crowd “pisses us off”.
“I have the impression that it is quite difficult to stop,” said teammate Drake Batherson this week. “I mean, everywhere in Canada, wherever this team goes, there are leaf fans everywhere.”
However, there is a growing feeling of challenge in Ottawa.
“I said that right when we won, it will take everyone,” said Captain of Senators Brady Tkachuk. “It will take, not only the guys of this room, the people of this building, hockey operations, it will take this whole city. It will provide all the support, all the passion we prospere.
“In an ideal world, we hope that it would be 17,000 or 18,000 fans of all the senses.”
There certainly seems to be a basic movement in progress.
I refuse to normalize the sale of eliminatory tickets for leafs fans as an acceptable practice of our fans base. This is the only time the Fandom should take place above all. There are many sense fans ready to pay above the face, no excuses not to make the effort to put them in hand
– Kevin Lee (@bringbacklee) April 15, 2025
Lee used his account X to encourage his colleagues fans to regain the cause by ensuring that the qualifying tickets enter into their hands. He even offered to serve as a broker during the window where seasonal seats have been authorized to buy individual tickets earlier this week and were personally managing the exchange of money and tickets from a list of interested fans of the senators he organized.
“It has sort of exploded,” said Lee. “I was just trying to get fans in the building, get this much higher percentage for Ottawa and I hope it’s a good time for the home team.”
In the end, there is no way to fully tackle the system.
If a season holder wants to make money quickly on the secondary market, it will not be difficult. The original batch of tickets sold to this group can be transferred to other email addresses and has been reduced. A seasonal seat support said Athletics He bought his Bower Bowl tickets for the Leafs series at $ 175 each, which includes the parking lot, while the following wave of tickets published by the team saw this week of Bowl seats higher than the price of $ 300 each. Friday morning, the Bower-Bowl tickets being registered on Stubhub for match 3 varied from $ 652 to $ 1,693 each.
Although this can make some holders of seasonal seats to sell a match in the series attempts to compensate (or even cover) the costs of the other two, Allard urges these fans to think twice before making this decision.
“As a seasonal seat holder, the senses in my opinion gave us the opportunity to buy tickets at a reduced price. This is a luxury,” he said. “I don’t think they give us discounts so that we can turn around and try to make money. They try to give us the opportunity to be fans of Real Sens and to support our team. Like long -term ticket holders, it is important for us to rally to our team and support it as best we can.
“If it was a real game of money, I mean that the senses could simply sell the tickets for more (money) directly to the fans themselves.”
(Photo of Canadian Tire Center before a game of senators in 2021: Chris Tanouye / Getty Images)
