OTTAWA – You won’t be able to tell on Saturday night, with the flood of enemy sweaters snatching up affordable tickets and driving five hours east, but the Ottawa Senators’ seven-year tumble in attendance has now hit rock bottom.
The Canadian Tire Centre has drawn an average of just 12,050 fans per home game this season, as supporters file in for games that reach just 62.7 per cent capacity, a far cry from even the 30th-ranked attended club, the New York Islanders at a 79.8 per cent fill rate.
They’re driving away from Kanata in droves.
This hurts former Sens great and current Toronto Maple Leafs fan favourite Jason Spezza, who skated in this same building for an average of 19,408 fans before getting traded to Dallas.
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Spezza feels a mixture of disappointment and shock at what has happened since 2012, as the Sens have steadily, clumsily tumbled from the sixth-best home draw in hockey to 31st.
“I look at this as a strong hockey community with great fans, and we filled the building every night when the teams were good,” Spezza said Saturday, sitting in a CTC visitors stall he’s getting more used to with each passing season.
“It’s a little bit upsetting to see it like this. You’re not sure what the reasons are or what’s behind it. Hopefully, people can just put everything aside and just come enjoy games.
“This is too good of a hockey city. You don’t want to put it in jeopardy, where people think it’s a bad market. You need full buildings for things to go well, so I’d like to see the buildings full here again because it’s just such a strong hockey community.”
Thankfully, that won’t be an issue Saturday, for a prime-time matchup brimming with individual side stories, role reversals, and — for the visitors — playoff implications.
Sheldon Keefe, whose second hockey life as a coach sprung from the CJHL championship he brought to nearby Pembroke, will have a small army of friends and family cheering him on at Canadian Tire Centre.
“He has strong ties to this community here, and this is important game for him. So, knowing how it felt when you came back, you want to win because you want to have good feelings leaving the rink where you have had good feelings in the past,” said Spezza, who spent time talking with Keefe about their mutual connection to the area.
“We’d like to get him a win, because I know he’s going to have a lot of people here tonight. It kind of culminates him becoming an NHL coach, coming through here now.”
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Only months ago, Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith was in charge of deploying Toronto’s defence corps; Senators top-line winger Connor Brown was fighting for ice time in the Leafs’ bottom six; and the Sens’ new top shutdown defenceman, Nikita Zaitsev, was patrolling the ride side of the Leafs’ back end.
“I don’t think a game like today needs a ton of guys to get their emotion up,” Smith said. “When you have a sold-out crowd and you’re playing Toronto, guys will be fired up and ready.”
So, too, will the fans. The majority will be decked out in blue and white — for better or worse.
In Spezza’s days as a Senator, he figures the split in this barn for the Battle of Ontario was 50/50.
Now, the Leafs’ trips east have resulted in an urgency for the home side to score early in an effort to take the crowd of it.
“Here, when we were the home team and Leafs fans came in, we expected it just because of the Ontario proximity,” said Spezza, who’s been blown away by how well Leafs fans travel.
Toronto ranks third-overall in road attendance (behind Nashville and Calgary) this season, averaging a vocal 17,904.
“Like, it’s really impressive. It’s everywhere we go. We hear cheers when we score goals and the ‘Go! Leafs! Go!’ It’s a real effect, and it helps us on the road. And it’s pretty cool as a player to be on the road and have fans cheering for you,” said Spezza.
Ol’ Vintage then allowed himself to think back to early 2000s, when the interprovincial rivalry had bite and the CTC was rocking on the regular.
“It’s an electric building,” Spezza said, fondly.
“Our playoff runs here, the whole city gets behind you. Really loud. It seems like with most Canadian cities, sometimes the regular-season crowds can be a little subdued. And then as playoffs hit, everybody kind of gets the fever of playoff hockey, and I think Ottawa was probably similar to that.
“There were some electric times here. Sitting in the dressing room and you’re sitting under the stands, so you can kind of hear the rumble of the crowd and it definitely gets you excited.”
Saturday could be one of those rare nights in 2019-20 when vehicles choke the drive to Kanata and the barn comes back to life.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
