Behind Enemy Lines!

I went to Sunday night's Leafs/Sens game in Ottawa and man, did I ever feel like the enemy.   We purchased our tickets from Capital tickets, the official ticket outlet for the Ottawa Senators.  These tickets were located in section 215 which is behind the visitor’s net for 2 periods.  They were fairly good seats and fairly cheap compared to tickets at the Air Canada Center.  Mind you, I am treated much better at the ACC than I was at the Scotia Bank Place this weekend. 

We already have a huge target on our selves because we are wearing Leafs jerseys and Jessie had her face painted, with the numbers of her current two favourite Leafs players, Phaneuf and Lupul.  I had my usual blue and white Maple Leafs clown wig on.  We also carried with us our fan made sign that read "Phil that net Kessel". (hah get it, “Phil” like “Fill” I crack myself up sometimes.)

I was surprised that the 1st person I seen on Sunday happened to be a Leafs fan from Thunder Bay.  Mind you, he was crazy, and he might have been high on drugs.  He told us how he was going to the game and that he was suppose to take his grandson, but his grandson was being punished for being caught smoking weed, and was not allowed to go to the game. 

We were on our way out of the hotel, when in the main lobby, someone shouted "You are in the wrong city, you must have taken the wrong exit off that highway".  I shouted back that the Sens would have to score 1^st to take the crowd out of the game tonight.  The guy snickered and that was the end of that.

Jessie in the Senate Club toasting to our fun adventure

Then we were on our way to the game.  We had reservations at the Senate club located underground in the Scotia Bank Place.  This is a buffet style restaurant and the food was fairly good.  After dodging the odd comment and strange looks, we finished eating and paid our bill.    At this point, the excitement hasn’t kicked in yet.   

My friend Kendra and her girlfriend Dani ended up getting tickets to the game, and we met up with them in the 200 level.  We made our way to our seats and figured we had got pretty good seats.   Once I walked out to the seats, the excitement kicked in.  This was the 5^th time I have been to a Leafs/Sens game.  The 1^st one I ever went to, was in Toronto and was game 2 of the 1^st round in the 2003-2004 playoffs.  The Leafs won that game 2-0, Belfour getting the shutout.  After that the Leafs haven’t had much luck with the Sens in games that I had been in attendance, losing 3-2 in the 1^st ever shootout , 7-2 and 8-0.  I was hoping the curse would be broken Sunday night.

View from our seats

We were only 4 rows from the edge of the 200 level.  Jessie and I walked over to the edge and looked over.  It was only a 10-15 foot drop, and you could easily have a conversation with someone in the 100 level.  It was Heritage jersey night in Ottawa.  There were retro jerseys all over the place with that big “0” on the front.  One guy in the 100 level said to me when I was looking down “Hey man, you have a stain on your jersey” and I chirped back “What does that 0 stand for on your jersey?  Doesn’t it mean 0 cups?” he smiled and said, “That’s a view good one!” The funny thing really, was the Sens have 11 Stanley Cups.  This fan is such an idiot that he didn’t even know his own team’s history.  Mind you, only a handful of people today seen the last Sens Stanley Cup since it was back in 1926

Jonas Gustavsson on the ice during pre-game warm-up

The players made their way out to the ice for the pregame warm-up, and the cheers started ringing through the building.  I have to tell you, being in an away building, and the Go! Leafs Go! chants are louder than that Go! Sens Go! chants is an amazing noise to be heard.   The Sens would definitely need to score first to take the crowd out of this game.   It was hard to tell at 1^st where I actually was.  Pretty much the entire upper bowl was Leafs fans and about half the lower bowl was Leafs fans.  It was a sea of Blue and White. 

The 1^st period was alright.  The Leafs seemed to be chasing the puck a lot, and couldn’t keep control of it much.  Toronto did manage to score 1^st on a power play goal by MacArthur.  The Sens tied it up though before the end of the period. 

During the 1^st intermission, Kendra and Dani came to join us in our section.  Our row had been empty throughout the 1^st period, so they thought they would come watch the second period with us.  About a minute after they sat down, the usher came over and very rudely asked to see their tickets.  Of course they didn’t have tickets for that section.  I told the usher that they were just from the other section over there and pointed to their section, and before I could finish what I was saying, she cut me off and said “I know, why do you think I asked to see their tickets?”  As Kendra and Dani were leaving Jessie turned to me and said “It’s because we are Leafs fans” in a very jokingly manner and the usher turned around and snipped back saying “No, actually it’s because they didn’t pay for 200 level seats.” I asked her where the people that paid for these seats were, and why my friends couldn’t sit here until the people came to claim their seats, if the seats had even been sold.

 I figured it was in my best interest to not get into an argument with this girl, but Jessie said to me as the usher was leaving that they don’t treat us like this in Toronto.  The usher stepped back down and cut in again and said, “Actually they do, I have been there before for a game”.  It’s funny that she said that, because I use to work at the Rogers Center and they actually encouraged you to move down after the 7^th inning if seats hadn’t been sat in all game.  And I’m not talking about moving from 500 level to 300 level, I’m talking about 500 level to field level.  I can understand them not allowing this in Scotia Bank Place, but the way the girl talked to us was unexceptional on a customer – business level.

About 5 minutes into the 2^nd period a few young men came and sat in our row.  We decided that we weren’t going to let this ruin the game for us, so we turned our attention to the game.  Every time that Kessel touched the puck Jessie would wave her sign around and yelled.  The same usher came down and told Jessie that she was not allowed to wave her sign while play was still going.  Jessie instantly questioned the girl about the new people sitting in our row.  The usher proceeded to send those people back to their section as well.  After a few minutes the Usher came back down to try and explain to Jessie how things work in Toronto.  Jessie cut her off and told her “I’m trying to watch this game I spent my money on to watch, please leave me alone” and that was the end of our problems with that usher. 

The rest of the game was entertaining, kind of.  The Leafs made it fun in the 3^rd period after falling behind 3-1 on a weak goal let in by The Monster.   MacArthur got his second of the game pulling the Leafs within 1.  That was as close as they would get.   It’s a little disappointing for spending near $800 on this trip.  I would have been fine with just the Leafs loss, but the treatment we got at the Scotia Bank Place was uncalled for.  I don’t believe I will be going back to there.  So Ottawa, next time, I think I will be going to Buffalo.