The Senators Are Ottawa’s Team, Not Canada’s.
TheOcho.ca editor Riley Evans sounds off on the “Canada’s team” phenomenon in the NHL playoffs and why it’s total hypocrisy.
It’s that time again.
The Ottawa Senators are the only Canadian team remaining in the NHL playoffs. It’s not a position the franchise is unfamiliar with. Ottawa has been to the Eastern Conference Finals three times in the past 15 years, more than any other Canadian team in that span.
It’s at this time of year where most Canadian hockey fans jump on the bandwagon and support the last team still fighting to bring Lord Stanley’s cup north of the border. It’s a glowing annual period of national unity where can all forget our normal battle lines and come together around bringing hockey’s greatest prize back to the country that loves it most.
I hate every minute of it.
Let me be the first to say something that many hardcore hockey fans believe, but don’t want to say for fear of criticism — I do not care if a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup unless it is Ottawa. Not one bit.
Call me unpatriotic if you want. It doesn’t bother me at all. My Canada is not defined by one of our two national sports. My Canada is defined by the people who live here, millions of which either cheer for American hockey teams or don’t follow hockey at all. Canada is so much more than hockey, and the idea that someone is unpatriotic if they don’t cheer for the last remaining Canadian NHL team when they could be building towards a better Canada in other ways is beyond ridiculous.
Frankly, cheering for the last Canadian team is more than unnecessary, it’s often hypocritical. In case you haven’t noticed, the seven Canadian NHL fan bases can’t stand each other.
I wake up every morning and spend my time in the shower trying to decide whether I hate Canadiens or the Leafs more, and from what I gather, the feeling is mutual. There’s a similar relationship between the fans in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
Winnipeg is the new team on the block, so there’s not a lot of strong emotions directed towards them. That said, based on Manitoba’s central location in the country, I can imagine that we will all end up hating the Jets equally.
The point is that Canadian hockey fans don’t get along. We spend the entire regular season and (sometimes) part of the playoffs hoping for each other to lose. Despite that, I’m expected to pull a complete U-turn the moment my team is eliminated and cheer for Montreal or Toronto to win?
The thought makes me physically ill.
Cheering for the last Canadian team makes no sense when you really break it down. Yet every year, millions of hockey fans in this country can’t wait to trash their jerseys and put on rival colours, only to rip those colours off when that team loses and go crawling back to their true allegiances. There’s an ulterior motive at play, and I see right through it.
The “team Canada” bandwagon is just that; a bandwagon camouflaged with red and white instead of military green.
Every year, 29 teams don’t get to play for the Stanley Cup. For many people, watching the season play out when your favourite team has been eliminated is depressing. They deal with it by hopping on with another team for a few weeks and hoping that team goes all the way. Nobody likes a bandwagon fan, so we look for ways to disguise our true intentions, and what could be a better mask than the impenetrable veil of national pride? Who would ever question something done for the love of your country, even if it involves defiling the lines of love and hate that you yourself draw at the beginning of every year?
In short, I would, and you’re not doing it this time.
When you’re a true sports fan, you go through everything with your team. It goes without saying that this year, Ottawa Senators fans have been through a lot. Countless one goal games from an offensively challenged team. Health issues and triumphant returns from Clarke MacArthur and the Anderson family. The hockey world’s audacity to claim that Erik Karlsson isn’t the league’s best defenceman. The Ottawa Senators beat it all this year, and they are now one of four NHL teams still playing hockey.
Forgive me if I don’t want a bunch of Leafs fans and bandwagon McDavid-heads thinking that they have the right to share in what this team has accomplished.
I am an Ottawa Senators fan. If you hate our guts during the regular season, that’s more than fine, but you are not welcome to join in on our fun because your team ate a mouthful of our dust.
Better luck next year.
Riley Evans is the production editor for TheOcho.ca, as well as a long-form contributor to many of our sections. You can catch him co-hosting The Ocho podcast every Monday evening alongside Aaron Lieberman. Follow Riley on Twitter at @rnevans93.
