#43. Senators vs. Rangers Game 5 (Saturday, May 6, 2017)

#43. Senators vs. Rangers Game 5 (Saturday, May 6, 2017)

What was your best day…of appreciating something for the first time, after not appreciating it for the longest time?

My level of fandom for the only Big Four professional sports team based in the city I’ve lived in most of my life – the Ottawa Senators – has been surprisingly volatile for most of that life.

When I was first introduced to hockey during the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Senators were in the playoffs for the first time ever and it was a big thing at my school. They lost in the first round to the Buffalo Sabres; but seeing as I didn’t even really understand playoffs as a concept back then, I didn’t feel anything.

Then, during the 1997-98 season, I recall a game late in the season against Buffalo (again) while the Senators were fighting for a playoff spot. The Senators were up 4-1; then it became 4-2, then 4-3 (on a penalty shot); then Buffalo tied it in the final minutes. And I broke down into big-time crying. That was the moment I became a hockey fan – and at the time, a passionate Senators fan. They ended up settling for a tie in that game and squeaking into the playoffs as the 8th seed. Then…they upset the 1st seed New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs. And it was incredible.1

Next year, the Toronto Maple Leafs were good as well, so I kind of cheered for both teams (and the Leafs went farther). Then, for the next five years (1999-2000 to 2003-04), the Leafs and Senators had their epic playoff rivalry, playing against each other four times in five years. And I just became desensitized to any kind of clear hockey fandom. So as a Toronto-born, I acted like I was a die-hard Leafs fan just to piss off my classmates.

Then, through high school, the Leafs sucked again, and the Senators were really, really good – at a level of goodness that I could not appropriately appreciate at the time2. I liked them, but I wouldn’t have really called myself a true fan of the team (like I would with the Blue Jays). So the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals came and went, the Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks, I was a little sad, but that’s it.

For my undergraduate years, Ottawa entered into a prolonged period of mediocrity, while the Leafs sucked even more badly. So there really wasn’t much to cheer for, period.

Then, during my one Master’s year, 2012-13…well, given that I still liked the Leafs at the time…let’s not talk about that one here.

Finally, by the time I moved back to Ottawa in 2014 for the job, having been to other places the last five years, I became fully cognizant of small and low-profile the place was – and how important having a pro hockey team was to that city. So, I slowly got back to becoming a true Ottawa Senators hockey fan.

Now, after 400 plus words, to the point at hand – this game in 2017.

The Senators were in the middle of a miraculous playoff run that season. They qualified with a meh season in a weak division, lucked out a series win against the Boston Bruins (three overtime wins), and now were tied 2-2 in their series against the New York Rangers.

On a whim, I buy a pair of tickets in the upper bowl for Game 5 and head over on Saturday afternoon with my brother. This was actually the first playoff game for a Big Four sport that I ever attended. And it was…not as rabidly intense as I expected3, but the outcome was freaking awesome.

The Rangers score two quick goals. But the Senators fight back4 and tie it in the last minute. Then in overtime, it appears that the Rangers have scored – but it gets disallowed. And then minutes later, Kyle Turris scores to win the game. The place explodes from that, and I’m thrilled that the Senators are now only one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

The most unreal part of it is: it only took me a thirty-minute drive to go see it.

(NB: The Senators end up beating the Rangers in 6 games, before falling in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a heartbreaking Game 7 double overtime loss.)

  1. They proceeded to lose in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Capitals.
  2. They for sure should’ve one at least one Stanley Cup during that span. Thanks Jeff Friesen.
  3. All through that year’s playoffs, the city/team made headlines for not being able to sell out home playoff games. Which could be attributed mostly to the government instituting a new pay system for the employees that didn’t work and thus caused their paychecks to be delayed for several months to a year (or longer).
  4. It’s a strange kind of feeling when the home team scores and there’s no announcer to announce it. Everyone just kind of sees the puck go into the net in kind-of-slow-motion, and there’s a bit a small delay and then everybody jumps up and starts going crazy once they’ve all seemingly simultaneously realized what just happened.