5 days Ago By Bruce Deachman
In the end, neither cloud nor cold nor rain, nor an enormous 0-and-3 hole, nor the team’s flag flying at half-staff at city hall, nor even that double-minor penalty — in overtime, no less — could stay the Senators from the (not-so) swift completion of their appointed rounds. More specifically, Round 1, Game 4. Elgin Street, a.
k.a. Sens Mile, was finally able to flash a Sens smile late Saturday night, as fans, shouting “Go, Sens, Go,” poured out of bars and restaurants following Ottawa’s 4-3 overtime win against the love-them-or-loathe-them Leafs — in the process not simply avoiding a clean sweep but also adding some tinder to fans’ embers of optimism.
“I still have hope for a reverse sweep,” said Mark Armstrong, who, along with three friends, watched the game from bar level at Manor Lounge. “The Leafs are known for choking. We still have hope.
” One of his friends, Ryan Verhoek, agreed. “If there’s any team that’ll lose after winning the first three games, it’s the Leafs. That’s what I’m holding on to.
” Even Kiel Coyle, a 41-year-old Leafs fan (a fan since birth, he noted), who watched the game from a chilly and damp outdoor perch at Sir John A. Pub, admitted to some distress. And that was BEFORE the game had even started.
“I won’t be comfortable until we get out of the first round,” he said, quiet acknowledgement of the grim truth that the Leafs have only won one playoff series since 2004. “I feel safer this year because we’re a more complete team, but it’s really hard to let go of trauma. Until that final bell goes, nothing is done.
” Seats were at a premium throughout the Mile. By 6 p.m.
, an hour before puck-drop, the outdoor patio at Sir John A. Pub was about all that remained for diehards — great news for the nearby Dollarama, which did some brisk trade in $1.49 rain ponchos and $5 fleece blankets.
Sarah Wallis and Sarah Boyd, proud new owners of said blankets, were among those who braved the elements to be part of the Mile’s atmosphere, splitting a bottle of red that Wallis said brought “a level of class” to the otherwise sodden evening. The pair have been fans throughout the Sens’ seven-year playoff drought, with Wallis admitting — quite convincingly — that she was “just happy to be here,” although adding that not being swept was also on her playoff bucket list. The long gap between playoff appearances is what brought the two Sarahs out in such inclement weather.
“This is the first time in eight years they’ve been in the playoffs,” said Boyd, “and we have to absorb the energy for at least one game.” Boyd added that she was delighted to see Ottawa play against the Leafs. “All my brothers are Toronto fans and, as the littlest sister, I like to be a bit of a s—-disturber.
So this is fun.” There was more than just a little s—-disturbing going on Saturday night. One fan at Deacon Brodie’s Pub, Matt LaFrance, wore his Sens sweater bearing a #19 and the name TUCK FORONTO emblazoned across the shoulders.
It was unfortunate that his friend, Jason, who owns the accompanying #67 jersey with LEAFS SUCK on the shoulders, wasn’t with him; when the pair walk alongside one another in their Sens attire, Leafs fans are reminded of the 58 years that have elapsed since 1967, when their team most recently held the Stanley Cup aloft. At the Sir John A. patio, Leafs fan Keegan Roughsedge started a “Go, Leafs, Go” chant, interspersed with taunting calls of “Ull-mark!” directed at Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark, after Toronto defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson tied the game late in the third period.
A couple other fans of the blue-and-white joined in, though the rallying cry was short-lived, with the responding boos of the larger contingent of Sens fans drowning them out. Across the street, the alarm of a car decorated with Maple Leafs flags kept going off throughout the evening. I admittedly never noticed anyone purposely making that happen, though that is the simplest explanation.
Following the game, a handful of Sens fans stood on the Elgin Street curb, verbally directing their versions of “tuck foronto” loose on a Leafs fan on the sidewalk opposite who had been giving them the gears throughout the night. The Toronto fan returned their late-night volleys by repeatedly pointing to his watch and shouting “Leafs in five!” Nearby, Damien Mann, likely more warmed by the Sens victory (and, dare I hazard, some liquid fortification) than by his dollar-store rain poncho, promised a Senators-in-seven series outcome, seemingly unconcerned by the intervening Games 5 and 6 to come. Not everyone, however, could brave the thought of putting their emotions on such public display.
Longtime fan and Sens Mile resident Tina Perrier watched the game with her partner, Jeff Gore, from their nearby condo before heading to Deacon Brodie’s for a post-game pitcher. The tension she knew she’d feel in a possible elimination game, she said, would be too great to share in public. “We were here on Sunday to watch Game 1,” she said, “but I get very anxious.
I’m older, I’m menopausal, my heart palpitates and I get nervous, so I needed to be at home. “But I had faith.” Perrier, who’s been a Sens fan since the beginning — she attended the team’s opening game against Montreal in 1992 — said she’s not content that the team merely made the playoffs or won’t lose in a sweep.
“I’ve lived on Sens Mile for twentysome years,” she said. “It’s a vibe, it’s an experience, and I want more.” Perrier added that she predicted at the series’ outset that Ottawa would defeat Toronto in six games.
That obviously can’t happen now, but she promised on Saturday that there would at least BE a Game 6, back here in Ottawa. “Abso-Stutzle-ly,” she said. bdeachman@postmedia.
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