Ottawa vs. Leafs fans: How the Senators are trying to stop a blue-and-white takeover

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There have been more unwelcome blue-and-white nights at Canadian Tire Centre in recent years than the locals care to remember ahead of a reborn Battle of Ontario.

Truth be told, fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have rarely met much opposition while scooping up tickets on the secondary market and turning the building into a home away from home.

Ask any Ottawa Senators season-ticket holder why that’s been the case and they tend to point to a confounding chicken-or-egg dilemma: The games against the Leafs (and Montreal Canadiens) became such an unpleasant experience over time that many simply started opting out. But if the most passionate fans choose not to be in the building, how does the pendulum ever swing back in the other direction?

“That’s definitely fed upon itself,” said Kevin Lee, a Senators season-ticket holder since 2010-11. “Some fans get annoyed by the opposition and then they just sell (tickets) wherever and it ends up being more Habs or Leafs fans there. Like, I get it. It’s really weird being in the home building, but it feels like an away game.”

Chris Allard, an Ottawa native and another proud season-seat holder of about 15 years, acknowledges that he often missed the Leafs visits in the past. But he’s sensed a shift in attitude since Michael Andlauer bought the team in September 2023 and believes the organization’s approach to distributing playoff tickets will allow fans to create a proper home-ice advantage in its upcoming series.

“I think things have changed with Andlauer,” Allard said. “They really make it tough to sell the tickets to other types of fans and I’m all for it. Look, I wish that we were in an environment where we had more loyal Sens fans, and I think we’re there.

“Everyone I talk to is so excited for this series and everyone’s kind of rallying around this idea that for once we may have a barn full of Sens fans instead of a barn full of Leafs fans.”

The Senators and their fans are effectively making a stand ahead of their first playoff appearance in eight years.

It started with the organization coming up with a strategy to get as many tickets in the hands of its season-ticket base. Not only were those customers able to buy their usual seats at a discount compared to the general sale prices, but they were also given the ability to secure tickets for up to two more seats for the entirety of the playoffs.

That was followed by a third wave of sales earlier this week where season-ticket holders could purchase up to four individual tickets for each playoff game to distribute directly to friends and family, albeit with a caveat — those tickets can’t be transferred. That means they can’t be put on secondary ticket websites and easily swallowed up by fans more likely to be cheering for the Leafs.

“What we’re doing is taking care of our season-seat owners first and adding new season-seat owners,” said Senators president Cyril Leeder. “I think that’s the best medicine. The way to get your building full of your own fans is to have it full of season-seat owners. And that’s part of what we need to do here. And playoffs will help us increase that season-seat base.”

It should result in a Battle of Ontario that looks and sounds different than the previous versions when the series shifts to Ottawa for Game 3 on Thursday following games Sunday and Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

The most recent regular-season visit by the Leafs to Ottawa came on Jan. 25 and included Senators forward Shane Pinto telling “Hockey Night in Canada” that the number of blue sweaters in the crowd “definitely pisses us off a little bit.”

“I feel like it’s pretty tough to stop,” teammate Drake Batherson said this week. “I mean, anywhere in Canada, anywhere that team goes, there’s Leafs fans everywhere.”

Still, there’s a growing sense of defiance in Ottawa.

“I said this right when we clinched, it’s going to take everybody,” said Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. “It’s going to take, not just the guys in this room, the people in this building, hockey ops, it’s going to take this whole city. It’s going to take all the support, all the passion that we thrive off.

“In an ideal world, hopefully it’d be 17,000 or 18,000 all Sens fans.”

There certainly seems to be a grassroots movement afoot.

I refuse to normalize selling PLAYOFF tickets to Leafs fans as an acceptable practice by our fanbase. This is the one time fandom should come above all. There are plenty of Sens fans out there willing to pay above face, no excuses not to make the effort to get it into their hands

— Kevin Lee (@BringBackLee) April 15, 2025

Lee has been using his X account to encourage fellow fans to take up the cause by making sure playoff tickets get in the proper hands. He even offered to serve as a broker during the window where season-seat holders were allowed to buy individual tickets earlier this week and wound up personally handling the money and ticket exchange from a list of interested Senators fans that he curated.

“It kind of blew up,” Lee said. “I was just trying to get the Sens fans in the building, get that percentage a lot higher for Ottawa and hope it’s a good time for the home team.”

Ultimately, there is no way to completely fail-safe the system.

If a season-ticket holder wants to make a quick buck on the secondary market, it won’t be difficult. The original batch of tickets sold to that group can be transferred to other email addresses and came at a significant discount. One season-seat holder told The Athletic he purchased his lower-bowl tickets for the Leafs series at $175 apiece, which includes parking, while the subsequent wave of tickets released by the team this week saw upper-bowl seats priced as high as $300 each. As of Friday morning, the lower-bowl tickets being listed on StubHub for Game 3 ranged in price from $652 to $1,693 apiece.

While that may make it tempting for some season-seat holders to sell one game in the series to offset (or even cover) the costs of the other two, Allard is urging those fans to think twice before making that decision.

“As a season-seat holder, the Sens in my opinion have given us the opportunity to buy tickets at a discount. That’s a luxury,” he said. “I don’t think that they give us discounts for us to turn around and try to make money off of it. They’re trying to give us an opportunity to be real Sens fans and support our team. As long-time season-ticket holders it’s important for us to rally around our team and support it as best we can.

“If this was a true money play, I mean the Sens could just sell the tickets for more (money) directly to the fans themselves.”

(Photo of Canadian Tire Centre ahead of a Senators-Leafs game in 2021: Chris Tanouye / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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