Before the reincarnation of the Sens, were Ottawa residents Leaf fans?
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reckoning
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- Jan 4, 2005
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Montreal was easily the most popular team in the area. They were also easily the most hated team amongst fans of other teams. Nobody here was on the fence about Montreal.
Toronto certainly had a lot of fans here too, but they were a distant second. There just wasn't as much passion about them. During the 70s and 80s, if both those teams had played in playoff games the night before, the Montreal game would be the one most people talked about the next day.
I can also say that while fans here cheered for both the Expos and Blue Jays, the Expos were the team they cared about the most.
Toronto certainly had a lot of fans here too, but they were a distant second. There just wasn't as much passion about them. During the 70s and 80s, if both those teams had played in playoff games the night before, the Montreal game would be the one most people talked about the next day.
I can also say that while fans here cheered for both the Expos and Blue Jays, the Expos were the team they cared about the most.
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I agree with this. I moved from Toronto to Ottawa back in the 80's before the Sens were around and I felt that I was coming into Habs territory, but at the same time there were a lot of Leaf fans around as well. I'm not sure I'd say they were a "distant second". CBC Ottawa usually showed the Leafs, but we had CBC Montreal on basic cable, so the Habs were on as well. The Habs were a lot better than the Leafs back then, which probably helped steer things in their favour. There were a fair number of Bruins fans too.
alright, I see. My follow up question is, did a majority of Habs fans convert to Sens fans after Ottawa had a team again? I lived in Ottawa for a while (early-mid 2000s) and during my time there, people were either Sens or Leaf fans, didn't meet many Hab fans. I must admit a fair amount of the Leaf fans I met there are actually from the Toronto area though.
Sens Rule
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- Sep 22, 2005
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Ottawa also had quite a few fans of Boston and the Red Wings. I think Montreal likely had the most fans but The Leafs had more young fans (when I was in middle school in 1980's) I suspect because the Leafs were on TV on weeknights on Global. Montreal and Toronto were both available on Saturday nights but Montreal was not on weeknights while Toronto was.
The BIGGEST games when I was in middle school were the Leafs-Wings games. And the biggest issue was Clark vs Probert. Was there a fight?
Of course this is a small sample of my personal experience.
Definitely in Ottawa there were far more Expos fans than Jays fans. It was likely 10-1 ratio.
The BIGGEST games when I was in middle school were the Leafs-Wings games. And the biggest issue was Clark vs Probert. Was there a fight?
Of course this is a small sample of my personal experience.
Definitely in Ottawa there were far more Expos fans than Jays fans. It was likely 10-1 ratio.
No.
