Speculation: Sens attendance projections for 19-20

What number of fans (freebies included) do you feel the Sens will average in 19-20?


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NorthCoast

Registered User
May 1, 2017
1,250
1,167
It's about marketing or lack there of.

The marketing group of this team should be taking light jabs at their rivals though I believe it is not allowed.

I have said this before, when the team was in the playoffs for so many years out of the last 15 years, it is a successful team. I know some others can say it was not the team they wanted... but the way I see it, it should have swayed a lot of the younger generations (kids of the habs and leafs parents) to be hardcore fans. In my opinion, it has not.

In the end, I think the cheap marketing needs to be moved up a notch and everyone who is a real fan of this team should speak highly of the future.
Every time I am travelling and I bump into someone at an airport or in a Tim's lineup I stop and say 'nice hat' or 'nice jersey' and start a conversation if I can. There are a few kids in my son's school here (in Toronto) that are fans. I always make sure to tell them that the future looks bright and that how awesome it was when we beat the leafs that game... etc.

The whole recent owner/trades/etc debacle has been hard, but what hurt the most is all the anti-sens (organization/owner/players) sentiment online. This is what will go down in the books as a big hole left to fill.

I do not like to dwell on the ownership issues. He has been a bad owner. For sure. I do have a hard time dealing with the extreme negativity. It is really going to hurt down the line. New hockey fans will have an easier time jumping on the bandwagons of the other teams in the area that are doing better. The effect of this will be seen soon.

Some may say 'yeah, but eff melnyk!, he deserves it!' -- but what it is doing is killing a lot more downstream.

A new owner is not going to change much when the ship has sailed.

Back to marketing for the future... most important thing that will make this team a real success is good marketing... not 'SENATORS RISING' ads, but a real creative campaign that brings pride back to the masses.

Yes, the marketing sucks. I have been saying this for years. It is underfunded and understaffed, and doesn't appear to have a whole lot of experience looking from the outside in. Other teams try new promotions/packages/campaigns, etc all the time. Ottawa has not changed how they sell/market tickets.

The product has also deteriorated significantly. Team is much worse and it is hard to buy-into hope when confidence of being able to retain our best players post UFA is very low. The arena has had almost no improvements beyond what Bell has paid for.


Improve the product and improve the marketing, and I think you could see some significant improvement. But you will never maximize revenues without new ownership and a move downtown.
 

JD1

Registered User
Sep 12, 2005
15,987
9,551
I am curious as to how you think that will be possible? They removed a top 20 player in the league and a top 30 center with nothing close to a similar level replacement player for both. Oh yeah and a 50 point 25 goal scorer on top of that. I am sure the new coach will help but at the end of the day over 82 games the simple lack of talent will lead to a horrid season.

well I see a few things that will lead to results.

1. the growth of the D. Apart from Ceci who is likely done growing, pretty much the the rest of the D core is in a stronger position to start this season than last.
2. goaltending - bringing Nilsson back may not have helped the tank but it certainly should provide for a better season long result than what we had last year
3. over half the forward group apart from the 3 you mentioned were either very young and added valuable experience or added experience in an expanded role.
4. many here believe that adding a few of the Belleville kids and flushing a few of the hanger on 4th liners is an upgrade

so there's 4 player only reasons

to that I'll add the possibility that this coaching group can better harness the talent and get more out of it

I'm not saying they'll be better but you asked for reasons and I gave you 5

I'll give you another....a healthy JG Pageau for a full year that can play a variety of valuable minutes.

so...There's a 6 pack for you
 

bert

Registered User
Nov 11, 2002
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well I see a few things that will lead to results.

1. the growth of the D. Apart from Ceci who is likely done growing, pretty much the the rest of the D core is in a stronger position to start this season than last.
2. goaltending - bringing Nilsson back may not have helped the tank but it certainly should provide for a better season long result than what we had last year
3. over half the forward group apart from the 3 you mentioned were either very young and added valuable experience or added experience in an expanded role.
4. many here believe that adding a few of the Belleville kids and flushing a few of the hanger on 4th liners is an upgrade

so there's 4 player only reasons

to that I'll add the possibility that this coaching group can better harness the talent and get more out of it

I'm not saying they'll be better but you asked for reasons and I gave you 5

I'll give you another....a healthy JG Pageau for a full year that can play a variety of valuable minutes.

so...There's a 6 pack for you

I applaud you on your optimism. All of those are positives but they dont offset the enormous amount of talent out to talent in and they were already a last placed team to begin with. Anyway the best possible situation for this organization is to finish dead last anyway and I believe they are poised to do so. They need elite talent and as we know the only way this organization can get it is through the draft.
 
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JD1

Registered User
Sep 12, 2005
15,987
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I applaud you on your optimism. All of those are positives but they dont offset the enormous amount of talent out to talent in and they were already a last placed team to begin with. Anyway the best possible situation for this organization is to finish dead last anyway and I believe they are poised to do so. They need elite talent and as we know the only way this organization can get it is through the draft.

I don't think the 5 player reasons are optimistic per se. I think they are pretty logical takes.

I think the coach take is optimism though....one can only hope

but as I said maybe it isn't enough to overcome the loss

personally I got in on a package next year and I just want to see some exciting hockey. Last year was IMO more exciting than year 2 of Boucher. I think and hope that we've got some players that really start to come in to their own.

I think Chabot establishes himself as a true #1. I think Wolanin and Jaros take steps forward. That right there goes along way to solidify the D.

And I think we'll get some improvement from some young guys. Tierney, White and Pageau aren't in contention for anyone's top 10 but Pageau is a very good 3C, Tierney posted 48 points and we don't know if he has plateaued and White is the best of them. I think we'll have no 1C but two 2C calibre players and a strong 3C calibre guy. Duchene out hurts. Pageau in and healthy helps. White with a year under his belt should continue to get better. Brown is a wild card. As good as that line was in Belleville at one point I read in an article where Mann said Brown made it go and that's a positive because that line was the best in the A for probably 3 months
 

Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
53,119
30,334
I don't think the 5 player reasons are optimistic per se. I think they are pretty logical takes.

I think the coach take is optimism though....one can only hope

...

I think the optimism isn't in thinking any of those reasons will help, it's thinking they will be enough to offset the loss of Stone, Duchene, and Dzingel. That's our top 3 goal scorers for the season and none of them played 60 games for us.

Honestly, I think coaching and goaltending are the two factors that will be most likely to be enough to improve this team over last years. We aren't going to see Chabot and Tkachuk or any other top 6 guy make logarithmic leaps in performance imo. Anderson having a bounce back season (or Nilson being a starter) and coaching implementing a structured system that takes advantage of our strengths will be key.

My guess is we finish in the bottom 10 this year, 26th + or minus 5 spots; there is too much parity to assume even the worst team on paper (whether that's us or not) will finish bottom 5. One hot streak by a goalie and you move up 5 spots...
 
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DaveMatthew

Bring in Peter
Apr 13, 2005
14,507
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I think the optimism isn't in thinking any of those reasons will help, it's thinking they will be enough to offset the loss of Stone, Duchene, and Dzingel. That's our top 3 goal scorers for the season and none of them played 60 games for us.

Honestly, I think coaching and goaltending are the two factors that will be most likely to be enough to improve this team over last years. We aren't going to see Chabot and Tkachuk or any other top 6 guy make logarithmic leaps in performance imo. Anderson having a bounce back season (or Nilson being a starter) and coaching implementing a structured system that takes advantage of our strengths will be key.

My guess is we finish in the bottom 10 this year, 26th + or minus 5 spots; there is too much parity to assume even the worst team on paper (whether that's us or not) will finish bottom 5. One hot streak by a goalie and you move up 5 spots...

The challenge for Ottawa is going to be competing against teams that are doing more to improve than we are.

Let's look at the league.

We can safely assume that all of the following will be better than us next season: Tampa, Calgary, Boston, Washington, Toronto, Nashville, San Jose, Pittsburgh, Winnipeg, Carolina, St. Louis, Vegas, Colorado, Dallas, Montreal, Philadelphia and Florida. That's 17 teams.

Then you have a group of teams that are likely middling, but still better than us: NYI, Columbus, Arizona, Minnesota, Chicago, Vancouver, Edmonton and Buffalo. That's another 5.

Then you have the bad teams: Anaheim, Los Angeles, Rangers, Detroit, New Jersey and us.

I could, realistically, only see is finishing higher than the teams in the last group, which puts us at best, 25th in the NHL.

But you have rumors that the Rangers are going after UFAs to add to Kakko, New Jersey is adding Hughes, and Detroit brought in Yzerman. So really, I thing best case scenario is 25th. More likely 28-31.
 

BondraTime

Registered User
Nov 20, 2005
28,472
23,041
East Coast
We will be finishing bottom of the barrel next year, and I personally am welcoming it with open arms, as I would have this year under normal circumstances, and last season.

We saw our defence this past year. We are only getting the years experience and potential growth to add to it. It will still be, by far, the worst core in the league.

We, as the worst team in the NHL, have lost the highest % offensive point share of any team in the league, by a gigantic margin. We got futures for those guys, they will not be making a difference for the Sens for a few years.

I'm far from an expert with regards to the economic ties to the league and financial stuff,but I can't see any improvement without anything substantial changing. It can only go down from here.

I mean, 2 of the big faces from the "Ottawa Rising" marketing move are out the door already.
 

FormentonTheFuture

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
7,761
3,732
IMO no point in predicting how we will finish until we see what happens on July 1 and before camp. Not saying it will be much different but you never know.

It means nothing given the roster is not the same at all, but each time we get a new coach we seems to surpass expectations. With the roster on paper today, perhaps that effect results in finishing a few spots higher.
 
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Rand0m

Registered User
Oct 2, 2011
1,272
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IMO no point in predicting how we will finish until we see what happens on July 1 and before camp. Not saying it will be much different but you never know.

It means nothing given the roster is not the same at all, but each time we get a new coach we seems to surpass expectations. With the roster on paper today, perhaps that effect results in finishing a few spots higher.

You really think the Sens will be active on July 1st??? The only thing they might do won't be to improve the team, but to reach the cap floor.
 

Samsquanch

Raging Bull Squatch
Nov 28, 2008
8,224
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The Sens were a straight up bad team WITH Karlsson, Stone, Duchene and Dzingel. They were slightly worse the following year with no Karlsson, and the other guys leaving at the TDL. Obviously they are not taking a step forward next year.

Next year, more than any other year in the last 20+, the Sens need to tank and not worry about the standings at all. This is a critical step in the rebuild, and there is no way to get around it imo.
 
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