I've been a Senators fan for 21 years. I moved to Ontario in 1997 from Winnipeg, the Jets were gone and there was this team of young talented skaters, with a good coach, and competent management. I was hooked watching a young Alfie, Hossa, and then Havlat rip up the league. They started as scrappy underdogs, came into their own as one of the best teams in the East, and 10 years later went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. They had speed, skill, got tougher as they grew, and for a stretch you knew they had a chance every year to do something great.
Yes there was heartbreak; losses to the dreaded TML in the battle of Ontario, the Sabres in 2006 when we were supposed to go all the way that year, and probably the most devastating loss as a fan when I was 18 when Friesen scored with minutes remaining in game 7. Watching us come so close and come up short was truly tough to stomach, but as a teen and young adult it was great to be a Senators Fan.
I'm older now, not as invested in cheering for a hockey team- life gets in the way, and I no longer invest the long hours I did as a younger fan. I'm not upset myself at what our joke of an owner does, and go by the rule to expect the worst whenever Eugene sticks his finger in the pie. I'm jaded and have enough grey in my beard to have earned the right to be.
Who I am upset for, what does get my blood boiling, is imagining what the fans age 5-15 must be going through right now. The young fan who desperately wanted to cheer for an exciting team and had a quick glimpse of what the beautiful game is for a few short weeks in 2017. A large proportion of young fans who bleed red white and black have only known what a team owned by Melnyk is like. They only truth they know is that good players leave too early, that true character guys are pushed out by lesser men, and that a winning team like in 2017 is fleeting and not the norm. That a generation of young hockey fans is becoming jaded through the actions of mismanagement, ineptitude, and straight up malice by the Senators ownership.
I'd love to tell a young sens fan to stick with it, it gets better in time, and soon the Senators will be back to their winning ways- but I have a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn''t believe me.
Yes there was heartbreak; losses to the dreaded TML in the battle of Ontario, the Sabres in 2006 when we were supposed to go all the way that year, and probably the most devastating loss as a fan when I was 18 when Friesen scored with minutes remaining in game 7. Watching us come so close and come up short was truly tough to stomach, but as a teen and young adult it was great to be a Senators Fan.
I'm older now, not as invested in cheering for a hockey team- life gets in the way, and I no longer invest the long hours I did as a younger fan. I'm not upset myself at what our joke of an owner does, and go by the rule to expect the worst whenever Eugene sticks his finger in the pie. I'm jaded and have enough grey in my beard to have earned the right to be.
Who I am upset for, what does get my blood boiling, is imagining what the fans age 5-15 must be going through right now. The young fan who desperately wanted to cheer for an exciting team and had a quick glimpse of what the beautiful game is for a few short weeks in 2017. A large proportion of young fans who bleed red white and black have only known what a team owned by Melnyk is like. They only truth they know is that good players leave too early, that true character guys are pushed out by lesser men, and that a winning team like in 2017 is fleeting and not the norm. That a generation of young hockey fans is becoming jaded through the actions of mismanagement, ineptitude, and straight up malice by the Senators ownership.
I'd love to tell a young sens fan to stick with it, it gets better in time, and soon the Senators will be back to their winning ways- but I have a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn''t believe me.