When fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs visit Canadian Tire Centre (CTC) to cheer on their beloved blue and white, Ottawa Senators fans can be downright cruel to them. They tell hurtful jokes about the Leafs – right to their face, often drawing comparisons between the team and horrible disasters like the sinking of the Titanic. (Punch line – both the Leafs and that doomed ship were fine – before they hit the ice)
Senators fans don’t stop there. They’ll make fun of their Toronto guests proudly wearing Leafs paraphernalia. A favourite target is their baseball caps emblazoned with the caption, “Toronto Maple Leafs – Stanley Cup Champions 1967”. Most fans whose team hadn’t won a Stanley Cup in 58 years (currently the record for Cup droughts) would try to bury that under their hat.
Some mean Senators fans even demand that Ottawa City Council pass a bylaw banning the wearing of Maple Leafs sweaters within 100 kilometres of the CTC. Others go further, urging they be rounded up and deported back to Toronto – especially those wearing ratty old Mats Sundin sweaters.
Senators Fans Aren’t Alone in Dislike for Maple Leafs Fans
Senators fans point out that Ottawa wouldn’t be alone in trying to combat throngs of Leafs fans invading their home barns with draconian measures. Take Buffalo, for instance. Just before the start of the 2023-24 season, the Buffalo Sabres put in place a policy to give preference to ticket buyers with a New York State zip code. While the club didn’t specifically say limiting Maple Leafs fans was a primary motivation behind the policy, Sabres vice-president of sales and service Frank Batres-Landaeta told the Buffalo News that there were “a handful of games” last year where the club saw “the wrong colour blue” in the stands.
And it’s not just the Sabres brass who don’t like seeing Leafs fans in their home rink. As he laced up his skates to play the Maple Leafs last April, Sabres star defenceman Rasmus Dahlin was asked what he thought of Toronto fans coming to KeyBank Centre to cheer their team on. The big Swedish defender summed it up in three words – “I hate it”.
Calgary’s Saddledome – home to the Calgary Flames is another arena where fans of the Maple Leafs are as welcome as a bad case of spring hay fever. Here’s what a Flames – Maple Leafs matchup sounds like in the Saddledome.
Even so, I say Senators fans should resist the temptation to forcibly keep Leafs fans out of the CTC. Instead of condemnation, they need our understanding. Although it’s not yet recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, being a fanatical supporter of the Leafs surely qualifies as one – call it “Leafs Fan Syndrome” (LFS). They need our help, not ridicule.
Understanding Leafs Fan Syndrome
The disorder seems to flare up in early fall as the Leafs’ training camp starts. In meaningless preseason games, Leafs fans start to chant what is perhaps the NHL’s most odious mantra, “Go Leafs Go”. A few convincing exhibition game victories prompt them to start chanting “This is Our Year!” Suggestions from well-meaning Senators fans that they try to win a second round series before planning the Stanley Cup parade down Yonge Street go unheeded. (For those interested, it’s been 23 years since their last second round series victory)
If delusions of an imminent Stanley Cup victory can’t be considered symptomatic of LFS, then lovers of the blue and white anointing themselves “Canada’s Team” certainly should be. Who could forget Mike Babcock claiming that honour for the Leafs on being installed as their head coach in 2015. So upsetting is the thought this could be true that many Canadians vowed to move to the USA – in all its Trumpian glory.
To be sure, embracing and supporting Leafs fans in their battle with LFS will be difficult. Loud, obnoxious and dressed in blue sweaters that only they would try to pass off as Canada’s most iconic, visiting Toronto fans are like a swarm of mosquitoes at a summer barbecue. They are everywhere – biting, buzzing and irritating. No matter what you do, they just keep coming, and they are impossible to ignore. There’s no escaping them. There’s no relief.
While enduring Leafs fans at CTC is like trying to get over a bad hangover – one that’s way too loud, lasts longer than you think and makes you swear you’ll never put yourself through that experience again, we need to be understanding. Passing judgment on Leafs fans for their poor choice in a hockey team won’t help or even discourage them from coming to Ottawa. The only cure for what afflicts them is for the Senators to shut the Maple Leafs down on the ice. Delusions of grandeur and Stanley Cup fantasies associated with LFS disappear quickly when the Leafs lose.
