They say that in space, no one can hear you scream.  If you find yourself at a Ottawa 67s home game, you don’t have to worry about it.  No one is making much noise at all.

One of my bucket list items / dream vacations was to go to Ottawa and skate the Rideau Canal.  It’s a wonderful experience, and if you are a skater, pencil it in on your itinerary.  Treat yourself, and treat it like a ski vacation.

We flew in on a Friday with enough time for a brief skate and take in a 67s game.  The arena itself makes going to the game worth it.

This is TD Place, the home of the Ottawa 67s, as seen from the Rideau Canal.  But let’s look at it from the side.

(And as ever, click the photo to make it bigger)

 

That’s a little odd, it looks like grandstands.  Outside.  That’s because TD Place is also where the Ottawa Redblacks, the CFL team, play.  And yes, they play outdoors.  So what is going on here?  So glad you asked.  Step inside to find out.

I’ve never done this before, but I think this needs a little markup to see all the weird stuff going on here.

First, the red arrow.  TD Place is a few venues in one, but this takes it to a whole new level.  It’s not unusual to see the underside of the stands overhead in the concourse of a hockey arena.  It is unusual to see the underside of the stands for a FOOTBALL STADIUM poke into a hockey arena.  Huh?

Let’s talk about the green arrow.  That’s the main lighting for the ice surface.  Mostly on one side and fairly low. It creates a strange look for the game.

You might think, well, that sucks for the people who have to face those lights.  Yes, but at least there aren’t that many of them, and that leads us to the yellow arrow.  Those seats are under the football stadium seating, and therefore can only go so high.  So they are covered by a false ceiling and limited to ten rows.

Note the scoreboard on the TV.  The rest of the arena can see the large screen mounted over the short side seating (I don’t know what else to call it), but the people sitting here can’t.  This is a decent solution, but I wonder how many TVs have been damaged by flying pucks.

There’s a nice food spread on this side.  Possibly an all-you-can-eat setup, but I’m not sure.

Other food options on this side.  The garlic fries were excellent.

From the far corner under the ceiling.

You can see how lopsided this arena is, but to truly appreciate it, the side view really shows it off.

Here is the view from our center ice seats.  The lighting is less oppressive on this side.

Let’s get to some game action.

At the top of the post, I said no one could hear you scream.  Here, no one screamed.  Hardly anyone yelled.  It was one of the quietest games I’ve ever been to.  When I say that, keep in mind that I’m a Colorado Avalanche fan, and I’ve compared the atmosphere at the Pepsi Center to a wine and cheese party.  I had to ask the people sitting next to me if it was always like this.  Turns out, it is.

During the game, the arena staff had to fix the netting.  But why is this guy being held up rather than standing on a ladder? Because they only had one ladder and needed it for another part of the netting.  Remember folks, safety first, and if not, safety second.

Back to the game.

The 67s have a raccoon as a mascot. But they also had the Redblacks’ mascot in attendance.  Hey, I didn’t name them.

Oh, this will end well.

It didn’t end well at all.  The raccoon mascot decided to ‘check’ the lumberjack mascot head first.  It was not a good idea.  I got the impression there was some pain involved, but neither one of them showed it.

Nice big hallways.

There are some luxury boxes, but they aren’t in use.  Need a little work.

Second period action.

Glove save.

Let’s all go to the snack bar and get ourselves some… poutine.

Third period action.

Your final, the 67s handed Saginaw their backsides, 4-1. The game sheet is here.  You can read it as a bedtime story.  It will put you to sleep.

A weird arena and a tame game.  Two days later, things would be very, very different.