An Almost Anonymous Blog

Ottawa Sports Round-Up

I talked about the possibility of starting a sports round-up newsletter last week; I thought it would be a good idea to do a "test run". Consider this edition 0.

Introduction

I'm a casual sports fan, in the sense that I follow specific sports teams rather than the entire league or sport. My teams are the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Ottawa Titans. I follow even more casually the other Ottawa sports teams - I cheer them on, but I don't know the ins and outs about the team. I definitely have blind spots - CFL, basketball, soccer. This round-up is more for me than anything else, but my hope is to do two things:

  1. Find out more info and be more attuned to the various sports teams in the city of Ottawa beyond the Big Two (Senators + Ottawa Redblacks)
  2. Provide some information on the lesser-known sports that may fly under the radar for most people.

I hope I can deliver on at least one of those goals!

The format is simple: A few thoughts on a specific topic (or two), and then a round-up of recent scores & standings / news articles in the previous week.

Black Bears (NLL)

Ottawa's newest pro team, the Ottawa Black Bears, announced their inaugural game at the Canadian Tire Centre on November 29, 2024, vs. the Toronto Rock. The full season schedule was announced today.

The season is short, only 18 games (9 of which are home games). The home dates are:

According to the schedule announcement each home game has a theme night associated with it; click through the link above to see the details.

I've never watched a professional Lacrosse game, so I'm excited to get out to at least one of these. Brief background on the franchise - the Black Bears moved to Ottawa from New York, where the team was known as the Riptide. Apparently the team had poor attendance and were evicted from the Nassau Coliseum (source). Sad state of affairs, but happy to have a new sport option in the city.

Official colours:

Black, Red, Gold, White

PWHL Team Names

The PWHL revealed their team names and logos last Monday, and reactions were mixed. Most relevant to Ottawa, the name for our team is Ottawa Charge.

Ottawa Charge logo

Here are the other team names:

Personally, I think the strongest brand (both name and logo) is Minnesota Frost. For logo alone, I think I like the Sirens the best, with honourable mention to Boston. Montréal's logo is a bit busy, and I'm just not a fan of "Sceptres" as a team name (though the logo is fine). Overall 4 of the 6 logos pass the kid test - could a kid draw their own version of the logo? New York's logo is border line but I don't think Montréal works as well in that respect. Although - the hidden black "M" in the logo is a nice touch.

As for the team names, they all seem to follow a similar pattern. Sceptres and Sirens are plural names like most sports teams, but the other four are a collective plural noun. It's a bit weird, but I'm sure we'll all get used to it. As for Ottawa's logo? The biggest criticism is that it's a cross between the Cleveland Caveliers and Calgary Flames. Otherwise it's nothing special. I like its simplicity, myself - you get both the "C" from Charge and a stylized "O" for Ottawa in the same shape.

I hope to check out the Charge live this season. As far as I can tell the schedule is yet to be released.

League Round-Up

Nothing much happening at this time of year - the Senators are at the beginning of training camp (their rookie camp just finished), the Titans (Frontier League) finished their season a couple of weeks ago. The 67's (OHL) should be starting up this week but beyond that, only the Redblacks and Athlético Ottawa are currently active.

Redblacks (CFL)

Ottawa is currently second in the East division behind the Montreal Alouettes with a record of 8-4-1. There are 5 weeks left in the season before playoffs, with the Grey Cup on November 17th.

Athlético Ottawa (Canadian Premier League)

Ottawa's Soccer team sits 2nd overall with a record of 10-8-5, behind Hamilton Forge FC. They tied Calgary Calvary FC 2-2 on September 15th, with their next game on the 22nd vs. Vancouver Island Pacific FC. The regular season ends October 19th - not being familiar with CANPL I'm not sure how playoffs work.

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