{"id":555483,"date":"2026-04-18T19:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555483\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:48:40","slug":"ottawa-senators-carolina-hurricanes-fans-get-the-party-started-ahead-of-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555483\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes fans get the party started ahead of Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a big day for fans of both the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes as the puck drops in Raleigh, N.C., today for Game 1 of their first-round series.<\/p>\n

\u201cGotta root for the Sens,” said Dominic Patafie, who was tailgating in the parking lot of the Lenovo Center before the start of Saturday afternoon’s game.<\/p>\n

Patafie grew up in Kanata, just walking distance from the Sens’ arena. He then moved to the U.S. for school \u2014 and brought his love of the Senators with him.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll forgive Brady Tkachuk for taking that gold medal from us if he can get us a Stanley Cup,\u201d Patafie said, referring to the big role the Sens’ captain played for the U.S.<\/a> in their overtime win over Canada at the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

People were out hours before the puck dropped Saturday, grilling meat on barbecues they’d brought along, drinking, playing music and chatting with other hockey fans.<\/p>\n

Tailgate parties, where people get together in the parking lot outside a stadium ahead of a game, have rolled over from college sports in the U.S. to hockey.<\/p>\n

\"Senators<\/p>\n

Ottawa Senators fan Dominic Patafie takes part in a tailgate party ahead of the first playoff game against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C. (Mathieu Deroy\/CBC)<\/p>\n

‘Going to be a good series’<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a raucous atmosphere. It\u2019s a good matchup,” said Aaron Newns, a Carolina Hurricanes fan who spoke to CBC.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s going to be a good series. Do I hope the [Hurricanes] win? Of course I do, but it\u2019s going to be fun for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a playoff drought stretching back to 2017, Ottawa is embracing a second consecutive post-season run.<\/p>\n

The Senators went 1-2 against the Hurricanes this season, and the teams are expected to be closely matched heading into the series.<\/p>\n

Game 2 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Lenovo Center.<\/p>\n

Fans in Ottawa will have to wait until next week to watch the team play live at the Canadian Tire Centre, with Games 3 and 4 set to take place there this coming Thursday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

While those in Ottawa can’t catch Game 1 in person, they can watch outside the Canadian Tire Centre for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a big day for fans of both the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes as the puck drops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[536,826,194,29,5176,62748,5,195,4,25,62749],"class_list":{"0":"post-555483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-brady-tkachuk","9":"tag-canadian-tire-centre","10":"tag-carolina","11":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","12":"tag-carolinahurricanes","13":"tag-dominic-patafie","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-hurricanes","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ottawa-senators","18":"tag-tailgate-parties"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116427443685407065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}