Ottawa hockey fans know what it looks like when a city truly shows up for its team — and the images coming out of Game 1 of the PWHL Final in Montreal this week were a jarring reminder that even passionate fanbases can be let down by the calendar.
For Ottawa, a city that has rallied hard behind PWHL Ottawa and the broader growth of women's professional hockey, the sight of a half-empty arena at the sport's biggest moment of the year sparked a wave of conversation online and off.
What Happened in Montreal?
Montreal has been one of the PWHL's standout markets since the league launched, with fans regularly turning out in big numbers to support their team all season long. That makes Game 1 of the PWHL Final attendance all the more baffling — and frustrating for those who care about the health of women's hockey.
The most likely culprit? Scheduling. The PWHL Final landed squarely in the thick of the NHL playoffs, with the Montreal Canadiens also in action and competing directly for fan attention, arena time, and the general headspace of a hockey-mad city. When two major hockey events clash in a market like Montreal, it's nearly impossible for either to win cleanly — and in this case, women's hockey bore the brunt of it.
Ottawa Has Seen This Battle Before
The scheduling tension isn't unique to Montreal. Ottawa fans have wrestled with the same dynamic, navigating a hockey calendar that still sometimes treats women's games as secondary to the men's schedule. With the Ottawa Senators also active in the spring, PWHL Ottawa has had to compete for local attention in its own right.
What's made Ottawa different is the genuine grassroots energy the city has built around its PWHL franchise. Local supporters, youth hockey communities, and women's sports advocates have helped cultivate a fanbase that doesn't need the perfect scheduling window to show up — they come out because they believe in the product.
That's why seeing Montreal's arena sit half-empty during a final stings for fans across the league, not just in Quebec. It signals a structural problem, not a lack of interest.
A Bigger Problem for the League to Solve
The PWHL has made remarkable strides in its short existence, building real fanbases in cities like Ottawa, Boston, Toronto, and yes, Montreal. The attendance issue in Game 1 isn't a referendum on those fans — it's a scheduling and logistics failure that the league needs to address head-on.
Playing championship games in direct competition with NHL playoff hockey is a losing proposition, no matter how good the product on the ice is. The women's game deserves its own unobstructed spotlight, especially at this stage of the season.
For Ottawa fans watching from afar, the hope is that the league draws the right lessons: protect the finals window, avoid the NHL calendar crunch, and give women's hockey the room it needs to shine.
Game 1 may have played to empty seats in Montreal, but the sport itself is anything but hollow. It just needs the space to prove it.
Source: Ottawa Citizen
