The Ottawa Senators are selling ‘Heated Rivalry’ inspired Senators jerseys, and fans are grabbing them up.
Fans of the hit TV show can now buy jerseys with the names “Hollander” and “Rozanov” written on the back at the Ottawa Senators store.
The popular Crave Original Series is a love story about pro hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov who are on rival teams.
Janny Asselin is an Ottawa Senators fan and a ‘Heated Rivalry’ fan and says she was caught off guard when her worlds collided at the Canadian Tire Centre this weekend.
“I go into the store, going to buy a commemorative puck and sure enough, there is a Hollander and a Rozanov jersey right there waiting for me,” she explains. “And it was just serendipity, really.”
Peter Shier, VP of Marketing for the Ottawa Senators, says any name can be ordered to be placed on the back of a Senators jersey.
He says the store was getting requests for the last names from Heated Rivalry fans, so they had some made up ahead of Saturday’s game against Montreal.
“We had the idea on Friday morning, and we had a whole bunch of jerseys in the store by Saturday night and our game and sold out within probably an hour before the first period was over.”
He says online sales are also popular.
“We woke up on Sunday morning, we had orders from, I think, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, from all over the world,” he says. “It’s really great.”
In all, he says about 50 jerseys have already been sold and proceeds will be going towards Ottawa Pride Hockey.
“Heated Rivalry has been a really fun topic of conversation lately,” says Jayce L with Ottawa Pride Hockey. “It’s been taking over conversations in the locker room, and it’s a great, wholesome show.”
They say Ottawa Pride Hockey is an inclusive hockey recreation league for and by the 2SLGBTQ+ community. L is the co-coordinator says the league holds about 200 regular players and five teams. They say the goal is to make sure everyone sees themselves on the ice and on a hockey jersey.
“It’s so important to be able to see yourself as a kid - even as an adult now - and just like, ‘okay, I am welcome here,’” L says.
And with the City of Ottawa set to play a possible role in the upcoming second season of Heated Rivalry, now fans like Asselin can have the best of both worlds.
“A fun little thing to see the Sens sort of embrace,” she says.
