Canadian Tire Centre (Ottawa, ON)

The Canadian Tire Centre looks like its a retro-arena, despite opening in 1996. Now when I say retro I mean it has an old feel to it which is nice when you're going to watch the game. The main entrance has a large brick mosaic of the Senators Logo is out front. It has huge grand entrance to lead you to the concourses and to your seats. The concourses were large with high ceilings. Actually it looked like they built the arena than built a shell around it. The upper levels have stairways that bring you to your seat from the main concourse area. One of the walls on the main concourse highlights Ottawa's hockey history and is really worth spending some time reading.
I also got very lucky to be there on Bobble Head night, which was a surprisingly high quality ceramic toy. I very much loved the way that they did the anthem here, rolling out the Canadian Flag and the singing the mixed French/English version, it was fantastic to see.
Everyone in the building was super polite, even to the man in the visiting team jersey. There was an appropriate amount of heckling and joking around; you really start to realize why they call Canadians overly polite. My favorite comment of the evening was "That's a wild jersey," which I had definitely heard before but it came in a new light of this environment.

Seats
I paid $15 for my upper level seat which was about $20 after taxes. They have very deep seats that you sink into, and they're a little skinny too. You're guaranteed to rub elbows with the guys next to you. Generally they are vertical enough for you to see everything unless the bill of the guy's hat, in front of you, is straight up in the air then it'll block part of the ice. And one of my apparent metrics for the seats, no cup holders.

Concessions
Everything is in Canadian monies which is similar to the US Dollar but everything is actually cheaper than in the US. They will except US money at a direct 1 to 1 exchange. There is a big carving station with an adequate beer selection including quite a few local brews. Fatboys southern smokehouse will offer you some smells of super fragrant BBQ, which will make your mouth water. The Cheapest place in the arena is Tim Horton's, which is a fantastic place to serve doughnuts and hot beverages. I can't believe Starbucks hasn't adopted this in the US.

Donut - $1.35
Beer - $9.75
Hot Cocoa & Coffee - less than $2
Bacon Cheeseburger - $10.50
Hamburger - $9.00
Hotdog - $4.50
Pizza - $5.25
Meat Sandwich - $13.50
Reuben - $14.00
Bottomless Popcorn - $7.25

The bathrooms are large and conveniently placed around the arena. They did some decent planning with them with two entrances/exits. They're not cramped inside but you still have to wait to use the toilet.

Game Experience

The arena is super open, you don't feel like anything is hanging over you even when you are in the last row. Here there is a French version of everything, meaning every announcement is supplemented in French. I couldn't pick out a problem with the sound; it was perfectly decent and clear throughout the game. Jumbotron is clear but some of the print is really small, specifically the shots on goal. Throughout the arena there were cell charging stations. The quantity of silent auction items from other teams threw me off a bit and they believed heavily in the 50/50 raffle.
The worst part of this place is that there are red inserts between the panes of plexiglass around the rink which was kind of annoying more than anything.
The team intro draws you in and is very well put together; it gives you the "lets get ready for hockey" feeling. Kids bring in flags before the game. In between periods mini mites played with snoopy music playing and in the second intermission there was literally have a political race. Former large headed Prime Minister's raced around the rink.
As for the fans It seemed hard for someone to get a chant going during play. I kinda had a sense that they were more interested in watching than yelling. Which fits the arena as they didn't have flashing lights everywhere, it was really a gimmick free environment. I will say that the fans that I sat around were knowledgeable. They easily know when a penalty is called correctly even when it was called against their own team. When the Senator's scored it was just a lot of noise, there was no developed goal chant. The fans were however very happy to cheer against Toronto. They did subscribe to the idea that a hockey arena needs organ music and played it heavily.
Lots of fans left before the end of the game, which disappointed me quite a bit. Also home goalie upper level seats were only half full, a sight I did not expect to see at a Canadian Hockey Game.

Transportation
Well I didn't look around too much but it does seem to be on the outskirts of Ottawa. There didn't seem to be any public transportation options but there might have been buses that take you back to the city. There are many different parking areas with pricing starting at $13.

Minnesota Wild 0 - Ottawa Senators 3