TORONTO - Veteran forward Patrick Patterson feels the Toronto Raptors are Canada's team. We'll soon see if the country is ready to get on board the way it did when the Toronto Blue Jays reached the post-season last fall.

With the seven Canadian NHL teams out of the playoff picture and baseball's regular season in its infancy, the Raptors have a chance to fill the void in the Canadian sporting spotlight.

"We The North" is the team's slogan. But does the club really move the needle outside of the greater Toronto area?

Patterson wants to make sure it happens. In a story for The Players' Tribune website, he called on Canadians to get behind the team as it begins its playoff quest.

"We want to hear you all the way from Montreal to Vancouver," he wrote. "We want to hear all 35 million Canadians cheering on their team. We're going to show the world that Toronto isn't just a great basketball city — it's the best basketball city.

"Because We The North. What does that mean? We're going to show you."

The Blue Jays were showered with love from across the nation when they ended a 22-year playoff drought last fall. Television ratings were through the roof for both the American League Division Series and subsequent Championship Series.

However, Canada's only Major League Baseball team has been around almost twice as long as the Raptors. The Blue Jays have also won championships, taking back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-'93.

The Raptors have been to the playoffs more often but victories have been rare. This will be Toronto's eighth trip to the NBA post-season with a five-game victory over the New York Knicks in 2001 the lone series win.

Still, this is a hot NBA market that hosted the league's all-star weekend this year. The Raptors also had the best season in franchise history, earning the second seed in the Eastern Conference and a first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers.

Sellout crowds are the norm at Air Canada Centre and thousands more will pack the outdoor area by the west side of the arena — known as "Jurassic Park" — to watch the action on a large video screen.

But the buzz doesn't necessarily carry over outside the Ontario capital. Matt Sekeres, a host on TSN 1040's Sekeres & Price show in Vancouver, said interest has been rather minimal.

"A couple of years ago, when it was the return to the playoffs and a plucky, underdog group, we saw some feedback on the Raptors and I got the sense that people were paying attention," Sekeres said Friday. "But I think last year with the sweep, it took a lot of the steam out of it."

The Raptors dropped a four-game series to the Washington Wizards in 2015, a year after falling to the Brooklyn Nets in a seven-game first-round series.

Sekeres noted there has always been some interest in the Raptors in his region, but many hoops fans never got over the Vancouver Grizzlies' departure to Memphis in 2001.

"There are some old wounds here with the NBA and so a lot of people have sworn the league off entirely," Sekeres said. "Of course the other thing is, much like other parts of the country, Vancouver likes to hate on Toronto."

Led by all-stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, the Raptors finished the regular season with a 56-26 mark. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers (57-25) had a better record in the East.

Metro Halifax reporter Kristen Lipscombe said the Raptors have an opportunity to become more popular on the East Coast.

"There's a pretty strong basketball community here," she said. "The names I don't think are as big as a (Jose) Bautista, you really had a couple of heroes you could get behind with the Blue Jays. But maybe depending on how the Raptors do and who shines in the playoffs, there will be some stars who come out and some names who become more household names out here. You never know."

Josefino Rufino, who works at the Shark Club in Winnipeg, said the Raptors will be featured prominently on the many screens throughout the sports bar. He added that the addition of hip-hop artist Drake as a team ambassador in 2013 helped spark more interest but the playoff losses in recent years haven't helped.

"It's maybe slightly tamer this year because of the past two years of disappointment," Rufino said. "But again, fingers crossed, let's hope it's the year."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2016