It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

Stupid Gerber. I can't lay the blame on him entirely, but the 3rd goal was something that the Kazakh juniors goalie would have seen and grabbed.

The rest of the team just looked like they were going through the motions. Except for a spirited 1st minute of play in the first period, no-one except for Alfie, Phillips and Picard looked like they really cared how the game went. I counted as many passes directly to Canucks players as I did successful passes between Ottawa forwards. There was no real chasing after pucks, no battling in the corners, and except for brief glimmers of hope, there weren't really that much genuine scoring chances. All in all it was the same old story this year, with the senators getting a shiny participation medal, and not much else.

Notes on the Arena:

Canucks fans are a genuinely pleasant lot, the fans in front of us in the cheap seats struck up a friendly conversation, and hoped that I had some insight into why the boys in red and black were underachieving this year. I didn't, and they said that they've felt that way in the past. They assured me that this too will pass. I almost believed them, until the team hit the ice.

The other thing that impressed me and made me feel more love for the citizens of my adopted city happened with a few minutes left in the 2nd. A man came up during a play stoppage and asked my father if we were just the two of us at the game. Turns out his son was getting tired and he had two lower bowl, center ice, bench side tickets for us. They were awesome seats, and the fact that he approached the fans of the visiting team to offer these tickets made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

GM place however got a big old thumbs down from me. They ran out of beer at one of their kiosks before the first period even started. The sold me a $10 corned beef sandwich that was both more salty and drier than the potato chips that accompanied it. The final straw was the ejection of a sens fan from the lower bowl.

Fin (the canucks mascot) came down to our section to harass a gentleman who had dressed up as a centurion. He grabbed the helmet off the man and tossed it into the fans on the other side of the aisle. As soon as he had done this, he stuck his hand in the face of the somewhat inebriated man. In news that is bound to shock you, the man began to fight back. Well, let me tell you that the security team wasn't having with that. The man got wrestled away from the mascot and trudged up the long staircase and into the concourse, all the while buffeted by the boos of most of the people in our section.

On the way home, I caught a skytrain car that was mostly empty from burrard station. A few of the straggling canucks revelers got on at stadium. For the duration of the stops home, I heard them laughing and cheering about the game. As I got up from my seat, the lady of the group asks if she should say something. I cut them off with the observation that yes, my team did in fact suck, and that if they had been paying attention, they've done so since january. They were shocked, but unable to provide any sort of counterpoint to my resigned defeatism.

To list the mojo that I applied for today's game from start to finish.

1. Dried off after shower with Sens bath towel
2. Plugged in Sens optical mouse
3. Put on Sens socks
4. Put on Senators 2007 eastern conference champions t-shirt
5. Put on jersey
6. Put on hat
7. Ate milk chocolate puck with sens logo from christmas stocking
   
8. Ate piece of toffee from candy filled sens piggy bank that I got for my birthday
9. Chewed gum from ottawa senators gum puck packs from halloween
10. Cleaned my knife with Sens hand towels.

I can't remember if I did anything else. But perhaps this solves once and for all whether or not any of my superstitions have anything to do with a win. I'll still be sporting the jersey every game day.

Another game, another dissapointment

The sens this season are like an abusive boyfriend. They keep getting my hopes up with beautiful presents, like the 2 goal lead they had over calgary. Then they start doing the same old things; bad giveaways, not fighting hard for the puck on the boards, squandering scoring chances. I'm kindof glad that the tickets I have for the game tomorrow are in the alcohol free seats, because it means that I won't have a depressant in my system to help speed the inevitable downward slide of my mood when the canucks erase any hope the sens had of contending. How fucked up is it that we're likely to be battling for the Tavares cup this season. We're only a couple of seasons removed from a trip to the stanley cup finals. Only one season from the best start through 14 games. It's like the entire team has decided to quit playing.

Why am I still watching? Why am I still hopeful after every goal? Why do I always think that we can hold onto a lead? Every game I put on the jersey, and I think to myself "This is the time that we'll turn the season around". Every time I'm dissapointed. I tell myself lies like "They started to suck when I started school, now that I'm done they've got to get better" or "All they need is a puck moving defenceman, or a good goalie". I'm on the Brian Elliott bandwagon, even though he's not likely to make a real difference. I'm for firing Hartsburgh, but I don't know if we'd be able to find an improvement in coaching. I want Schubert to be put in the minors, but I don't know who we could call up to replace him.

I'm all out of answers, and the flame of my hope is the barest whisp. A candle that will soon be extinguished by the rain of player apathy that seem to strike mid-game. We've started scoring more, but we're still not scoring as much as the other team. One step forward, two steps back.

I realize this is a disjointed post, but it's just flowing out of me, much like my fervor and zeal for the team from Ottawa that I've loved for so long. We'll see what happens after the game tomorrow. Will it be another tale of woe and gnashing of teeth, or will something provide a sheltering hand for my weak and dying candle.

Going to the Game

My father is going to be in town tomorrow, and as his christmas present I'm taking him to the game versus the Canucks. My dad has always taken a perverse pleasure in being the guy who roots for the visiting team. It was a tradition in my household to go to the annual Saskatchewan-Ottawa CFL game, just so we could cheer for the roughriders and have no-one know which team we were actually hoping would win. He's often expressed his desire to go to a Habs or Leafs game, if tickets were easier to come by. I'm slightly scared for my Dad's safety if the sens do manage to win the game, because I'm likely to become loud and obnoxious. My safety plan if I come across some irate canucks fans is to run like the dickens and save myself. He doesn't quite have the same turn of speed as I do. But if he happens to die for my transgressions, it will be for a good cause. His sacrifice will cleanse the sens of their sins this year.

I'm going to try and convince him to wear at least my Sens hat, because I'm wearing my jersey. Last time the Sens were here I went in full regalia; Jersey, facepaint, dyed red faux-hawk. We still lost. I don't know if I'll go whole hog this time, but I know that some other people definately will. Last time, there was a guy in a duct-tape and cardboard breastplate and kilt. There were other die-hards in makeup. I managed to sit in a section of GM Place that seemed to be full of sens fans. It was certainly louder on the Sens goal than any of the canucks goals. I think that the ticket agents were clairvoyant and stuck us all in a little corner of the stadium so we wouldn't ruin the experience for all the vancouverites. Maybe I should go buy an air-horn for the goal celebrations, for both teams. Just to confuse people.