HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: SING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING, SABRES & SENS

Prior to last night, a post praising the Ottawa Senators for their good taste in anthem singers was almost begging to be written. Anything to get away from discussing how the Senators were poised to trounce the Toronto Maple Leafs royally for the second time this week, eh?

On Tuesday, when the Sens whipped the Leafs 6-2 at the Air Canada Centre in the first game of a home-and-home series, a young woman named Katie Atkins (top picture) like, totally, butchered O Canada.

Between periods (we had a live blog going) Théo of Ottawa Sports Guy e-mailed: "Oh my goodness, that was a terrible anthem. Which MLSE executive pulled a favour to get his daughter to sing it?""

Nothing against Ms. Atkins, who seems cloned from the same blonde master cell that also produced TSN's Jennifer Hedger. (Watch what you say about her: She'll probably be hosting Sportscentre in 10 years.) It's just that watching, and unfortunately listening to her, you could see bits and pieces of 1,000 American Idol (or Canadian Idol) rejects all embodied by a single overwrought, undertalented performer.

Now, the last time I sang in public, it was a small-town Ontario Legion Hall, it was New Year's Eve and it was karaoke.*

Still, there's this unshakable feeling that the Idol franchise ruins vocalists. They're all looking to hit those high notes and impress the judges. The people watching at home who don't know any differently and don't expect much, so they let it slide. So they don't learn how to interpret the music and sing each note. They sing around the notes.

Low notes? Forget about it. Most have as much chance of hitting a low note as a Detroit Tigers pitcher has of hitting a grand-slam home run tonight in Game 5 of the World Series. Besides, as any music company lowlife can tell you, you don't need to hit low notes; that's why you have a mixing board.

Back in '03, I went to a Syracuse basketball game over the Christmas holidays, and the teen girl singing The Star-Spangled Banner had her voice crack on the final line. My mom, who has the musical gene in our family, smiled knowingly, since she knew that was coming.

The plan was to praise the Senators for having a real anthem singer. Ottawa's regular anthem singer is an Ontario Provincial Police officer named Lyndon Slewidge (second picture). He has powerhouse pipes, and a Google search shows that he has plenty of experience singing bass, baritone and tenor.

The next person to speak ill of Slewidge's singing will be the first. Granted, that may only be because they don't want one of his police colleagues to pull them over for speeding -- possibly while they're trying to make up for lost time after taking an hour to get out of the Scotiabank Place parking lot after a Sens game.

The wheels were in motion. Get away from discussion of the Leafs losing again (which they did, 7-2), give the Sens a backhanded compliment, praise Lyndon Slewidge and take a cheap shot at American Idol, Canadian Idol and all the people who watch those stupid glorified karaoke contests. All in one fell swoop, to boot.

So naturally, guess who sang O Canada at the return game between the Sens and Leafs last night in Ottawa?

Not Lyndon Slewidge. Just my luck, it was Eva Avila, the Canadian Idol winner. Thanks, Senators management, for shooting my idea for a post so full of holes that it now resembles the Leafs ' defence corps.

Not that it's all that important, but Eva fairly butchered O Canada too. In her defence, the music company lowlives have probably run the poor young woman ragged since she won Idol six weeks ago, so if her voice was off, it's not her fault. Besides, she wasn't in Katie country.

Oh, and there was some hockey last night:

Sabres 3 Isles 0: 10 in a row for Buffalo! Yes, even wins against Charles Wang's Travelling Gong Show count in the standings. The Sabres, who got 29 saves from Ryan Miller, will try to become the first team to open a season 11-0 when they host the Thrashers tomorrow.

Habs 3 Bruins 2: Suffice to say, Sergei Samsonov's return to Boston as a member of the Canadiens was not the main post-game story -- not after the Habs' Danny Markov scored the winning goal on a power play with 1.2 seconds left. Angry Bruins fans (are there any other kind?), upset with the last-minute penalty call that led to Markov's game-winner, threw garbage on the ice and the game was called.

Canadiens forward Alexei Kovalev, who was tossed in the second period, is probably going to get a fine out of this for telling reporters afterward that "the refs screwed up the whole game."

Alexei, take a cue from former NFL executive Jim Finks, who once responded to a question about referees by saying, "I'm not allowed to comment on lousy officiating."

Coyotes 6 Oilers 2: Maybe Phoenix's players thought renaming the arena the Jobing.com Arena -- a job-posting website -- was a veiled message that some of them could be looking for work soon if they don't shape up. The Coyotes turned the tables on the Oilers on the strength of a 32-save night from David LeNeveu, just called from the AHL. Georges Laraque even potted a goal against his old friends.

It was the second 6-2 loss in as many nights for the Oilers, who lost to Anaheim Wednesday. It's too early to cite travel fatigue, so it really seems Edmonton is playing without a lot of killer instinct. You know how you can tell? Check the gamesheets and look at how often they give a goal right back after scoring to tie the game or pull within one.

Flyers 3 Thrashers 2 (shootout): Nice start to the John Stevens era as Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagné solved Kari Lehtonen in the shootout to give Philly a desperately needed win.

Not sure how many coaches do this or if it's even a good idea, but Thrashers coach Bob Hartley pulled his starting goalie, Johan Hedberg (29 saves), and put in Lehtonen for the shootout. He said Lehtonen was his "stopper," but how much sense does it make to put in a guy who's been on the bench for 2½ hours?

Sens 7 Leafs 2: When all you to write about are anthem singers, you know the game was a dog. The Sens, who got a hat trick from Dany Heatley and five-point nights from Joe Corvo and Jason Spezza, are in a groove. The Leafs were mostly lousy -- no jam, non-existent defence. It's probably a positive that Darcy Tucker's indefensible decision to pick a fight with confirmed pacifist Patrick Eaves on Tuesday did nothing to fire up the Leafs; at least they're above such tactics.

The Sens have outscored the Leafs 57-30 -- by a margin of almost two -- in their 12 meetings dating back to the start of '05-06. It gets even more lopsided when you factor in that the Leafs' two wins in that span were, if memory serves, by 7-1 and 6-0 scores.

(* About that. The songs were the Dead Milkmen's Punk Rock Girl and Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London, and unfortunately there were witnesses.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.