The post-game show on The Team 1200 was awfully quiet last night after the Ottawa Senators got curb-stomped 6-2 by the Washington Capitals. (Those back-to-backs will do that to you sometimes.)Normally, the radio station's switchboard lights up when a lesser NHL team -- all 29 of them, in the eyes of a lot of Sens fans when they're in full-on Denialist mode -- lucks out a win over Ottawa, quote-unquote.
Last night, it was almost all e-mails (the passive-aggressive man's best friend) implying that refs Kevin Pollock and Justin St. Pierre probably shouldn't form a comedy duo and start coming out to Open Mike Nights at various Ottawa comedy clubs. That is, unless they bring their own bulletproof glass. Sample e-mails to The Team last night:
"Does the NHL have a drug-testing policy for officials?"
"They (the officials) didn't know they were picking the NHL officials' handbook out of a landfill site."
"Murray should have thrown in the towel and removed the team from the ice."
Speaking of Sens coach Bryan Murray, Smarting Senators author Jean-Pierre Allard is calling him out for allowing Peter Schaefer to pull a stunt straight out of Junior B -- "waving his white towel like a complete buffoon on the bench with Jason Spezza at his side obviously enjoying the sideshow."
After a hooking call and an unsportmanlike conduct penalty gave Washington a 5-on-3 power play with 11½ minutes left, Schaefer raised the white flag -- a towel draped over the end of his stick. That's the ultimate way of showing up the refs -- analogous to a catcher in baseball turning around to argue balls and strikes with the umpire. In Gary Bettman's NHL, you never, ever show up the refs, even when they are having an off-night.
It was still a two-goal game, although the Sens probably didn't have enough in the tank to kill off the penalties and come back to tie the game. Still, it showed that the Sens, on this night at least, were a little lacking in character. That should be a bigger concern than the refs, eh?
Allard, while a little keyed up, nails it: "That was as disgraceful a scene as I've ever witnessed and combined with the other two incidents [players not joining in scrums after the whistle], speaks volumes about the mindset of the Ottawa Senators 'Country Club.' Hey, these dudes should have been at or nearing the boiling point by this time in the game, after seeing the referees hand penalty after penalty to the Sens, and not laughing like two little school girls."
It wasn't so much the officiating as it was the Senators falling back on the blame-the-refs reflex -- with some propping up from the media (on The Team, everything else was an afterthought) and the fans who think their Precious Team can do no wrong until the playoffs. What happened to the Sens Army keeping a humble exterior this year?
By the way, remember what happened in the 2002 Leafs-Senators playoff series when Darcy Tucker pulled the same stunt, raising the white flag? Alex Mogilny -- whose leadership qualities never made anyone forget Mark Messier or Steve Yzerman -- tore it down.
Does that mean no one on the Senators has the leadership chops of Alex Mogilny? Better question: Would what Schaefer did have happened under Jacques Martin? Scary thoughts, if you're an Ottawa fan.
Meantime, how about just accepting that the Sens were playing for the second night in a row without two high-end guys in Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden, Ray Emery had an off-night in goal and the Capitals are hot right now? (Undoubtedly to the delight of DC Sports Chick, a Caps blogger married to a Canadian). With eight wins in their previous nine games, the Sens were going to regress sooner or later.
Most Sens fans -- like the Ottawa Sports Guy and other bloggers -- are rational and level-headed. There's a silent majority who know the game and don't get too bent out of shape, win or lose.
Then there's the Denialists, who never cease to tip you off to the fact that Ottawa is still an expansion NHL city which 14 years on, is still getting used to having a team. Collectively, that inexperience leads to people quickly growing arrogant when the Sens get on a roll in the regular season.
Those hot streaks never last. Neither do slumps. You would think that most Ottawa fans, with the kinds of winters we get here, would be able to play it cool.
They could learn a lot from us Toronto Maple Leafs fans. We've seen this movie already and know how it ends.
Oilers 3 Hurricanes 1: Talk about feeding two birds with one scone -- the Oilers win a rematch of last year's Stanley Cup final with Mick McGeough refereeing the game. Fernando Pisani scored just his fourth goal of the year, and for one night at least Jussi Markkanen showed that Dwayne Roloson doesn't need to play every important game.
Carolina scored once in their two-game trip to Alberta. Good thing for the Hurricanes that they won't be back in Wild Rose Country until 2009-10. That's two Canadian federal elections from now.
Devils 2 Canadiens 1 (overtime): Ouch for the Habs, as Patrik Elias pots the winner on the power play with 7.1 ticks left in overtime.
Stars 3 Coyotes 0: Marty Turco has apparently decided he's not going to let in a goal until all of Dallas' injuries are healed. Oh, and Mike Ribeiro scored. Meantime, the guy he was traded for, Janne Niinimaa, maintained his vise grip on that No. 6 defenceman spot on Montreal's depth chart.
Ducks 4 Predators 0: Chris Kunitz, the guy the Atlanta Thrashers put on waivers in '05, factors in on every goal, including a pair by Teemu Selanne.
Tonight's better games: Penguins-Rangers, 7 p.m.; Leafs-Bruins, 7 p.m.; Flames-Wild, 8 p.m.; Avs-Sharks, 10:30 p.m.
Related:
The Ottawa Senators and Homer Simpson (May 9)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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1 comment:
Well, of course I had to write something too :-)
Couldn't agree more. Caps get no respect, as usual, but they deserve it. And Bryan Murray needs to STFU; what a crybaby.
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