They haven't won a Stanley Cup and that's a bit of a sore point but there's one trophy the Ottawa Senators can hoist -- the one that goes to the biggest bunch of boneheads in professional sports.From the Providence Journal website (James Mirtle and Habs Inside Out have it too):
"At yesterday's Ottawa-Montreal game, Ottawa Senators president Roy Mlakar apologized directly to Canadiens managing partner Foster Gillett, the son of team owner George Gillett, for an inappropriate recurring video scoreboard skit involving the Senators mascot forcing a visiting team's fan to jump off a ship. Canadiens GM Bob Gainey's daughter was lost at sea in December."This "stupid and careless disregard of a sensitive situation" (Ottawa Sun) makes the entire club and its fans look bush league. Accident, schmaccident -- it amounted to laughing like heartless hyenas in the face of a father, a family and a hockey club still coping with the loss of a promising young life -- just five weeks and one day after 25-year-old Laura Gainey (pictured) was lost at sea.
What, too soon? Gee, you think?There are tens of thousands of great, wonderful sincere people who live in Ottawa and cheer for the Senators, but all that's lost in the shuffle right now. Amazingly, one day after an on-air panelist on The Team 1200 radio station made drew a tacky-at-best comparison between the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and what the Philadelphia Eagles were going to do to the New Orleans Saints in a National Football League playoff game held last night, the Senators further lowered the bar for good taste in the sporting arena.
Gainey wasn't at the game and obviously it wasn't intentional, but as Mlakar rightly put it, there's "no excuse." There's also no saving face for the Senators. Don't start spouting public-relations piffle about the considerable charity work the Senators do -- any reason to respect this franchise beyond what the players can do on the ice is blown to smithereens for a good long time. At least for this week, this month, this year. Ask again around 2018.
Oh, it's a recurring skit they do at every game? Well, no other NHL team has lost part of its hockey family under such tragic circumstances, and so recently. With digital editing there is no way that footage should appear during a game against Gainey's Canadiens barely a month after the Hockey Hall of Famer lost his daughter.
It wasn't just the video guy or gal screwing up. Today, anyone associated with the Senators, this conscientious objector/pathetic wannabe included, has been painted with the bush-league brush. A National Hockey League team should be above pulling some stunt straight out of Arena Football 2 or some other third-tier trashsport that operates in backwaters like Pig's Knuckle, Arkansas. If Gary Bettman actually cared about the league's image, there would be a major fine. If it was possible, the whole organization would deserve a demotion to the low minors. At the very least, Canada's capital city and Senators fans deserve better.
Obviously, if it's OK for Senators employees to make a video mocking other teams and show it at every game, then it suggests something about the office culture out there in the wilds of Kanata -- instead of pride in one's organization, there's a false, defeatist pride built on running down others. (Which is where it should be pointed out that you can expect someone to dismiss this as the bitter bleatings of a Leafs fan.)
There are some Sens supporters who get their rocks off by disrespecting other teams -- there's actually one fan who shows up at games in a Leafs sweater with the crest X'd out rather than, say, actually wearing a Sens shirt. This pushes all that negative energy they're carrying around out into the open. Maybe they can learn to have some dignity instead of acting like boneheads.
Flames 3 Oilers 1: Nice day to be Dion Phaneuf -- he gets the game-winner on the day he's selected for his first all-star game.
Canucks 6 MarLeafs 1: For a half a team, the Leafs were doing well there for a while tonight. The Toronto spin would be that there was a phantom mouthing-off penalty called after a phantom penalty and that allowed Vancouver to apply the hammer with two goals 13 seconds apart in the third period, but really, could you honestly say that the Leafs were hands down the better team on the ice? No, not really.
Sens 8 Habs 3: Daniel Alfredsson, one of the Sens whom fans of other teams actually find tolerable (OK, except for some Leafs fans), had five points as the Sens looked like the Kanata-based teams of yore... we're talking 2005-06. This took on the look of an intramural game where one team is hopelessly outclassed and just quits playing after a while.
Blues 6 Kings 5: Yutaka Fukufuji became the first Japanese goalie to appear in a NHL game. The real story is that aside from Colorado, the Kings might have the biggest goaltending mess in the league right now.NHL Scoreboard
HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN
Our Kingston Frontenacs fell into a seventh-place tie after losing 3-2 against East-leading Barrie, while the 67's dropped out of playoff position in the OHL's Eastern Conference after their own 3-2 setback in Owen Sound. 67's goalie Lukas Flueler made 45 saves against The Sound Attack, showing there's one Swiss goalie in this town who can stop the puck on a regular basis.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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5 comments:
Other teams fans like Alfie? I am sure you are not referring to your fellow Leaf fans , who boo Alfie every time he touches the puck? Who do all those other unlikeable Sens players think they are anyway, winning so many games lately? Are they trying to prove they that have finally meshed to form a team ? Naw, that can't happen; can it?
What's not to like about Alfredsson? He's a good two-way player who does a ton for the community.
As a sens fan, I think that the sens need not only to aplogize, but determine who authorized showing this skit and fire them. Individuals have to be held responsible for their actions. major mistakes and bad decisions.
Sort fans should be taught one principle. support and cheer like mad for your team. Never cheer AGAINST the opponent. If you have a dislike for the opponent, ignore them , and cheer even harder for your team. There would be less unfortunate incidents if this principle was adhered to.
Following sports should be fun; not a source of anger, angst, hate or hard feelingd.
I agree it was highly distasteful to show the boat skit, but getting rid of all such skits poking fun at other teams just because of one incident? For what, the sake of not hurting the feelings of fans of other teams? I never knew cracking a smile at a hockey game was such a crime.
"With digital editing there is no way that footage should appear during a game against Gainey's Canadiens barely a month after the Hockey Hall of Famer lost his daughter."
Andrew, please tell me where it was suggested that we get rid of all such skits?
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