PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 34: HEY, RON MacLEAN'S GRANDPA FOUGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY IN SOME WAR

Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean never lets us down when it comes to being a vessel for cringe-worthy moments of pure hoser pathos.

Between periods of the Senators-Sabres game last night, HNIC showed a shot of the Parliament Buildings. MacLean observed: "There's the eternal flame," referring to the fountain in front of the Peace Tower.

It's actually the Centennial Flame. It's not even an actual eternal flame. (That was a 1980s pop song by The Bangles, as best as can be recalled from Grade 10 history class.)

Hockey Night in Canada, with MacLean as its public face, is always quick to wrap itself in the flag and give Don Cherry carte blanche to turn Coach Corner into a forum for his politics and, occasionally, a recruiting ad for the Canadian Armed Forces. So you would think MacLean would be able to correctly identify an iconic Canadian monument, right? Otherwise, all that thanks and praise MacLean regularly lavishes on the military women and men serving in Afghanistan might come off as kind of phony and pandering.
Who knows if the gaffe came from the strain of anchoring playoff telecasts almost nightly for more than a month now, or it if just read from a TelePrompTer? Regardless, it's so classically Canadian to be so ignorant of our own national symbols or landmarks. Do you think an American broadcaster would ever be put in a position to misidentify the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial, let alone actually do sot?

Secondly, it looks good on MacLean. His act plays well in the sticks -- referring to intellect, not geography -- but "there's the eternal flame" is sickeningly sweet to hear for those who have had it with MacLean's routine of being the flag-waving, friend to all (unless it's Gary Bettman or anyone involved with NHL officiating), Canadian everyman (albeit one not above using the same agent as the players he covers). It's OK for MacLean exploit that role for fame and fortune, you do what you gotta do. It just makes him fair game when he can't name a Canadian landmark that even the 12-year-old offspring of NDP voters can identify.

It goes to show that the Old Man had Ron MacLean pegged way back in 1987: "He's no Dave Hodge."

Senators 1 Sabres 0 (Ottawa leads East final 3-0): Ottawa showed some creeping signs of reverting to their Dynasty That Never Was form -- witness Chris Kelly not shooting at the empty net with 30 seconds left and having the puck stolen -- kept a tight enough grip on it to pull out the win. The Senators were probably a little too sweet, Buffalo remained in a funk and when you throw in an early penalty parade, it was a pretty craptacular game. That's not for the Sens to worry about. The hay was in the barn after they took both games in Buffalo.

Senator under the microscope: Chris Neil seems to have gone missing, pre-game monkeyshines notwithstanding. If that's the biggest quibble with Ottawa, it must be going well.

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