Sens at Land's End

I was totally enraged by the refereeing in the Sens-Ducks game last night, during the game and for several hours afterwards. I have now calmed down slightly, but I’m still a bit annoyed.

The hits from behind on Redden, Volchenkov, and Meszaros bothered me when I saw the replays. Aside from the fact that they could have been hurt, that’s probably at least two power plays the Sens should have had in the first. The crosscheck on Alfie was bad, but on the other hand I’m sure there were some non-calls against the Sens as well.

The only call that’s still really pissing me off is the one where Mike Fisher and Kunitz got into a bit of a shoving match, and Fisher ended up with the only penalty. It was blatantly a bad call; it can’t be called anything but a pro-Anaheim call, and then to give the Sens an unsportsmanlike penalty on top of it? The referees handed the Ducks a full two minute 5-on-3, essentially allowing them to put the game out of reach. The officials should not decide the game that way. I’m not saying the Sens would have won if not for that call — Giguere was playing really well — but they would at least have had a chance to tie it. That call robbed them of anything they could have done. Absolutely terrible. I’m glad Murray complained.

I just kept telling [referee Wes McCauley] it was a bullshit call. ‘That’s a bullshit call you made.’ He said, ‘Say it again and you’re gone,’ so I said it again.

Awesome.

The lack of any penalties after the scrum in front of the Ottawa net was also ridiculous. The Ducks should be called for running the goalie; Gerber probably should have been called for retaliating. No penalties there is ludicrous.

I was glad to see Gerber fighting back though. He actually played pretty well for a Sens goalie.

The Sens — I think it’s probably okay to use the name again — won 5-4 over Pittsburgh yesterday, and played much better. Not perfect, but better. Several players, I thought, had good games, though I still want both goalies dead (really, I yelled DIE GERBER! at the TV at one point during the game). The team has probably gone to California now, which I think will probably do them good: they get away from the media in Ottawa for a while, and go to a place where almost no one cares about hockey. Ahhh, relaxation and sun. They have Anaheim tomorrow, San Jose on Wednesday, LA on Thursday, and then Phoenix on Saturday. None of these games, with the possible exception of Phoenix, is on TV here, even though I’m on the west coast. It makes me want to cry.

I look forward to seeing how they respond to the Ducks in terms of emotion. It is also an interesting game statistically: Ottawa is the highest-scoring team in the league (213 goals for, avg 3.23 per game); Anaheim is 27th (out of 30) in the league in goals scored (165 goals, 2.46 per game). The Ducks have allowed the 4th fewest goals this season (158 total, 2.36 per game); meanwhile, the Sens are a truly pathetic 23rd in terms of defense (195 allowed, 2.96 per game). It’s great offense vs. great defense, and horrible offense vs. horrible defense. Which will prevail?! I just don’t know!

Tonight is my first hockey class. I’m interested to see what kind of people will be in the class, and how bad my skill level is going to be compared to them. Maybe no one else will be able to skate at all, and I’ll end up looking like Gretzky by comparison. Hey, it could happen. It looks like there are only 7 in the class so at least it shouldn’t be overwhelming. The class goes from 8:30 to 9:45 which isn’t really ideal, especially considering that I have an 8am class tomorrow. But it’s okay.

Other than that … I have watched about 10 or 12 episodes of The X-Files since yesterday. I made a conscious decision not to do any schoolwork this weekend. It seems less like slacking if I’ve actually decided not to do it, don’t you think?

This morning I bought the final piece of my hockey ensemble: a stick. I just got one of the cheapo $10 sticks. When I am in the NHL, then I will consider spending $100 on a stick (ie, I will never, ever spend that much on a hockey stick). My stick says “Kovalchuk” on it. I noticed it when I was paying and started laughing and the guy at the store laughed and said, “You like that, eh?” Of course I like that, dude! Kovalchuk has scored over 40 goals in each of the last four seasons. What’s not to like? Also, he was Heatley’s linemate in Atlanta, and was the only guy taken ahead of Spezza in the 2001 draft, so if you think about it … without him there would probably be no Spezza in Ottawa. Anyway, I have named my stick Kovie, and no doubt it will help me become the greatest goal scorer in the history of the UBC women’s beginner hockey class.

On the subject of those other hockey players, the ones I like, I have decided to try to be more positive. It occurred to me that if the players are thinking as negatively as I have been, then it’s no wonder they still suck. Today, they play Pittsburgh at noon, as they did last Saturday, and the game is on CBC, as it was last Saturday. Last Saturday’s game was the one that had me apoplectic with rage, if you recall, but I believe today is going to be different. It’s the exact same scenario as a week ago, except it’s a new coach, a new month, a new position in the standings (yesterday they fell from 2nd to 5th in the East), and we are going to go with a new outlook on life. Yes. Dean McAmmond said this in the paper today:

“It’s like a thread on a sweater. You keep pulling and pulling and pulling, and all of a sudden you have one sleeve on your sweater. And then you look and you’ve got half a sweater. And it doesn’t just take one game to get your sweater back. You need to knit it back.”

I wonder if McAmmond is a knitter, or maybe he’s just a really big Weezer fan. Either way, this is a great way of putting it. I have faith that the boys can remake this tattered sweater and turn it into something that is not only wearable but even quite attractive, if they put their minds to it.

Whatever is going to happen, this week will likely make or break them. It’s their western road trip: on Monday they play Anaheim, and if they can’t at the very least get fired up for that one, then I think that’s the season. I will try to take advantage of the fact that they’ll be geographically closer to me than usual to send extra good vibes. Too bad I can’t just say eff school and eff money and take a California/Arizona road trip myself.