Sens at Land’s End

Though I haven’t posted about it, I’ve been watching all Canada’s games at the World Championships in Halifax and Quebec City. Unfortunately, Canada ended up losing the gold medal in overtime today. Very disappointing. You could see it coming, though. They didn’t play well in the third period — they blew a two goal lead — and yeah. It just wasn’t meant to be. The Sens’ own Dany Heatley won the tournament MVP award (of course), but he posed for one picture with the trophy and then just handed it to someone on the bench and skated away. It was really sad. Such a great tournament for the team and then to have it end that way.

Despite the loss, it was a really entertaining tournament, particularly due to the awesome play of Heatley and his linemates, Ryan Getzlaf and Rick Nash. Individually, these guys are all great players: they have size, strength, skill, and the ability to score. Combine them, and you get the Heatzlash, an unstoppable all-Canadian entity that terrifies the living daylights out of other countries’ defencemen and goaltenders.

I have heard a few Sens fans being a bit critical of Heatley for his awesome World Championship performance. “Who is this guy wearing #15 for Canada?” “Where was he when the Sens were in the playoffs?” I understand where this comes from, and to be honest I was irritated at Heatzza for signing on to play for Team Canada when it seemed they were both exhausted by the end of the Sens’ season. But in the end I’ve had to conclude that seeing those two pick up more “big game” experience can’t be bad, and should benefit the Sens in the long run. Spezza, in particular, should have gained a lot from playing on the fourth line in this tournament. He was praised in the media for the way he handled his reduced role, and appeared to adjust his game fairly well as the tournament progressed. If any of it stays with him, it’s going to be a boon to the Sens’ organization.

As for the people criticizing Heatley, well, I’d just like to remind them that a player fitting his description scored 141 goals for Ottawa over the last three seasons and led the NHL in playoff scoring (along with Alfie and, oh yes, Spezza) in 2007. There’s no argument that either of these guys performed well in this year’s series against Pittsburgh, but the entire team had fallen apart. I hardly think blame for the loss can be pinned on them and them alone. By the end of the Sens’ year, everyone seemed miserable. If playing in this tournament helped Heatley and Spezza rediscover the joy of hockey, then I’m all for it.

Aside from potential future benefits to the Sens, the other great thing to take from this tournament is that Canada’s 2010 Olympic team should be really, really freaking amazing. This was an excellent Canadian squad, and when you think about some of the people who weren’t there — Crosby, Iginla, Lecavalier, Thornton, Phaneuf, Luongo, Brodeur — it’s hard not to get very excited about the possibilities for 2010.

I also got to learn more about some players I wasn’t overly familiar with before, like Brent Burns and Mike Green and Dan Hamhuis and Duncan Keith, all of whom were impressive (I especially liked Burns and Green), and I got to watch The Amazing Rick Nash several games in a row, and I realized that Ryan Getzlaf is actually not so bad. Slightly bitter about that one because I do try to keep my level of Ducks-hatred as high as possible, but I suppose I can get away with liking one player on the team. Maybe the super high intensity of my hatred for Pronger balances it out.

After the gold medal game ended, I switched over to the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia game. The Penguins won the series today. The Sens are officially no longer Eastern Conference Champions. And the Penguins are going to the Cup Final. HOW WONDERFUL. FEEL MY JOY. WHOOP DEE BLOODY DOO.