Sens at Land’s End

It was interesting getting the opportunity to see the Senators in the flesh last night for the first time since May 2007. I don’t think the full extent of how bad they are has been apparent to me from just watching on TV, unfortunately. Or maybe that was fortunate, since it allowed me to maintain a sliver of optimism up to this point in the season. That is now gone, and watching the World Juniors has me officially hoping the team can get John Tavares in the draft somehow.

Playoffs? I don’t think we should be thinking about that.

Out of the Woodwork. Apparently, there are other Sens fans in Vancouver! Quite a few of them, and some even have full gladiator costumes or those foam gladiator helmets. Others have Heatley, Spezza, or Alfie jerseys or Chris Neil t-shirts (the guy sitting down the row from me had one, at any rate). I was very surprised by the number of people I saw supporting the boys in red. Sadly, most of us were left shaking our heads by the end of the game.

I Knew There Was a Reason I Erased You From My Vocabulary. That goalie. That bloody, godawful goalie! Vancouver’s third goal was absolutely unforgivable. It effectively killed the game, too: everyone knows there’s no way the Sens can come back from a 3-0 deficit. I need a countdown to the day this guy’s contract expires.

Permanent Blackout. Ugh … the power play.

What Became of the Likely Lads? I just don’t understand how this team can be so bad. Chris Phillips was totally undressed by a deke from one of the Sedins (I don’t know which … does it really matter?) at one point. It was really, really shocking. Ryan Kesler easily beat Mike Fisher to a loose puck for a shorthanded chance in the third period (demonstrating why Vermette for Kesler would have been such a good trade for Ottawa, I thought). The normally speedy Fisher was not in the play at all. Dany Heatley failed to hit the net on every chance he had. What should have been easy passes for Jason Spezza were missing their marks. And when Daniel Alfredsson didn’t score on a beautiful chance very early in the first period that would have set an entirely different tone for the game, all I could think was that the Alfie of last season would have had that one. I don’t get why or how it happened, but the fact is that this is simply not a good team anymore, and it seems obvious from the players’ body language that they know it. The entire team looks confused, frustrated, and lost. I feel quite sorry for them.

I am glad I got to see them, but in the end it was a rather depressing experience.

In keeping with the melancholy mood of this post, I now present the first reader submission we received for the “A Farce United” campaign, which comes courtesy of reader Heli, who shows amazing dedication by following the Sens from Finland. I can only imagine how her emotional state suffers from the resulting combination of missed sleep and hockey-induced frustration/depression.

Quite beautiful, isn’t it? So wonderfully sad.

Over at Battle of Ontario, Jay Jardine has also come up with an amusing contribution. It’s good to see we’re on the same train of thought regarding Tavares.