Sens at Land’s End

Note to the Ottawa Senators: it is generally best not to spot the other team a 4-0 lead before the middle of the second period as you have done in your last two games, versus Vancouver on Thursday and Montreal today. Perhaps you enjoyed the time you miraculously came back from being down 3-0 to Minnesota last weekend a little too much, and have been trying to re-create that sensation. Well, that’s stupid. Get over it and try playing defence in the first period for a change.

By the way, someone should also tell Alfie that no one would respect him any less if he needed to miss more than one game with a broken jaw. Come on! Seriously, did anyone think he’d be back before next Thursday? I know he has super healing powers, but this is just ridiculous.

On the trade: farewell, Dean McAmmond. I enjoyed Deano’s time in Ottawa and I think he’ll be missed. For the sake of the man’s head, it would probably have been better if he’d never come to the Sens in the first place. It also can’t be fun for him to be traded to the hockey purgatory of Long Island. Still, I hope he leaves with positive feelings towards the organization and the city.

I am somewhat puzzled by this trade, but I suppose it’s possible that Chris Campoli may turn out to be worth a first round pick. His first game was promising: he picked up two assists against the gangstas in Montreal.

Oh yeah, welcome back to Mike Comrie, too.

The Sens’ one truly indispensable player, Daniel Alfredsson, is out with a broken jaw. He is expected to miss “at least a week to ten days.”

While I’ve been enjoying watching the team play well and the winning has been nice, I’ve never had any hope of the Sens making the playoffs — barring a huge miracle, that just isn’t going to happen — so this news doesn’t disappoint me from that perspective.

I’m not happy to see Alfie hurt by any means, but I am viewing this injury as an opportunity. It gives us a chance to find out whether Cory Clouston will turn out to be the coach who can finally make this team play without its captain. We all know the history: in past times without Alfie, the Sens have tended to collapse like … well, like themselves last season. Can Clouston make a difference? So far, he’s managed to use his mysterious Sens whisperer techniques to do what no coach has done before and get this team to play quite well for more than five consecutive games. I was starting to think that wasn’t possible. He’s been so successful that when the Penguins fired Michel Therrien earlier this week and promoted their AHL team’s head coach, I saw several people comment that the Pens were trying to “do an Ottawa” — possibly the first time that phrase has been used in a positive sense in over a year.

Creating and sustaining this surprising turnaround with Alfie in the lineup is a huge accomplishment for Clouston. Continuing to do it without Alfie would be just about enough to guarantee the removal of the word “Interim” from his title, in my opinion.

It’s time again for the Ottawa Bloggers Collective to come together via the miracle of the internet to watch a game as the Sens take on Radek Bonk and the Nashville Predators tonight. We’ll hang out. We’ll chat. We might even discuss the game.

Ah, Radek Bonk. Perhaps I should get out my old Bonk jersey to celebrate this momentous occasion. Why don’t you do the same and come join us?

Things have been pretty good between my hockey team and me lately. The last year has had its ups and downs — more downs than ups — but lately, I feel like they’ve been making an effort. They seemed to be trying to make up for all the crap they’ve put me through, and it’s been good. I stopped making excuses for them a long time ago, but now I can even tell people we’re together without having to prepare myself for the inevitable “what are you doing with those guys?” look.

I haven’t seen the team much in the last few days. I’ve been busy. All week, I’d been looking forward to tonight, when I’d actually get to spend the evening with them. Given that I’ve stuck with them through some hard times — it hasn’t been easy dealing with their constant mood swings — I thought they’d want to do something special for me tonight.

Well, after the first period I thought maybe they’d forgotten what day it was. There certainly didn’t seem to be a gift forthcoming. Nope, for a while it looked like we were going back to the same old crap: they shape up for a while, just long enough to make me think we’d be okay, and then bail out again. I need them to think about what I need for a change. I don’t want to go through that again. It’s too much of a rollercoaster.

By the end of the game, though, I knew for sure that they did care about me. I’m not saying everything’s going to be perfect from now on. I’m sure there will be more challenges ahead. But I’m feeling more confident that it will gradually get better. That game, with the comeback, and Alfie giving the team the lead in the third period, and the final screw you Minnesota empty net goal from Heater … that was like getting me a bouquet of roses and a box of hedgehogs (the chocolate kind), taking me for a romantic sunset walk on the beach, and cleaning my apartment all in one.

Oh Sens. You’re the best bunch of large, muscular boyfriends I never get to spend time with or see in person or even meet a girl could ask for.

(Memo to the Blue Jackets: Yes, I noticed that you won too, and rather decisively. Well done and thank you, but my number one guys have my attention tonight.)

Pretty good game by the Sens today. Okay, they lost, but personally I’m amazed they took the Bruins to a shootout in the first place. Nick Foligno looked incredible at a couple of times during the game: his goal was impressive, and he and Alfie deserve all the credit for Jason Spezza’s go-ahead goal in the third. I thought Brian Elliott looked kind of awesome in the shootout, and the Sens played most of the game as though they were actually invested in the outcome. That was nice. If not for Tim Thomas and Chuck Kobasew’s crazy Sens killer abilities, our boys might even have pulled out the win. All in all, I was very entertained.

Unless I find a tear in the space-time continuum or it turns out that Harry Potter’s world is real and someone gives me one of those Time Turner things in the next couple of days, it’s doubtful I’ll have time to post here again until Saturday the 14th. Too much school work. If the Sens do something monumental I’ll try to check in, but other than that this space will hold only dead air. Try to keep going without me.