Sens at Land’s End

So that’s it then. This article doesn’t show it, but SportsCentre tonight had a clip of Dany Heatley’s agent, J.P. Barry, actually confirming that they’ve asked for a trade.

I read the news this morning when someone on Twitter linked to E.J. Hradek’s original story on ESPN’s website. My initial reaction was a kind of shocked disbelief. A genuine “What the frak?!” moment. I read more, and concluded it was likely true.

Well. Ain’t that a punch to the gut.

SENShobo generously suggests that Heatley is taking one for the team here, saving Bryan Murray from having to trade any of his other core players. hobo is clearly a better person than I am, because all I can see is someone who couldn’t deal with it when things got a little ugly so he decided to bail. Someone whose ego apparently couldn’t handle being moved to the second power play unit (a move initiated by Craig Hartsburg, by the way, not Cory Clouston) even though his production actually went up after his “demotion.” (I assume there must be more to this than that one complaint, and I very much hope there’s some kind of story behind all this that will make Heatley seem like less of a villain.)

I am at least partially rational here. I can see that this may end up being an opportunity for the team to grow. I can also take comfort in the fact that Murray has held on to Jason Spezza, who, as James Gordon writes, has managed not to be a whiny biatch during the Sens’ crappy phase (so far).

But at the moment I’m mostly feeling the emotional impact of this. I feel betrayed. I feel blindsided. I feel, basically, like I and my team have been dumped. We had a commitment here, or so I thought. Fat long-term contract, no movement clause. He couldn’t have seemed happier to sign it, and we were overjoyed to be keeping him around. And then the going got rough, and he decided greener pastures were in order. Nice to know he was so invested in the team. I know, there’s no loyalty in professional sports. But this sure makes you appreciate Daniel Alfredsson even more, doesn’t it?

I feel like going all Stephen Colbert (and DHS) and marking Heatley as dead to me. I don’t want to look at him. Never want to hear “The Heat is On” again and might sell my Heatley jersey on eBay. It seems reasonable to feel this way right after the breakup. Maybe this is the fan equivalent of the woman burning all her asshole ex-boyfriend’s stuff. Maybe I’ll get over it soon and start to care what team he ends up with. (Right now, I’d happily send him to the Islanders.)

But today, I’m pissed off. I’m very disappointed. I’ve got some rage. And I’ve got a song that expresses my messed up angry dumped fan rage, with a special (slightly censored) message for Heatley at the 3:15 mark. Adios, Heater.