Sens at Land’s End

I may have been the only fan in GM Place who didn’t suffer any type of shellshock at the Canucks’ home opener last night. Of course, I may also have been the only fan wearing a Blue Jackets t-shirt. The Jackets are, if you don’t know, my adopted Western Conference team, second only to the Sens in my heart. After that foulest of former Senators revealed his true, devilish nature this summer, the excellent Rick Nash inherited the title of My Favourite Player. I’m sure he will do it great justice.

He got off to a good start last night, picking up three assists in a 5-3 Columbus win. The Jackets played a fairly strong game. The highlight for me was a great kill on a 2-man disadvantage that lasted over a minute near the end of the first period. They managed to kill the first penalty, with new acquisition Sammy Pahlsson doing notable work, and then non-evil former Senator Antoine Vermette scored a nice goal after some very pretty passing from Nash just as the second penalty expired. With the goal coming in the last minute of the period, this was one of those TSN Turning Point moments.

The Jackets managed to score three more goals in the first six minutes of the second period: in fact, they scored four goals on four consecutive shots, and chased Roberto Luongo from the game. While all of the goals — scored by Kristian Huselius (after a cheeky behind the back pass from Nash), Rostislav Klesla, and rookie Nikita Filatov — were pretty to look at, I don’t think any of the shots could have been considered unstoppable. Luongo just plain didn’t look good, and the fans cheered when Andrew Raycroft came in to replace him.

Vancouver made the game interesting and came back to within a goal in the third, but Little Stevie Mason looked awesome and the Jackets held the lead. Mason stopped 40 of 43 shots, and yet was absurdly not named one of the stars of the game in the building. Madness.

So, the Jackets have started 2-0 — for the first time in their history, apparently — and the Canucks are now 0-3. Fingers are approaching panic buttons in the city of Van. It’s only three games, though: it’ll be okay.

Oh Right, the Sens

The unpredictable adventure that is the 2009-2010 Ottawa Senators will continue in about 20 minutes as the Sens take on the now super-testosterone-fuelled Toronto Maple Leafs. “The Monster” is in goal for Toronto. Filip Kuba and Ryan Shannon are both sitting out for the Sens, with Alexandre Picard and Shean Donovan stepping in as their replacements. No idea how this one will turn out: I can see it being a total blowout for either side or a really close game. Who knows?

Photo taken moments before the Stanley Cup crushed a ravenous Sidney Crosby.

With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ victory in game seven last night, the 2008-2009 NHL season has come to a close. It seems appropriate at this time to look back at the highlights of the year.

There was the Blue Jackets getting their first ever playoff berth. That was nice. They immediately got stomped on by the Red Wings, but still.

From a Sens perspective, there was the hiring of Cory Clouston. Of course, to get to that point we had to live through the crapitude of the Hartsburg era, and in getting a coach who can apparently make our team win we lost the source of about 20% of our offense. But hey, I’m sure it’ll be worth it. Another plus: we no longer have a Swiss goaltender. We now have a (gimpy) French Canadian waiting in the wings instead. That seems like an improvement. Other than that, let’s see … well … I guess … the team … won some games?

Take heart, Sens fans. The season from hell is done. It’s finally over. And the future looks … um.

Maybe don’t think about hockey for a while.

From the Toronto Star:

CBC announced its slate of television shows for the 2009-2010 season, and two new reality competitions will be among the first new series Canadians will see.

The fall premieres includes Battle with the Blades, a combination of skating and Dancing with the Stars. It teams up top figure skaters with hockey stars and culminates in weekly pairs figure skating performances.

Oh please, please let the “hockey stars” in question be actual NHL players. Zdeno Chara lifting his partner over his head. Brian Campbell working gracefully and flawlessly through a footwork sequence. Mike Richards lowering his partner into a death spiral. This could end up being the greatest thing ever seen on television.

Tonight is the first ever playoff game in Columbus. In the spirit of Puck Daddy’s post about other teams’ first ever home playoff dates, I’m thinking back to what it was like in Ottawa when the Sens played the Sabres in that first playoff series. I didn’t get to go to any of the games, but I remember listening to one on the radio on my walkman (yes!) as I walked home from a 67’s game. The Sens won in overtime, and I stopped and cheered right in the middle of Bank St.

Let’s go Jackets!

I’ve watched bits and pieces of all the first round series, but have seen the least of Carolina-New Jersey and Calgary-Chicago: both have been conflicting with other games I want to see and things I have to do. I will watch the Flames and Hawks play today, but I may not get to see Patrick Kane, who is a game-time decision for Chicago. It seems that while Jonathan Toews has had no trouble stepping up his game for the playoffs, the smaller Kane has been a bit more vulnerable to the Flames’ abuse. (CORRECTION: It seems Kane has the flu. I assumed he was hurt because I saw him looking very pained after taking a big hit the other day.) The Canes-Devils series looks likely to be a long one. I’m surprised — but not too surprised — to see the Devils apparently getting back on track.

For me, the biggest surprise so far has been the Rangers. I think we all knew Henrik Lundqvist was probably going to outplay Jose Theodore, but it seems very few people foresaw just how big a problem the entire goaltending situation in this series was going to be for the Caps. Obviously, if they can’t get their offense going today, they may as well pack it in. What would lie ahead for them after another first round loss this year is clear: a developing reputation as chokers. And a reputation like that is hard to shake.

Which brings me to what has been my favourite series to this point: Ducks-Sharks. It’s just fun. Chris Pronger and Jonathan Cheechoo had quite the battle going last night, with Cheechoo, who runs around like a maniacal ball of energy out there, goading big dumb Pronger into two silly crosschecking penalties. This caused Randy Carlyle to make the face of a man who’s just been told his flight is cancelled and he’ll have to take the Greyhound from Winnipeg to Vancouver. Normally I would find this funny — and really, it was — but because I picked the Ducks to win I am actually rooting for them here. (Yes, it feels dirty and all kinds of wrong.) I now feel I have new insight into what it must be like to be a Ducks fan and have to watch your team take a constant stream of idiotic penalties. It would be like having several highly-paid Christoph Schuberts on your roster. All you can do is shake your head.

My dear Blue Jackets are in a spot of trouble, looking overwhelmed in their series against Detroit. They’ve also had some pretty unfortunate bounces, but mostly Detroit just plain has them off their game. Trying to get things back on track, they’re doing some line shuffling and our old buddy Antoine Vermette now finds himself centring the team’s top line, with Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius as his wingers. Good luck with that, Antoine.

The big news yesterday was that the Sens officially shortened Cory Clouston’s job title, signing him to a two-year deal and making him the team’s actual Head Coach. I think this is excellent news. CC-1000, as I’ve taken to calling him because of his uncanny resemblance to Robert Patrick and his angry-yet-somewhat-robotic behind the bench demeanour, has done great things for the team so far and I’m happy to see him get the opportunity to keep going.

As pleased as I am to see the Sens get this settled, I’m a bit distracted by the even bigger news of the day: the Columbus Blue Jackets clinched their first ever playoff spot last night. Thinking about how excited I was when the Sens made it to the postseason for the first time, I can imagine what longtime Jackets fans are feeling right now. From what I’ve seen watching their games on TV this season, Columbus fans are extremely enthusiastic, and I know they’ll love this experience.