20,500 Senators Fans: Canadian

“Star Spangled Banner & O’Canada”;
Game Three, Eastern Conference Finals (2007)
If you listen closely you can hear me…

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Thanks, But Next Year Doesn’t Matter Yet…

because for the 2006-2007 season the Ottawa Senators made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and there’s only one other team who gets to say that they were there as well.

So save all that “there’s always next year” crap for the 28 NHL teams that had been watching these Playoffs from the Nineteenth Hole.

The Ducks may have been the best team in the West, and they may have beaten the best team in the East, but it wasn’t their skill that won them their fourth game… it was the four goals that went in off an Ottawa defender during Game Five and those grey beards.

It was the determination and the presence that comes with having spent fifteen years of your career watching from the Nineteenth Hole that won this Stanley Cup for the Anaheim Ducks.

The Senators have the best defence in the NHL this season and the best offence and, except for Mike Comrie and Dean McAmmond, the entire team are all still under contract… in fact, unless the General Manager wants to make a trade, they could all be back for next season.

And “CanaDucks” is ignorant and lame. CBC News recently made the point that “Canada’s Team” may have lost the Stanley Cup, but there were “plenty of Canadians” on the Ducks… the sports radio station in Ottawa even referred to the Anaheim Ducks as the “CanaDucks.” As if we needed that little piece of assurance, and without it we wouldn’t be — couldn’t be — complete. “Oh, I’m a fragile Ottawa Senators fan… and if we couldn’t win The Cup the only way I can wakeup tomorrow morning is to know there were a few Canadians on the winning team…” Get bent.

The Anaheim Ducks won 16 out of a possible 28 games and won the Stanley Cup. It’s not my place to congratulate them, I had nothing to do with putting their team or their opponents team together, nor have I ever met any of them. Any congratulations given to a Victor should only come from those they’ve played against and beaten. In my opinion the more experienced team, led by a Captain with three Stanley Cup Rings previously, beat a more talented team. It happens. Next season, which starts in 16 weeks, the Ottawa Senators — barring a trade or two — will put the very same lineup on the ice and each and everyone of them will know that what they did during these Playoffs was not enough. And they’ll know why. And they will be in the Playoffs next year.

And there’s a really good chance they’ll be the only Canadian Team standing at the end… again.

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If you find a broken link, or the YouTube stuff isn’t loading
properly, let me know and I’ll find an alternative…
I’m Canadian, it’s what we do. Off the ice.

It Was Aboot Fucking Time…

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