In a game where the Sens only showed up for about 30 minutes it’s amazing that they almost came back to tie it (the overall numbers are generous to them in my opinion). While Ottawa was able to pull off remarkable comebacks against both Boston and especially the Rangers, I don’t think they can afford going down more than a goal against Pittsburgh. Now that Marc-Andre Fleury is stapled to the bench, even with the Penguins limited defensecorps, it’s not the kind of team you can open the floodgates on (neither the Bruins or Rangers had counterpunchers like Pittsburgh). That said, the Sens confidence should be high as that was a winnable game and they can certainly play better.
Varada de-mothballed himself and wrote a long piece in response to this week’s Ross A article that echoes what I wrote back in January (thanks for reading boys!). He argues that part of the problem in Ottawa is that the traditional hockey narrative of rebuilding or competing doesn’t work here (because of ownership) and that this requires a new narrative framework for those writing about the team. He suggests that:
Ian Mendes does this all the time, covering the incredible story of Jonathan Pitre, or Kyle Turris’ involvement with the Capital City Condors
This is one way to go, although I think the appeal of human interests stories are limited within a sports context. Personally team performance and particularly team building are what’s interesting (I think the former is the predominant interest for most fans). To my mind a major reason for the dearth of blogging is the struggle many have in tackling the nuts & bolts of the numbers. Opinion pieces are what paid journalists supply in spades (as does every hockey forum in existence), so for bloggers to replicate that is simply redundant (Senschirp and The Silver Seven get away with it in part because they produce mountains of material–but why read Jeremy Milks talking about “good in the corners” when it’s what Don Brennan writes every column?). For fans to seek out a blog it needs to be providing something they can’t find elsewhere and I think that played a role in the fading away of much of the Sens blogosphere. Fortunately for bloggers, winning creates interest, so at least in the short term now is a good time to get back at it (ergo the resurrection of SenShot). The ebbs and flows of what’s popular are irrelevant to me–this is something I do for fun–if I want viewership I write about anything else (eg here, here, here, etc–all far more popular avenues than writing about the Senators).
It’s not surprising that Pierre Dorion was nominated for GM of the Year given where the team is in the playoffs. As Nichols points out the nomination isn’t remotely meaningful in terms of actually assessing him (it’s about as relevant as Paul MacLean winning coach of the year in 2013). I am bemused by the fans upset with Nichols about his very mild critique.
Another EU FA was taken off my list as Nashville signed 6’5 Swedish forward Victor Ejdsell, who had a monster season in the Allsvenskan for BIK Karlskoga. Not from my list, the Leafs signed a couple of Swedish defensemen (23-year old Calle Rosen and 21-year old Andreas Borgman)–the latter was fairly highly ranked by CS in 2013 (#36).
I’m not a fan of hearing the anthem at sporting events, aside from international ones like the Olympics. Putting aside the history of why it happens (we can thank America), it always struck me as bizarre–my team isn’t representing Canada (other than in the convoluted sense that it’s the only Canadian based team left in the playoffs), the team certainly isn’t comprised only of Canadians, and both anthems don’t cover all who are involved. There’s nothing inherently patriotic about watching an NHL hockey game–it neither values or devalues what our nation (or any other nation) is about. The league does not represent a state–it’s simply a corporation doing what businesses do. Despite all of this the topic of removing it rarely comes up and is never popular. Julian Garcia was one of a couple of people who raised it last year (granting his article isn’t a particularly engaging piece), but it’s generally a dead letter. Having the anthem played is such a part of the sporting tradition fans don’t want it to change, so I’m not expecting it to go away any time soon.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
1 Comment
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
eyeonthesens 
[…] Senators News & Notes […]