Final Thoughts

This is tough.  As a fan of the Ottawa Senators it is difficult to write after watching the team lose in the Stanley Cup Finals. 

Some of the sting is relieved by the fact that the Anaheim Ducks were clearly the better team and a very classy bunch.  It is hard to be overly bitter watching players like Scott Niedermayer, Teemu Selanne & Todd Marchant hoist the Cup.   

The Senators are a good team, a very good team.  Most of their key players are under contract for a few more years so they will be very competitive next season and beyond.  Maybe next year.

Sour Grapes

• Chris Pronger is a dork.  Good player, but a dork.  Look for him to request a trade.
• Not to be cruel, but CBC play-by-plan man Bob Cole is so past it.  Cole goes directly to the Hall of Fame when he packs up his mic, but all he is doing is damaging a legendary career by continuing.  If Ray Emery wants to make Cole look good he should change his name to "Ottawa Goalie."
• Harry Neale, Cole's sidekick and CBC's colour commentator, is simply not interesting and should shuffle off the stage with his partner.  Neale no longer adds much to the broadcast, apart from the odd famous quotation, so as a tribute to Neale I will quote Voltaire:  A witty saying proves nothing.
• Don Cherry is an embarassment.  He uses his cameo appearance on NBC to promote fighting.  Good work Don - this is really going to grow the game.
• It is absurd that the NHL made Ottawa wait 9 days, and Anaheim 6 days, before starting the finals. 
• The officiating has to improve.  Watching Game 3 of the finals live, I was amazed by the way Anaheim got away with holding up the Ottawa forecheck.   During the regular season these small obstruction plays were penalized.  The refs turned a blind eye to obstruction throughout the Finals, until they decided to call Ottawa's Tom Preissing in Game 5.  Weird.
• It's 2007.  We've mapped the human genome.  There are microprocessors in coffee makers.  How come we can't get consistently high quality ice in NHL arenas?
• Did I mention that Chris Pronger is a dork? 

Comments

[outburst]

I knew there was a slight pro-Ottawa slant here but it happens.
Personal biases aside, I'll say this:
1. Alfredsson stepped up like all good captains should, even if most of the other players didn't follow his lead. Spezza should be flogging himself for that final series.
2. I'm glad the gaff Phillips made had little bearing on the outcome of the series. I wouldn't wish a Steve Smith legacy on anyone.
3. Yet again, officiating changed in the postseason. Ottawa's always had a lethal powerplay and perhaps they relied on it too much but there wasn't a Ducks penalty called in the last two periods.
Bettman should have to answer to the officiating.

[MT]

Thanks outburst. I try to be objective most of the time, but I live in Ottawa & have been a season ticket holder since day 1. When you've watched a team draft Alexei Yashin & go through a season with 10 wins it is tough not to stick with them when the finally make it to the big stage.

[TJ O'Connor]

I laughed at Harry's similes and metaphors throughout the finals, but the two most obscure, non relevant and ridiculous were:

During game 3, after Chris Pronger wires a shot from the blueline, Harry quips, "He doesn't miss many of those. He's got a Geiger counter on his stick" (what does a radiation measurement device have to do with a shot? Did Harry perhaps mean "laser beam"?)

During game 4, speaking about the size of J.S. Giguere's equipment, Harry spouts, "He's got more padding than the space shuttle at take off." Space shuttle? Padding? What?

It's time for Harry to retire. If Teemu is thinking about it, Harry is definitely past due.

[MT]

Let's not forget Harry's response when Greg Millen said something about the players being nervous.
"Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back."
He hit the trifecta with this one: obscure, unfunny & sexist. Good work Harry.

[TR.]

THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR.

[Moray]

What was he saying to the linesman? And what did he say about it afterward?

[mercurial scribe]

I concede: Pronger is a dork.

Don Cherry is a character all his own and I'm too young a fan to criticize his insanity, be it fashion or promotion.

officiating DOES have to improve. We (the Ducks) should have never be able to get away with all that cross-checking... but in the same hand, after all the slanted officiating that went on in the previous series, how could anything else be expected?

And high quality ice in Anaheim! Don't make me laugh harder!

Though I'm thrilled my boys won the Cup, I do feel your pain since my Hubby is a Sens fan. And a Kings fan. Imagine how that goes in our house!

[BEN]

CONGRADULATIONS OTTAWA FOR WINING THE CUP!!!! I LOV HOKEY ITS SO FUN TO WATCH THEM SHOOT THE THING IN THE HOOP NET THING AND RUN UP THE ICE AND STUFF