A message to Sens fans

... in particular, the Heatley-hating fans:

It's cool that you're all excited about the game tonight and being able to boo and trash the much-hated Dany Heatley. It's great that you seem willing to display a little energy and emotion for once because we're certainly not known for being anything but comatose.

But what do you say to sharing some of that energy, emotion, and excitement with the home team for once? How about more than a couple of Go Sens Go! chants that don't die the second the other team touches the puck?

Seriously, how embarassing will it be to hear more Heatley boos and jeers at the game than cheers and rallies for the Ottawa Senators?

Very. And to be honest, not too surprising.

Surprise me.

The Habs are not Canada’s Team… sorry

I am an Ottawa Senators fan.

I stopped watching all hockey when my beloved Ottawa Senators were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in round one of the playoffs. That’s my choice – why can’t some people respect that?

I don’t believe that once your team has been eliminated, you should now cheer on the remaining Canadian teams fortunate enough to remain in the playoffs. That’s not my thing.

We have one Habs fan on my team at work. For the great run that the Montreal Canadiens are having in their playoff run, the Habs fan is not a problem. I’m happy for him and his team. He doesn’t seem to have any problem with me not cheering on his team or watching the games.

Which makes this somewhat amusing, and confusing.

The problem I am having is with a couple of non-Habs fans who have jumped on the Habs bandwagon and feel that, being a Canadian Citizen, I should be cheering on the Habs because they are “the last Canadian team in the playoffs!”

They feel that, because I am not also on the Habs bandwagon, I am a “jealous Sens fan”, and anything I say that they feel might bring bad mojo to their adopted team, makes me evil.

Let’s be clear here. The Montreal Canadiens, or any “Canadian team” for that matter, is not “Canada’s Team”. The NHL is not the OIympics. The NHL is not the IIHF World Championship. Team Canada is not playing in the NHL playoffs.

The players on each “Canadian” team in the NHL aren’t even all Canadian Citizens. The only thing that makes a “Canadian” NHL team Canadian is their home city.  (We’ll ignore the fact that the Montreal Canadiens play for a city in a province that has tried to separate from Canada… that’s a whole other story) :)

“The cup needs to come back to Canada!”

Sure, that would be nice. But my cheering or not cheering for a team is not going to make a difference in whether or not the Stanley Cup comes back to Canada. That’s up to the mixed bag of nationalities playing for the Montreal Canadiens. Direct your energy into positive vibes toward the team, not as negativity toward me.

My decision to not cheer for the Montreal Canadiens does not make me a bad Canadian Citizen, nor does it make me a “jealous Sens fan” anymore than it makes you a “jealous {insert your team here} fan”.

Good luck to whichever team you cheer for, but please stop telling me that I have to cheer on a team that is not my chosen team.

My cheers are reserved for the Ottawa Senators.

GO SENS GO… maybe next year. :)

Week 28 - GO CANADA GO!

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We love hockey
Originally uploaded by Twister65
At the start of every hockey season, I get out the Ottawa Senators flag and hang it on the wall behind the TV. We have a large Ottawa Senators blanket that is folded in half and placed on the back of the couch, with "Ottawa Senators" facing outward. A small Stanley Cup is placed somewhere in the room. This year it happens to be on the CD rack beside the TV. This is all done with my wife's blessing. She's as much of a fan as I am. In fact, she may be a bigger fan because she knows all of the players' jersey numbers. Oh yeh, we also wear team jerseys while watching the game.

For tonight’s Team Canada vs. Team U.S.A. Olympic game I got out the Canada flag and hung it on the wall in an attempt to bring some good mojo to the team. It didn't help. Maybe I was too late.

Anyway, thanks to the Olympics for my Week 28 Project 52 inspiration!

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Week 26 - Brian Elliott


Brian Elliott (26/52)
Originally uploaded by Twister65
This week's photo comes from my trusty 'ol Canon S3 IS.

My family and I went to the Sens Super Skills competition this afternoon. Unfortunately, they frown heavily upon fans who use, or try to use, a DSLR camera.

This is Brian Elliott take a fun shot on a junior goalie warming up. It's so cool to see pro players playing with the kids and treating them like an equal.

Team Red beat Team Black this year, for the third year in a row.

Chris Chelios is a moron

"Someone should have drove that guy, he did that on purpose," Cheli said Wednesday.
Why would anyone intentionally try to make themselves look foolish?

He made a mistake. Good grief.

If you were to make a list of the top 5 worst things to happen to the cup, I don't think this one would even make the list, yet people are making such a big deal out of it.

Think it's bad? Try these...
MONTREAL(?), 1906 or 1907. A Montreal club (possibly the Wanderers) wanted its picture taken with the Cup in the studio of photographer Jimmy Rice. After taking the photo, the team left, and the team left behind the Cup. It stayed in the studio for some months until Rice's mother (some sources say it was his wife or his housekeeper or his cleaning lady) used it as a vase, as it held red geraniums in the Studio window.

OTTAWA, 1927. The Ottawa Senators won it, and it spent much of the year's summer in King Clancy's living room, where it served as a receptacle for everthing including letters, bills, chewing gum, and cigar butts.

NEW YORK CITY (?), 1940. After the New York Rangers won the cup, Hall of Famer Lynn Patrick and teammates celebrated by urinating in it.

NEW YORK CITY(?), 1980. Clark Gillies of the 1980 New York Islanders allowed his dog to eat from it. Gillies said, "He's a nice dog.

And there's more... source.
Get over it, morons.

Posted by email from scottpaterson's posterous

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Hockey Scores?

With 1200 entries received for CBC's "Hockey Night In Canada Theme" contest, this entry -- "Hockey Scores!" -- is the most viewed and most voted entry:

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Clearly, HNIC fans are still upset about CBC dropping the ball on the old theme, losing it to TSN.

According to this article, having the most votes does not guarantee a win for the entry.

The "ratings," "recommendations" and "most viewed" portions of the contest website are just some of the factors judges will consider when selecting the contest semi-finalists, who will be presented to the country and judged by a celebrity panel on a CBC network television special on Oct. 4.
It sure would have been funny though. :)

CBC - You Snooze, You Lose

CTV purchases The Hockey Theme

CTV Inc. has acquired the rights to The Hockey Theme in perpetuity, the network announced Monday.

The agreement was reached with Copyright Music & Visuals, which was unable to renew a deal with CBC Sports.

CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore said he was disappointed but not surprised the song was shopped elsewhere.

"The two sides were so far apart and there was so much bad blood that we knew a deal would be difficult," he said. "The reality is it takes two sides to do a deal and we tried everything we could to do a deal.

"We offered arbitration, mediation — we offered to meet their price. On Friday, when it came right down to it, we never got a response from them on our latest offer and find out, in the meantime, they appeared to be negotiating with CTV."

Moore said CBC had negotiated for 14 months but to no avail, and that the agency was asking for $2.5 million to $3 million for use in perpetuity.

"If they got that from CTV, we would never have been able to get there," Moore told CBC Newsworld. "It is not a responsible price for us.

"If that is the price CTV wants to pay, it won't be the first time nor will it be the last time, probably, that they outbid us for something. They have a lot more profits than we do."

The song had been used on Hockey Night in Canada since 1968.

"Hockey is a game, it's not a song," Moore said. "We have the No. 1 sports property in Canada.

"I don't expect one less viewer to tune in on Saturday to watch Hockey Night in Canada. They will continue to watch their favourite team."

According to a release, CTV said it agreed to a deal with Copyright Music & Visuals after Friday's deadline with CBC passed.

The agency represents the song's composer, Dolores Claman, who was born in Vancouver.

"The song has a long and storied history in Canadian sports, and has become ingrained in the hearts and minds of hockey fans across the country. It is an iconic tune, embraced by Canadians everywhere, and we felt it was imperative to save it," said Rick Brace of CTV Inc.

Moore said he was surprised a rival network would purchase something so inextricably linked to the Hockey Night brand.

"It's a constant commercial for our network," he said.

Lawsuit complicated negotiations

Earlier on Monday, CBC Sports had said it planned to bring in noted sports and entertainment lawyer Gord Kirke in a last-ditch effort to bring about a mediated resolution.

Complicating the bid for a settlement was an outstanding lawsuit filed against the CBC in late 2004 surrounding its use for ringtones and downloads.

Moore said CBC wanted to resolve that issue along with the song's future use, but that representatives for Claman wanted to keep them separate.

Claman, 80, has written about 2,000 jingles over her career, including the Ontario theme A Place to Stand, which she co-wrote with her husband, Richard Morris.

"I am very moved by how so many Canadians have taken the hockey theme to heart. We are so pleased the song has found a new home," said Claman, who now resides in Britain.

Before Kirke's involvement was announced, CBC Sports announced plans to launch a new national contest in conjunction with Nettwerk Music Group to find a new theme song.

Canadians will be invited to write and record an original song for Hockey Night in Canada, with fans and a jury of experts to choose the best new composition.

"I think it'll help us get a new demographic," Moore said. "The theme that we had was a great theme. [But] it was 39 years old. Maybe it's time for something else."

The son of Stompin' Tom Connors said Monday his father is open to licensing his famed hockey song to CBC as a replacement.

"If they want to use The Hockey Song, it's a good song, whether Tom sings it or not," Tom Connors Jr. said. "There's other versions out there.

"Even if they wanted to commission some other band, like a big [name] band if they wanted to do more of a Hockey Night theme, everything is open for negotiations, of course. That's the business we're in."

The last 3 paragraphs of that article scares me. For the love of all things hockey, please... NOT Stompin' Tom Connors. I don't like Stompin' Tom. And I don't like "The Hockey Song". I don't think it would matter who sang it.

Anyway, the CBC really dropped the ball on this one. They're trying to make it look like they did everything possible, but seriously, how can they expect anyone to believe them when they openly admitted that they were going ahead with the contest to find a new HNIC song, while trying to negotiate a deal? Would a few more days of waiting really make that big of a difference to their contest?