Bye Bye Senators

Okay, so I’m being bugged by some non-Senator fans about why I haven’t commented on the end of the season. My predictions were wrong. The team couldn’t do it.

Oh well. Remember folks, it’s only hockey. Life goes on. It doesn’t hurt that the day after the season ends, it’s 22 degrees Celsius here! Who worries about hockey on such a perfect riding day???

It is a season we will all hope to forget soon. There will be changes. Redden will not be back. Nor will Emery. Who knows who else has played their final game with the team? My guess is that they keep most of the core. Remember, it was just one year ago that they were playing in the Final. This team is simply not as bad as they played.

The Ottawa Sun has a few good articles in it. This one talks a lot about what went wrong. To be honest, I don’t listen or read much of the negativity. I just don’t have time to get caught up in a bunch of emotional people yelling for them to trade everyone – Spezza, Heately, etc. If some had their way, the only guys who would still have a job next season would be Alfie, Fisher and Volchenkov. 

Take a deep breath folks. The sun rose this morning. And, let’s be honest … we are still better than the Leafs. 

Sens lose again

So … my beloved team is in need of a miracle (see Ottawa Sun Article). I’m a preacher, you’d think I would believe in miracles! And I do, but not necessarily the ones that hockey teams need. I think there might be some more important miracles God may attend to before worrying about the Sens winning a few games.

If you follow this team, you know all about the talk of disunity within the locker room. From what everyone seems to say, there are at least two, maybe three, factions within the group. One needs to look no further than that to wonder what happened to this team.

Can disunity cause a group to go from being in the Stanley Cup Final to barely making the playoffs in one year? Absolutely. Disunity causes exactly that to happen. 

I’ve never played hockey at a high level, but I have seen the destructive results of disunity. I’ve seen churches that were full of vision and passion deteriorate into lifeless, visionless gatherings all because disunity was allowed to flourish. 

Disunity destroys potential.

Every once in awhile I think it’s good to look at oneself and ask the question, “Do I feed disunity or do I stand against it? When someone comes to me with a desire to put up walls and cause negativity within my church, do I encourage it or put an end to it?” Good questions. I think I’ll ask myself them today.

C’mon Sens!

Okay, they played better. But not good enough to win. Yes, I could go on about some of the non-calls, but then my whining would make me sound like a Leaf’s fan! 

I was much happier with the team last night. IF – and I said IF – they lose the series, but play the rest of the games like they played last night, so be it. With the guys out of the lineup, and the disunity that supposedly is in the locker room, the season may have been over before the playoffs even started. All I hope is they give it their best.

A lot of people have given up on the Sens. They’ve written them off and have little good to say about them. You wont hear me to that. I’m a fan. I support my team. They will be my team even if they are swept (they wont be). 

I mock Leaf fans all the time – but you have to give them one thing: they are passionately supportive of their team. They know, before the first puck is dropped in the first exhibition game of the year, that their team will suck. They know that they will lose early, rebound near the end, only to break their hearts in the final few weeks. They’ve been doing that for years. Still, they get so excited about the season beginning. They love their team.

I wish more Sens fans were like that. Stand with their team through thick and thin. Every year there seems to be more and more people who believe in this team no matter what. It’s nice to see.

So … can they still win? Of course they can. Many teams have come back 0-2 to win a series. It’s why the series is a Best of Seven. Will they come back? I can only hope.

Go SENS Go!