Quite a bit of excitement in the last couple of days. Tuesday was trade deadline day in the NHL. Murray didn’t do much for the Senators, bringing in Martin Lapointe from Chicago for a sixth-round draft pick. Lapointe isn’t expected to make a big splash on the ice (where he will likely replace the injured Chris Neil), but more for his leadership in the locker room. The big shockers at the trade deadline was Pittsburgh winning out in the Hossa sweepstakes. No one saw that one coming. Everyone believed Hossa would end up in Ottawa or Montreal. The Penguins will definitely be a team to look out for in the playoffs. They certainly won’t be pushed over like they were last year by the Sens. The lack of trades by Ottawa at the 2008 deadline said 2 things to me. Murray was giving a wake up call to the team, telling them they are good enough as it is. Secondly, that Paddock’s time as a coach was running out unless things changed. The Sens showed their appreciation to Murray by losing 4-0 to Boston. This was their first back-to-back zero goal losses since 2000! I thought they hit the bottom of the barrel with the 5-0 loss to Toronto on Monday. I guess I was wrong.
Tuesday night was also the very last show of the Return of the Spice Girls show. If we believe what the Spices have been saying, this was their last show ever… but as a couple of them said, they learned to never say never, so who knows. From the clips I’ve seen, it was a very emotional night, with each girl crying at some part of the concert.
For those like me who watch Stargate: Atlantis, I have but one word to say regarding this week’s episode, and that’s just WOW. I’m not going to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet, let’s just say the final 10 seconds were absolutely and totally not expected. There were rumblings that something like this would happen, but not like this. Just wow….
As I was driving home today, I was listening to the Team 1200 (a local sports radio station) when I heard the news that Paddock was fired (along with one of the assistant coaches) and that Murray was stepping back behind the bench for the remainder of the season and playoffs. As much as I knew Paddock’s days were numbered, I didn’t expect it this quick. I thought Paddock might still have 2-3 games left to prove his worth. Now we have to wonder if Murray didn’t want to do this sooner, but wanted to wait until the trade deadline had passed. We as fans just have to hope that this will be a wakeup call to the team, and we’ll see them regain the greatness that they showed last year and at the beginning of this year.
Go Sens Go!
