Due to popular demand, I am again creating Ottawa Senators desktop calendars for this hockey season. First up is a new calendar for October 2009. Enjoy!

A small thank you comment is appreciated if you are/will be using my desktop calendars.

Not only am I lucky that I have a loving wife who loves hockey and football as much as I do, her knowledge of hockey won her pairs of tickets to 3 Ottawa Senators games this morning! She called in to TGOR on Team 1200 and won the tickets and a hat. They’re a great birthday gift Woohoo! Click play below to listen to her call.

Dany Heatley has been traded to the Montreal Canadiens! We finally got rid of the bum! I heard from a reliable source that Heatley was traded to the Habs, and in return the Sens will get Kirk Muller and BoB Gainey, who are expected to come out of retirement and lace up their skates once more. The Sens will also get 600 pounds of Montreal style smoked meat in the deal.

My source, a sanitation engineer at Scotiabank Place who happens to be my cousin’s hair dresser’s son’s babysitter’s 2nd cousin states that the Habs originally offered Carey Price instead of the smoked meat, but Murray was stated as saying “I don’t like swiss cheese”.

Now where’s my interviews? Where’s the hits to my website? What I posted above has as much merit as any of the dozens upon dozens of rumours that so called legitimate websites like ESPN, TSN, Ottawa Sun, etc.. have posted over the last few months. Hey guys, guess what? We’re sick and tired of seeing every BS rumours reported on. Don’t bother us until you have concrete, verified trade news (not rumours). The worst of the bunch being Bruce Garrioch and Don Brenner of the Ottawa Sun. I used to mostly respect their views and insights, even though I didn’t always agree with them, but their articles over the summer on this Heatley situation has tossed out every single ounce of respect I may have had for those 2 so called journalists. I’m more tired of the media than the actual Heatley situation. You should be ashamed.

Has Dany Heatley played his last game as an Ottawa Senator? I sure hope he has. It was leaked this week that Dany has asked to be traded, and that came as a big slap in the face to Sens fans everywhere.  He was once considered a star within the Senators organization. A player that many fans, young and old, looked up to. For 4 years we Sens fans cheered him on, and in one fell swoop he destroyed all respect that he had gained. From what one can gather by reading newspaper articles, blogs and social media sites, Dany Heatley has quickly become one of the most reviled players to wear a Sens uniform. How did it all go so wrong?

What we can gather from little information that’s been made available, Dany does not like playing for Clouston or his system. A system that preaches accountability, hard work and a team first mentality. By asking for this trade, Heatley has shown that he only cares about himself and padding his goal total. Its not about the team winning, its not about working hard, its about Dany and Dany alone. Over the last couple of years we’ve noticed that Dany’s style of play was to hang around the goal, wait for a pass and shoot the one timer. Not creating plays, not going into the corners, not backchecking, but we mostly looked the other way because he was putting the puck in the net.

We thought that Dany requesting and getting the A meant that he was not only a team player, but a team leader. Were we fooled! That A should have been a T for traitor.  We welcomed you with open arms when you requested to be traded from your other team due to some horrific events that happened there. Even though it meant losing one of the biggest team favorites at the time, we took you in and welcomed you to our team and our city. The team showed its dedication to you by not only giving you a 5 year, 37.5 million dollar contract extension, but also by giving you a no trade clause. The team gets into a little trouble for a couple of seasons, trouble that seems to have been surmounted with Clouston’s arrival, and you want to jump ship?

You’ve lost the respect of an entire fanbase. The Sens Army does not want to ever see you in a Sens uniform again. You’ve disgraced yourself and you’ve spat on the organization and fans that supported you, all because you’re nothing but a talented yet lazy bum.  Good riddance.

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

Summer movie season has started, and right out of the gate we have a front runner for best movie of the summer. Its a really great story, with great characters (with a different twist from the characters we knew before), amazing acting and some special FX that are not only really well done, but they blend into the movie and are used to progress the story, instead of just showing off FX for the sake of showing FX. It reboots the franchise allowing for a fresh start (or an alternate universe, depending on how you choose to see it). If you only see one movie this summer, Star Trek is the one to see.  9 out of 10

The first disappointment of the summer came a couple of weeks later with Terminator: Salvation. Its not a bad movie per say, but its not great either. After having digested the movie a bit, I would place it on equal footing with T3. I was expecting more from this movie. More action, more war against the machines, more John Connor. Instead we got introduced to a new character and most of the movie revolved around him. I think that giving McG the reins on this movie was a bad decision. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been so much more, which is what’s the most disappointing. 6.5 out of 10

Metallica are coming back to Ottawa in October for their Death Magnetic tour. We haven’t seen Metallica in our fair city since 2004. Buying tickets for this show was a no-brainer. Didn’t get amazing seats, but they aren’t bad seats either. The show sold out in less than a day which suprised me. Now the countdown begins!

Stone Temple Pilots is one of those bands that have been on my ‘must see in concert’ for a while now. When the band broke up in 2003, I thought that I would never see this amazing band live and in person. I had to settle to seeing Velvet Revolver. Here we are now 6 years later, the band is not only back together, not only about to release a new album, but they are also playing Ottawa Blues Fest! There’s no way I was going to miss this concert. Getting first row tickets was almost beyond belief! I finally get to see STP live! I’m so psyched!

Who would have guessed that Detroit and Pittsburgh would meet again in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. I certainly didn’t, and was hoping not to see it happen again. Out of all the teams that made the playoffs, these 2 teams, along with the Montreal Canadiens, were the teams I really did not want to see in the finals. Can Detroit repeat another win this year? I think so. I don’t think that Pittsburgh still has what it takes to be Stanley Cup champions. I call Detroit Red Wings in 6, and Sid the Kid Crosby crying in the corner again this year.

TV season is over, and here’s some thoughts on some shows and finales; Lost had a great season finale, sucks that we have to wait 8 months until the next and final season. Smallville’s season finale was probably the worst of the series. It was very meh. Survivor was good, finally a good guy winning the million again. Really sucks that My Name Is Earl got cancelled. Hopefully it will be picked up by another network. Also sucks that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles got cancelled. This show really delved into the characters of the Terminator universe. We got to see what made them tick. It was very much a psychological and cerebral show. It will be missed. Surprisingly, Dollhouse got picked up for next season. Rumours are that Summer Glau (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly) will be joining the show. Fringe’s season finale was also really interesting. Fringe and Dollhouse are easily my 2 favorite new shows. I can’t wait to see where both shows will take us.

After years of wanting to get a DSLR, and having learned most of what I could by using a point and shoot camera,  I finally got my hands on one. The new Canon T1i. This was my treat to myself for quitting smoking (4 months now), and I also had to drop my monthly comic book sub from approx 30 books a month to 5, but it was worth it. I’m absolutely in love with this camera, and I’m driving my wife and family crazy because I bring it everywhere I go.  I can already tell that I’ve improved my photography skills and technique and hope that the learning never stops and the skill keeps on getting better.

Last but not least, today (May 31st) marks the one year anniversary of my and my wife’s wedding. I can’t believe we’ve been married for one year already. The time has gone very quickly. Here’s to many more years of happiness together. I love you sweetie.