First of all, I'll be out of the country tomorrow so I won't be here to share any more thoughts with you on Thursday. Secondly, there's always the column to worry about, so I unfortunately can't say everything I'm thinking right now -- but I will offer the following few thoughts in the short time allowed:
1) I'm already hearing on the post-game show that "people shouldn't be angry" over the end result. That's a bunch of garbage. Don't let anyone tell you how to feel -- I'm angry, and I'd certainly understand if others were as well. I'm angry because the Senators regressed into a team that we hadn't seen before in these playoffs. I'm angry that there was effort, but no sense of urgency. I'm angry at Heatley's disappearing act, Redden's complete inability to dominate anything relevant, Meszaros' incompetence and Emery's inconsistency. I'm angry that Anaheim never saw the Senators at their best. I'm angry that the road seemed paved after a failed 5-on-3 halfway through the first period in Game 1....which brings me to point No. 2...
2) Honestly, I'm less sad about this loss than I was after the Game 7 Conference Finals heartbreaker courtesy of Jeff Friesen against the Devils in 2003. The reason? The '03 Jersey series presented a true sense of a momentum shift -- desperation hockey, huge goals, the speech from Roger Neilson, the emergence of Jason Spezza...you felt like it was going to go the Sens' way. You were SURE it was going to go the Sens' way. I never got that feeling in this series -- not even when they won Game 3. I felt like we just biding our time, waiting for it to be over, and praying the team wasn't humiliated in the process.
3) Get ready for the "lack of character" crap to start again. Why the (expletive) am I still hearing Gary Roberts' name? The Senators didn't need him. They needed to beat him...and in case some media have forgotten, they did. Let it go for Christ's sake.
Finally, I'll leave you with some open-ended questions:
- How much did Emery's stock drop in the final series? At one point, you could sense he was getting ready to argue for Manatee-type money in the offseason. How much is he worth now -- putting the over/under at 2 million?
- Wade Redden: His time in Ottawa must come to a close -- yesterday. Where do you send him, and for who?
- Bryan Murray: Prime architect of your 2007 Stanley Cup winning franchise -- the Anaheim Ducks. He built it for them; shouldn't he build it for Ottawa? And if so, does he wear both hats?
- If you're Chris Phillips, how do you begin to recover from tonight?
More later. Please be good to your livers and to yourself. And remember, it's going to be an interesting and uncharacteristically short offseason...get ready.
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