Super simple, just answer in the comments:
If you're a Senators fan, what do you get out of watching this season's games, particularly when the team appears to be at its lowest ebb? Please be honest - I'm not looking for humour or sarcasm here.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 at 10:17 p.m. and is filed under Ottawa Senators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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Perpetual hope for (and perhaps a glimpse into a better) future keeps me coming back to their games despite the harsh reality of the present. A sense of shared experience with the greater Sensfan community and fodder for the water cooler tomorrow.
Anonymous
11:06 p.m.
Even though he's playing hurt, one of the few reasons to watch the Senators is Alfredsson playing out the string.
Nichols
11:20 p.m.
Having zero expectations for the remainder of the season, one can only be pleasantly surprised. I will always be an Alfie fan through thick and thin, and even though he's struggling right now, I'll always cheer for #11. Michalek is fun to watch again now that he's got his speed back. Other than that, it's a good chance to evaluate the players that are called up from Bingo, although most of them are still works in progress, including our latest "goalie of the future".
Pascal
12:49 a.m.
As a Leafs fan I'm essentially in the same boat. A few years ago I watched Sundin on what we thought was his farewell tour, we looked for youth to blossom but mostly we grumbled about how losing sucks.
- @felixpotvin
Chemmy
10:04 a.m.
1. Watching the prospects like Karlsson and Lehner.
2. Watching NHL hockey. When you watch an NHL game, regardless of the two teams involved, you are watching 40 of the 600 best players in the world.
Believe it or not, there is some evidence to suggest that the Sens braintrust might not be completely insane in suggesting this team might not be that far away. Right now, they are just good enough to lose, as the old expression goes. They are competing hard and, by and large, doing a lot of good things, but they just can't catch a break. Witness last night, when the winning goal was a fluke bank shot. They outplayed Buffalo in the game right before the all-star break, and then lost on a horrid line change in overtime. Welcome to sports - some seasons, the breaks go your way, and some seasons, they don't. Even with some breaks, this still isn't a playoff team, but I will suggest that they aren't quite as woeful as their final spot in the standings is going to make them look.
Give this team a healthy first line centre, some stability in goal, and a bit of a summer makeover, and they might be surprisingly competitive next year. Are they going to win the Cup in 2012? No, but in today's NHL, you are never as good, or as bad, as the standings make you out to be. No doubt, though, that this is what rock bottom looks and feels like - I can now fully identify with Leaf Fan.
Dennis Prouse
10:10 a.m.
To enjoy the good times, you have to suffer through the bad.
Current Hawks and Penguins fans, for the most part, found other interests while their teams built through the draft. Unfortunately, people in Ottawa will likely do the same, but not me.
Anonymous
11:41 a.m.
I think sports fans ought to be able to enjoy a game for itself, you know? It's not as though the Sens are the first team in the history of pro sports to suck.
I was an Expos fan, and until they left I was fully able to enjoy their meaningless, late-season games for what they were - a pleasant, nightly diversion where I could cheer for the team to win that game, even if the wider context was pretty bleak.
Or consider college football bowl games - why do people watch those, save for maybe the BCS ones? Why do people follow their teams into those? There is zero hope of a championship in that case. In some cases even zero hope of finishing with a top 25 ranking. Those games, after all, are complete and utter stand-alones. They have no impact on any standings for other teams in college football and there's even less point to watching players "develop" since a quarter of the team (give or take) turns over ever season anyway. The reason is just that fans like to see their teams win, even if just for a night.
dzuunmod
11:51 a.m.
Hope that Melnyk will one day grow a pair and show both Murray's the door and that the next GM will have autononmy. Keeping Bryan around will just lead to the next guy being a hand-picked puppet (Hello thar Tim Murray!) or a lame duck.
At this point, there's no real point to watch except that we're going to hopefully get a top five pick and clear out a lot of the older, comfortable vets and replace them with young guns with hunger that skate like the wind.
This team is a dud at the moment
but the cupboard is no longer bare, or so they tell us!
Unknown
4:11 p.m.
I like watching the young guys and I'll always enjoy watching Alfie. I still remember the awful years back in 92/93 - I cheered for the team back then and don't plan to abandon them now. I enjoy watching the games and, as someone else said, they still work hard and compete almost every night.
LMN
9:57 p.m.
Nothing.
Chubbs
12:36 p.m.
what do i get out of watching this season's games? ... the same thing as watching any season's games - amusement.
btw, asking this question when the team is at its "lowest ebb" is pretty cheap. being a fan is just like being married ... through sickness and in health.
Anonymous
12:17 p.m.
"btw, asking this question when the team is at its "lowest ebb" is pretty cheap."
Um, how so? For the record, I think it's "pretty cheap" when people won't sign their names to comments, but that's just me.
"being a fan is just like being married ... through sickness and in health."
You do know that 50% of marriages end in divorce, right?
The Universal Cynic
12:47 p.m.
i think it's cheap because you'd never have asked that question when the sens were ripping it up on their cup run in '07. questioning the fans now when the team's crap just implies you can only get something out of following a winning team. you're just as bad as all the other fair weather band wagon fans out there.
i also realize that most marriages fail but that's because so many spouses are like so many sports fans and bail when things get tough. it's easy to be married when you're on honeymoon with a young hottie cruising around the caribbean. it's not so easy 15 years later when you're dealing with two teenage kids and struggling to pay the mortgage. that's when your co-worker at the office starts looking sexy and exciting.
being a committed to a team is the same. cheering for the sens when they were raking in the president's trophy was easy ... now? ya, not so much. hmmm, all of the sudden the hawks are looking sexy and exciting.
Anyone who wants to dump on the sens now and cheer for a winner go ahead ... buy your pens or caps jerseys but just remember that their time at the top won't last either... just ask our friends in new jersey.
anyways i love your blog ... it's too bad you don't write more often. sometimes you're just a little too negative for my taste ... but i guess that's why you're the uc.
btw, my name is pete. i just signed in as anonymous cuz i'm lazy and it was faster.
Anonymous
11:18 p.m.
"you're just as bad as all the other fair weather band wagon fans out there."
Stated many times - I'm not a fan any more; I'm an observer. There's a very big difference.
The Universal Cynic
12:00 p.m.