::alio!::

I now know exactly what a thermocline is

It's this. off the top:

I had a dentist appointment today. My hygienist, Heather, is a Leafs fan. It's very hard to trash talk when your mouth is full of dental tools . . .

I wore my wee jersey to class today. There were a few others, and a few Leafs jerseys . . .

the score:

AAAAAAA.

Hockey stresses me out. This was like the playoffs all over again. A nailbiter to the bitter, bitter end.

NB: Injured Ottawa players before the puck drops are Fisher, Volchenkov, Varada, Spezza, Vermette, and Chara. Redden is scratched due to the flu. This means that Kelly and Hamel are recalled from Bingo, and Simpson, not due to play until after the AllStar break, are shoved into the depleted lineup.

Fearful for the health of the players after Saturday's goonfest, the league puts its two best and oldest refs on the ice: MacCreary and Fraser, along with two veteran linesmen. It helps. I have no beefs with the officiating tonight.

FIRST PERIOD: Alfredsson scores at 00:13, a franchise record. He now has 24 goals on the season, one more than sniper Marian Hossa. Alfie proceeds to get booed every time he has the puck. What? I thought we were at the Corel Centre, not the ACC. It's amazing to look at a home audience and see so many blue and white sweaters. Not to be outdone by Alfie's early prowess, Havlat and Hossa team up and get into the game with an amazing offensive chance. Feeling jealous of all the attention on Kidd, Patty steps into the game at this point. Now, I have to say this for poor Patty: he doesn't have many games like this, but when he's good, he's really good. However, then there was a disastermobile. Hossa got hit in the head with a puck, and even before he hit the ground, you could see the blood spraying. He must've left a cup and a half of it on the ice, and had to be helped to the dressing room. He did not return. It took staff a few minutes to scrape up the blood and shards of visor that remained on the ground. The Sens pretend that they haven't actually lost their star shooter, and proceed to score two more times before the end of the period. The first was courtesy of Havlat, from Langfeld and Alfredsson on the power play. The second was a Pothier shot with eyes, from Rachunek and Schaefer. A fantastic offensive line in the first was the hastily constructed Langfeld-Bonk-Havlat line. They should keep that one in mind for future games.

SECOND PERIOD: Simpson showed us all that he was there by getting into a wrestling match with Domi that didn't go anywhere, but at least proved that Muckler made a good move. A glance at the bench, however, showed that there were a few players who weren't there. Rachunek didn't show for the second. Some others, among them Van Allen, Niel, and Hnidy, kept getting up and going to the locker room, likely to puke, as most of the team has the stomach flu. Lovely. At one point, there were only seven players on the Ottawa bench. The second was another Schaefer and Langfeld show, with Peter making chances everywhere he was, and Langfeld making use of his new linemate, Havlat, by scoring Ottawa's fourth unanswered goal of the night. Patty made some unbelieveable saves, and was really strong for the first half of the period. There was a downturn about halfway through, however, when Neil got into a fight with Perrott. It turned out to be a draw, but Perrott got in a good many hits before Neiler recovered. That should be a sign to all that something was afoot on the Ottawa bench. Neil has never lost a fight on home ice this season. Despite beautiful efforts by the Bingo Boys, Kelly and Hamel, Tucker scored on Patty's short side, Renberg scored on Patty's short side, and Stajan added another one to make an already tense game even more tense.

THIRD PERIOD: Havlat was outstanding on the forecheck in this period. He had to be, however, because everyone else was just too tired. The Ottawa players spent most of their time in their own zone, just struggling to get the puck out and down the ice. These efforts proved fruitless, however, as Sundin knocked one past Patty's short side (AGAIN) to tie the game. Marty Havlat was strong both offensively and defensively, as was Alfredsson and Lalime, which showed merely that they were the only three players WITHOUT the flu. Smoke and Langfeld also made a good effort in the third, but it was obvious that both of them were tired. And fatigue makes for stupid penalties, as Curtis Leschyshyn found out. The look of utter desperation on his face said it all when he was called for high-sticking. Philly just looked plain tuckered out, and Hnidy spent most of his bench time with his head between his legs, trying not to pass out. The other players on the bench gave him a wide berth, and I'm sure his isolation didn't help his game at all.

OVERTIME: Hnidy did try, however, and made a strong effort in the fourth. However, he lost his stick at one point and Patty was forced to make some strong saves. Simpson and Leschyshyn also pitched in with some good defensive one-on-one. The two older D's make a good line. Alas, Nolan got his own back with the game winner, and the Senators lost to the Leafs 5-4 in overtime.

I watched this game with my dad. Now, my dad was a sailor in his day, but he's very mild-mannered and soft-spoken, and is always rather offended at my swearing when I watch hockey. For someone who grew up in Toronto, he sure hates the Leafs, though. But he was born in Montreal, so I guess that helps. Anyway, you should have heard the noises coming out of him. He and I kept standing up and sitting down and yelling and carrying on. My mother was at the other end of the house, and she knew exactly who scored and when. My dad's exact words at Nolan's OT goal were, "shit-piss-fuck-shit-piss-fuck." It went on, but it was pretty much the same thing. That was a VERY stressful game. I knew, though, that we would lose, There was this turnover, about a quarter of the way through the third, when I just sort of sensed the Sens gave up. It was downhill from there.

In their defense, however, that was an amazing game for them, considering that half of them were playing with the flu, the other half were out injured, and the third half (I'm an anthropologist, not a mathematician) had to pick up the slack and was completely exhausted by the end of the second period.

Langfeld had an outstanding game. He was where he should be, both offensively, and defensively, and, without him, Ottawa would not have made it as far as they did. He drew some good penalties that his team made use of -- all in all, he would be my first star of the night. Other players who had a good game would be Schaefer, who was always up on the forecheck, and had a few shorthanded chances; Kelly, who almost had his first NHL goal in his first NHL game in the first; Hnidy, who looked very ill but still played hard; Phillips and Pothier, who were the only healthy D pair on the ice, and played more than anyone else; and, finally, Patty, who did very well, considering he had no D to protect him. I noticed, though, that three of the five that got past him were on his short side. That seems to be the case more and more these days.

I'm amazed, and rather proud, that my boys made it as far as they did tonight, lacking as they did most of their defense and three of their top forwards. Good job, boys. You all get gold stars, in my book.

off the ice:

So, Schastlivy is GONE! Some say Muckler should have simply promoted Brian McGrattan from Bingo, but we'll see how this Todd Simpson fella works out. I think we may have gotten the better deal.

Boo, Chara is injured, and so won't be put in as a replacement in the AllStar Game. He's being replaced by New Jersey's Brian Rafalski. I'm going to watch it this year, I think. If only to see the dynamic between Eastern Conference coach Pat Quinn and the two boys he's been slinging mud at for the past two weeks: Daniel Alfredsson and Marian Hossa. Both players jokingly suggested that they might be benched for Sunday's game.

Since writing the above, it's now questionable as to whether Hossa's going to make it. Same with Redden. Perhaps they'll replace Hossa with Havlat, and maybe Redden with Phillips?

The Roger's House telethon went well. I was surprised to see an old acquaintance on the screen. Jocelyn Lamont, director of the Candlelighter's Childhood Cancer Trust, was there to talk about her son, Connor's, struggle with cancer. I did a lot of work with Jocelyn in my years at Mailboxes, and I have never met someone so nice, nor so dedicated to a one cause. She'd told me about Connor before, but it was amazing to see her tell it again with such composure. Nice to see you, Jocelyn.

in other news:

In my new quest to download a full version of Francesca Blumenthal's "The Lies of Handsome Men," I have only so far been able to find partial versions on album-selling websites. I repeat my offer: if you can find me a) the full mp3, or b) the sheet music, I will owe you big-time.

Amusingly enough, in my explorations, I came across this. It's rather amusing in a Douglas Adams meets Elizabeth George kind of way, and it makes no sense. I'm sure there's more to it, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Another random plug. I've never met this man, but I've followed his work across several sites, like Darryl's Advocate and It's All Been Done, and I think he's STUPER. So I'm stoked to see what he's going to do with this new comic.

AUGH!
{Sorry about that -- Dashboard came on my Winamp alluva sudden, and they're way too depressing. I had to change it pronto. Now I'm listening to the Hollies.}

Okay, so I spent a goodly amount of time on the internet yesterday, researching porn. That's right -- RESEARCHING. I'm doing this paper on views of hirsuteness and sexuality. I do have some referenced sources, but a lot of it is websites that spell things out and leave a lot of x's at the end. Anyway, during my explorations and exclamations of annoyance at those stupid porn pop-ups, I cam across this article. It's not porn in itself, but it's very revealing -- in other ways. I recommend the read, if you've got the time. It's pretty long. Very powerfully written, and it gives you a viewpoint you don't normally see. Hm. Makes me think. About what, I don't really know. I never really had a viewpoint on pornstar rights before I read this article. I don't know if I do now, but it did make me think.

Also, a very ethnographic tale of a pornstore clerk. Also makes you think. And in the end, that's all that really matters.

Okay, I promise I'll stop talking about porn now . . .

Posted by Ally at February 5, 2004 12:00 AM