The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

The Sens Skills competition was held at the SBP (what a name!) yesterday, and it was well attended. In previous years I've gone, no one would be sitting in the third level but yesterday's event easily surpassed 15,000 people. You could get in for $7.50 if you bought your tickets in advance and it's quite the bargain to see the players in action; next year's will probably sell out once word spreads on how fun a day it is for such a cheap price...Good to see Martin Havlat on the Sens bench, even in just a warmup suit acting as an assistant coach for Team White...Antoine Vermette was the fastest skater and Zdeno Chara had the hardest shot; no surprises there. What did surprise me was how 7th d-man Christoph Schubert has a wicked shot of his own, clocking at 102 mph. Vaclav Varada was no slouch either at just over 98 mph (Chara set a new Sens record with a shot of 103.5 mph)...Hasek is one of the few good interviews in the league. Calling the 3-0 shutout of the Habs the "easiest" of his career that "shouldn't really count" is just great comedy. Montreal was upset by those comments but really, they're upset only because they know it's true...I liked Bryan Murray's decision to have Patrick Eaves go as the third shooter in the shootout loss against the Mighty Ducks. Simply a reward to recognize his good efforts...Backup Ray Emery will get to start against the Bruins tomorrow. He needs a win to get his confidence back and he's capable of doing it. BTW, his "moonwalk" yesterday at the skills competition was pretty funny...Rumours about Doug Weight coming to Ottawa are intensifying, with many hockey insiders listing Ottawa as the front-runner. Weight needs to waive his no trade clause but since a)St. Louis has no chance at the playoffs, b)This is the last year of his contract and he'll become an unrestricted free agent and c)He's getting towards the end of the career and would want to play for a contender means him donning a Sens jersey is likely. With him and a returning Martin Havlat as second line to play alongside Smolinski or a grinder like Chris Neil, wow, I'm licking my chops already. It would be a perfect depth move and would make Ottawa T-O-U-G-H to beat if they weren't already...If the Sens win Lord Stanley this year, there's an excellent chance that image you see with this post will be tattooed on my right shoulder.