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

No I'm not talking about their dismal start as they are in the bottom of the basement in the NHL. I'm talking about the intangibles of being sandwiched between the two largest fan bases in pro hockey, Toronto and Montreal. I guess when Bruce Firestone and the gang first thought up the plan to bring the NHL back to Ottawa after a 60 year absence, they may have thought fans would embrace a hometown team to call their own, and for the most part, there are plenty of Senators fans. But not as many as there could be.

When I was growing up, I actually liked all the Canadian teams. I'd cheer for both Toronto and Montreal depending on what CBC was showing on Saturday night, and when the playoffs rolled around, I'd cheer for whatever Canadian team was still standing.

Times have changed a great deal.

A large contingent of Canadiens fans and Leafs fans, who live in Ottawa, have decided for the most part they are not going to support the Senators. I noticed this trend early when the team first started to play. I thought perhaps they wouldn't abandon their favourite team, but would have team a and team b to fall back on when they weren't playing each other. But that hasn't happen for a fairly large amount of hockey fans in Ottawa.

If it were baseball, I'd sort of compare the Senators current situation to an equivalent of say, being the Minnesota Twins being sandwiched right between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox (minus any recent world titles, of course). A rabid, loyal fan base who would forsake having a championship parade, right down their own street, for teams located elsewhere outside of their city.

I'm not going to sit here and try to figure out why this is the way it is, but despite the unique nature of Ottawa's fan base, the fans still show up to see the team play. Yes, there are ups and downs in attendance, and it's better in winning times than losing times of course. But if you consider Ottawa is about 1/3 the size of Montreal, a 1/5 the size of Toronto, it's a government town without nearly the amount of corporate money floating around, the team is a young 17 years old...well, Sens fans are doing their part to support their team.

I got this email this morning after the debacle of last night and the horrid start to the regular season. But what can I say? They are brutal!!!

Hey Sens Fans,

Your team got schooled last night by a team that iced Ben Lovejoy



and Mark Letestube




Face it, your first line is led by a 37 yr old who no longer can carry the team on his back. You have no second or third line scoring. You have by far the softest group of 6 in the back end in the NHL and you have no NHL calibre starting goaltender. Add it all up and you have :


DIV GP W L OT Pts GF GA DIFF Home Away Shootout L10 Streak
1 * - Toronto NE 5 4 0 1 9 17 11 +6 2-0-1 2-0-0 0 - 0 4-0-1
2 * - Washington SE 5 4 1 0 8 17 11 +6 3-0-0 1-1-0 0 - 0 4-1-0 Won 4
3 * - NY Islanders ATL 6 3 1 2 8 20 17 +3 2-0-1 1-1-1 0 - 1 3-1-2 Won 2
4 Tampa Bay SE 5 4 1 0 8 17 18 -1 2-0-0 2-1-0 0 - 0 4-1-0 Won 1
5 Pittsburgh ATL 7 4 3 0 8 23 16 +7 2-3-0 2-0-0 0 - 0 4-3-0 Won 3
6 Montreal NE 5 3 1 1 7 14 13 +1 1-0-1 2-1-0 0 - 0 3-1-1 Won 2
7 Atlanta SE 5 3 2 0 6 17 16 +1 1-0-0 2-2-0 1 - 0 3-2-0 Won 2
8 Philadelphia ATL 5 2 2 1 5 11 14 -3 1-2-0 1-0-1 0 - 0 2-2-1 Lost 2

9 Boston NE 3 2 1 0 4 9 6 +3 0-1-0 2-0-0 0 - 0 2-1-0 Won 2
10 Florida SE 4 2 2 0 4 12 5 +7 1-0-0 1-2-0 0 - 0 2-2-0 Won 2
11 Carolina SE 4 2 2 0 4 9 12 -3 1-0-0 1-2-0 1 - 0 2-2-0 Lost 2
12 NY Rangers ATL 4 1 2 1 3 14 16 -2 0-1-1 1-1-0 0 - 0 1-2-1 Lost 1
13 New Jersey ATL 6 1 4 1 3 10 21 -11 0-3-1 1-1-0 0 - 0 1-4-1 Lost 2
14 Buffalo NE 6 1 4 1 3 12 18 -6 0-3-1 1-1-0 0 - 0 1-4-1 Lost 2
15 Ottawa NE 6 1 4 1 3 12 21 -9 1-1-0 0-3-1 0 - 0 1-4-1 Lost 2


I guess the Pens will ice Mr Snuffleupagus in nets and Apu and Mr Burns on defence next time they play the Sens.

How pathetic is a team that loses to another team that has cartoon characters on their roster.

I was sort of on the fence about the whole mosque @ Ground Zero controversy, but the more I think about it, the more I think it SHOULD be erected. The anti-mosque side say it's too close to Ground Zero (it's two blocks away) and it's insensitive to the victims of 9/11 (although I'm not sure if any of the families directly affected by that tragedy have been asked), so let's start there. How much distance is enough?

Five blocks?

Ten blocks?

Fifty?

And why do so many people equate a group of extremists with the Muslim religion as a whole? Should I think of all Germans as Nazis? Should I suspect every Italian is plotting as a member of the Mafia? Of course not, that's nothing short of bigotry.

Notice how this fight is all revolved around organized religion: American Muslims exercising their right of freedom of religion being questioned and persecuted by Christians. Unfortunate that it seems to take the spotlight a lot.

There was a $7.4 billion bill that was NOT passed by the U.S. Senate recently that would have provided health care coverage to rescue workers of 9/11. Funny how in every other industrialized nation this wouldn't even be an issue because there's universal health care widely available, but anyway, there's hardly a mention in any news media about it, but everyone is up in arms about this mosque while former rescue workers will die years before they should because they can't have access to affordable health care.

People today and in history have fled countries due to religious prosecution. The fundamental human right to practice your religion is being lost in all of this because of constant, baseless fear-mongering.

Build the mosque.

A little over six weeks of being a dad, I've learned that being a father during the newborn stage is primarily learning how to keep your baby content to minimize the fussing and crying time.

It's just that easy! (I keed,I keed...)

Nothing keeps my Sophie-Anne more content then getting fed by Marie-Claude. But sometimes it seems that all she wants to do, so I suspect there are a few times when she's really not all that hungry when she fusses.

Some obvious solutions include giving her a soother (we started that about three weeks in) but a lot of times she isn't interested in it. So you have to try to experiment a little and try different things to calm her down. And this is what we discovered:

- Shaking a bottle of Tums will distract her
- Holding her while sprinting back and forth across a hallway keeps her happy (although I've stopped that since they say a baby should be a few months old before you start racing them)
- Holding her and walking in a square or circle works
- The noise of a bathroom fan holds her attention
- A car ride puts her to sleep every time
- A walk in the stroller is good for about 45 minutes
- After 10 minutes, she falls asleep if carried in a baby bjorn

She also loves taking a bath. But I'm all ears if you have other suggestions!!!

My last years in high school and during university, I was tall and lanky. I was almost 6"3 tall and weighed just 170 lbs. The main reason was that I skipped meals frequently, and didn't enjoy desserts as much as I do now. My metabolism back then probably helped as well, but my love for chocolate and cake grew later in life and has been a detriment to my diet to say the least.

But I digress.

I can tell you the day where, by no means did I turn into a "fat" person per se, but definitely knew my skinny days were over.

Back in 1999, when I got my first full-time government job, they sent me to Toronto for about two months of training. The awesome thing about it was that, not only did I start getting paid my full salary just to train, but they gave me a very generous meal allowance while we were there. Every trainee got $10 for breakfast, $10 lunch, and $25 for dinner. $45, tax free, Monday to Friday, no receipts required.

So I ate out every day. Of course, I wouldn't spend $10 every day on breakfast but I loaded up on dinner, and that was my detriment.

My training group would usually end up going to The Keg every night we were there, and at the time I didn't discriminate what I ate. After dinner, there was this little cafe called Williams Pub that had a selection of about 30 or so cakes, so that was dessert. Every week, for two months...Keg and Kake.

When I had to drive into work for the first time after training was done, my pants felt a little tighter than normal. It was this belt I was sporting that was the problem! No matter, I can deal with it later. Time for my first day on the job. And then it happened: I sat down in the driver's seat of the car, only to see the button holding up my pants shoot right off and hit the dashboard of the car.

Just in time as I was about to head to work!

Turns out I had gained a full two inches in the size of my pants. Man oh man, too much too soon in T.O.! I just thought I'd go back to my regular size, but it never happened. Not that I made an effort or anything to do so, but that's the way the cards played out. And as for that first day of work, I couldn't change slacks since it was my only clean pair left, but luckily the belt managed to hold up my button-less pants so as I wouldn't be caught in too embarrassing a position.

I never got down to my 170lb fighting weight again.