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

The demise of the original Ottawa Senators no doubt had many factors to consider when they left for St Louis at the conclusion of the 1933-34 season.

But one that is not talked about much is the fanbase they catered to...how, intentional or not (likely intentional), the Senators seemed to have an English players only rule, and that likely alienated a large number of francophone fans in the Ottawa area.

At the dawn of the 20th century, it seemed all professional teams had only players who spoke English. As years rolled on and the birth of the Montreal Canadiens came to fruition, that started to change. But since the French community in Ottawa didn't have a hero they could relate to who wore the barber poles, they mostly stayed away from attending the games...unless the Canadiens came to town.

The final years of the Senators where they sold off players and had attendance problems to deal with, whenever Montreal came to town the citizens across the river in Hull and other French communities would always buy tickets to the Ottawa Auditorium to see the Habitants in action. One particular player, French-speaking Aurele Joliat, who was born in Ottawa in 1901, is a prime indication of the short-sightedness of Senators management. For some reason, the Senators didn't sign him, even though almost all of their talent came from the Ottawa valley and he was visible in the amateur leagues of Ottawa and Iroquois Falls. He won three Stanley Cups in 16 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame: a gem of a player Ottawa could have easily gotten on their roster.

He might have just been one player, but if Ottawa had signed him, maybe they could have gotten the extra fan support they needed to keep the smallest hockey market in the NHL alive, or at the very least, weathered the storm during the days of the Great Depression.

It's just too bad it happened at all.

The third black SENS jersey unveiled in 2008 that had a 50/50 reaction at best is apparently being retired at the end of the season.

Reebok has apparently indicated a new third jersey will be unveiled for the 2011/12 campaign. Should have probably saw the writing on the wall the last time I went to a Sens game: In December, a pretty good deal on Senators jerseys was available: Get a red and black third jersey for $130 a pair if memory serves. But I am no fan of the black one so I never bothered to pick one up.

My fingers are crossed they'll go with the old school barberpoles that, for some reason, the AHL Binghamton Senators got the first chance to wear them in a game a couple of weeks ago.



The current Ottawa Senators are less than 20 years old and to me, it's important that, while they try to foster new traditions for their current franchise, they should acknowledge the very successful old Senators teams and incorporate them into their product. Having the "O" logo on the sleeve of their home and away jerseys is a good start. Not going full out with the barber poles, and instead doing a modification similar to this picture that has been circulating as a potential third jersey replacement, in my view would be a mistake.



Wearing the "O" on the front 80+ years ago brought championships to Ottawa. Perhaps wearing them again will bring a little Lady Luck on the Senators side. Right now, they could use all the help they can get.

What is it with Windows and updates?

No longer content with my 10" netbook computer, I opted to treat myself to a new laptop, taking advantage of the boxing days specials that were on the market. I settled on a HP model with a blu-ray player built in (nice!) and, after using XP for about 8 years, was looking forward to using an updated, ramped up operating system.

For the most part, there's nothing wrong with Windows 7. My only beef: updates.

Everytime I go to use the laptop, I'm either told there are updates to download, updates that need to be installed, or my computer is about to be restarted for the updates to take effect. Sometimes even a countdown timer pops up if you've clicked the "ignore" button enough so you can just, you know, use your computer, pretty much telling you it's time to download and reboot...or else!

Windows has been around since the 1990s, and I can't believe they still haven't figured out a way to have your laptop turn on without having to spend several minutes loading their operating system. And you would think there can be a way where updates can be sent to your PC and you can continue using your computer, without the need to turn it on and off again for the new downloads to take effect.

Of course, if they could just release the platform properly, getting it right the first time, there wouldn't be a need to get more "security" fixes in the first place.

But, that's how Windows rolls.

Team Canada fans, I'd like to apologize for last night's debacle. You see, I called for a Team Canada win. Not only that, I expected the Russians to get spanked and spanked hard last night. So before game time I was posting facebook updates and comments pretty much guaranteeing a gold medal. "Bet your first born!" was the mantra at my office.

Good thing we can't actually do that.

In all honesty, I thought Russia had no business being in the finals. They lost to Sweden and Canada in the round-robin, needed a shootout in the semi-finals to get their ticket to the gold medal game after blowing a 2-0 lead and they seemed to be "reactive" rather than "proactive" in their games.

Canada looked impressive annihilating the Americans 4-1 in their semi-final, and you figure if they continued playing that well, their best would be better than whatever best Russia could come up with.

Well, that's what I figured, anyway.

With a 3-0 lead heading into the third that would eventually result in a 5-3 loss for Canada, this might have to rank as the biggest choke job in World Junior history, at least for a gold medal game. They were on their heels, stopped hitting, the goalie couldn't stop anything...it was like they ran out of gas at the finish line. Perhaps the most telling of their play came with a Canadian powerplay near the end of the second period. The Canadians didn't muster any chances, and when Russia cleared their zone, Canada retrieved the puck in their own end...so....very...slowly. So slow, in fact, the arena organist though there was a stoppage in play and began playing over the loudspeakers. Oops. It was like the killer instinct the Canadians demonstrated against the States simply disappeared.

The end result was quite disappointing to say the least. Give Russia credit for being resilient and not giving up when they got to the third period. That final 20 minutes was supposed to be a mere formality to wrap up gold for Canada. Instead, the team will have some to think about what went wrong.

And perhaps if I wasn't so cocky about it, maybe Canada would have enjoyed a gold medal victory last night.