Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Perception
Watching Don Cherry after last night's Flyer win over Toronto made me wonder why Toronto and Philadelphia are considered gritty, playoff teams but the Ottawa Senators aren't?
Cherry went off on how Jeremy Roenick and Keith Primeau are warriors. I don't remember him saying anything like that about any of the Senators.
He also praised the Leafs for their giving it their all in their series against the Flyers. Why didn't he say anything like that after the Senators lost to Toronto? After all, the Sens came back to tie game 6 in regulation and also went on to win the game in overtime. The Sens also didn't get blown out in game 5 of their series. The played poorly in game 5 but they only lost because of a bad bounce that sent the puck in the net off of Brian Smolinski's skate.
Basically how history has presented itself in the playoffs is that the Sens can't beat the Leafs who can't beat the Flyers who can't beat the Sens. Those great playoff warriors in Roenick and Primeau against Ottawa have scored 0 goals and 3 assists in 11 playoff games with Roenick getting credit for all 3 assists. So why does Ottawa get the short end of the stick when it comes to reputation?
I think the blame lies at the biased nature of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. Bob Cole, Harry Neale, Don Cherry, Glenn Healy, and Scott Oake are all huge Leaf homers when they are doing HNIC playoff games involving the Senators. Who is a Senator homer on the broadcasts? The closest it gets is Greg Millen who I can't remember ever doing a Senator playoff game in recent memory. Everything on HNIC is viewed through a blue and white filter. Listening to Bob and Neale go off on Mattias Timander getting a delay of game penalty for dislodging the Flyer net, while completely ignoring that Alexei Ponikarovsky should have been the player getting penalized for crosschecking Timander from behind into the net to cause it to be dislodged, disgusted me.
The HNIC broadcasts glorify the Leafs, and when (not if) someone beats them, then they are glorified because they beat the great Toronto Maple Leafs. Until the Senators beat the Maple Leafs they will never receive the credit they are due. Even if they win the Stanley Cup.
Cherry went off on how Jeremy Roenick and Keith Primeau are warriors. I don't remember him saying anything like that about any of the Senators.
He also praised the Leafs for their giving it their all in their series against the Flyers. Why didn't he say anything like that after the Senators lost to Toronto? After all, the Sens came back to tie game 6 in regulation and also went on to win the game in overtime. The Sens also didn't get blown out in game 5 of their series. The played poorly in game 5 but they only lost because of a bad bounce that sent the puck in the net off of Brian Smolinski's skate.
Basically how history has presented itself in the playoffs is that the Sens can't beat the Leafs who can't beat the Flyers who can't beat the Sens. Those great playoff warriors in Roenick and Primeau against Ottawa have scored 0 goals and 3 assists in 11 playoff games with Roenick getting credit for all 3 assists. So why does Ottawa get the short end of the stick when it comes to reputation?
I think the blame lies at the biased nature of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. Bob Cole, Harry Neale, Don Cherry, Glenn Healy, and Scott Oake are all huge Leaf homers when they are doing HNIC playoff games involving the Senators. Who is a Senator homer on the broadcasts? The closest it gets is Greg Millen who I can't remember ever doing a Senator playoff game in recent memory. Everything on HNIC is viewed through a blue and white filter. Listening to Bob and Neale go off on Mattias Timander getting a delay of game penalty for dislodging the Flyer net, while completely ignoring that Alexei Ponikarovsky should have been the player getting penalized for crosschecking Timander from behind into the net to cause it to be dislodged, disgusted me.
The HNIC broadcasts glorify the Leafs, and when (not if) someone beats them, then they are glorified because they beat the great Toronto Maple Leafs. Until the Senators beat the Maple Leafs they will never receive the credit they are due. Even if they win the Stanley Cup.
