MVN - Most Valuable Network

Excuses, Superstitions and the Stanley Cup Finals

Seeing as both the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks get an extra day to adjust to the Eastern time zone, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on some common themes that keep popping up. Ottawa is currently down 2-0 in the series which is always a good time to break out excuses and superstitions.

There seem to be a lot of superstitions in the playoffs. First the players seem to forget where they put their razors and sport the scruffy bearded look for a couple of months. Chris Pronger gave that up after growing one beard years ago and determining it was too itchy. For a while even Henry Samueli was spotted growing a beard, until the Mrs. probably told him to shave it as it applied to players, not owners. Sami Pahlsson has a thin offering of stubble on his face, but his ruddy cheeks are still smooth and hair free. The Niedermayer brothers, on the other hand, got excellent beard growing genes and if left unchecked would give Rip Van Winkle a run for his money. The idea behind the beard is that you don’t shave until you lose. Last I checked there were a lot of hairy faced guys who haven’t won the Cup in spite of adhering to this guideline.

In other superstitious news, it is considered bad luck to touch the Eastern Conference and Western Conference trophies. There seems to be much written about those who touched the trophy and went on to devastation in the Final found. There is much less written about those who touched the darn thing and still won anyway (1994 New York Rangers and the 2000 New Jersey Devils). Daniel Alfredsson is currently at the receiving end of much nastiness and venom for having touched the Prince of Wales trophy. Believe it or not, touching the trophy has nothing to do with the Senators being down 2-0 in the series. Maybe skating, scoring, goaltending, specialty teams, etc., have more to do with the results? Just a thought.

So that leads me to excuses. Are superstitions an excuse for not winning? What about other excuses? Some excuses seem as old and tired as most politicians campaign speeches. The reffing was horrible! The ice is bad. His pads are too big. It’s the system they play. They play dirty. Too much time off between series. Wah! Wah! Wah! One of the Ducks five guiding principles is “Avoid Making Excuses.” So far they seem to be adhering to that and furthermore accept responsibility when they haven’t played their best.

The refereeing is one of the most common complaints you hear about. Some of the complaints are justified. I remember one game during the regular season that Chris Pronger was given a “diving” penalty for reflexively shaking his hand after it had been slashed by another player. Things like that make you scratch your head and go, “hmmm?!” The reality is that the guys in stripes are human. They cannot catch everything and they are making judgement calls. They will miss calls on both sides. They will make bad calls on both sides. They will also make good calls on both sides. The hope is that the refs will at least be consistent in the calls they make. Having the fans chanting “Refs you suck” louder than “Let’s go (team)” is unproductive and at times embarassing when the call clearly should be made. Yes, teams screw up from time to time and legitimately get penalties they deserve. No one complains when a call is missed that goes in favor of their team. Both sides just need to suck it up and play the game the way it is called, whether the players, coaches or fans agree or disagree with the calls.

Bad ice is another common complaint heard around the league. Some buildings are notoriously bad. Some are good. I do not believe there is one single rink out there that is 100% perfect ice every single time. Not a one. They are all prone to differing conditions in weather and humanity and game situations. The Honda Center Ice is one of those affected by weather and climate. A cold snap in southern California is anything in the 50’s, unlike Canada who would consider that shorts and flip flop weather. Just a few weeks ago, the outside temperature was hovering in the mid 90’s in an unusually early heatwave. Anything over the 80’s tends to make ice conditions less than ideal especially when adding 18,000 people to the building (fans and employees alike). However, poor ice conditions affect both teams. Even if it is your own building, you struggle when the puck plays hopscotch or refuses to move altogether. You just have to adjust to it and be grateful that it is currently in the 70’s and not another heat wave. It could be worse.

“The pads are too big!” I cannot tell you the number of times that was muttered in 2003. In spite of being measured regularly and frequently and clearly having pads within the legal limits, J. S. Giguere was accused of being the Michelin man’s twin. It was the pads and not the goalie making the saves. When Giguere had a horrible season in 2003-2004 and could not stop the proverbial beach ball, suddenly no one complained about the padding even though he used the same equipment. Thankfully, this excuse seems to have been mostly put to rest.

It seems far easier to create excuses for a poor showing rather than accept personal responsibility. Rather than give credit where credit is due, moving blame elsewhere is timeworn tradition, and not just in the hockey world. The Senators have had their top line effectively shut down by the Ducks checking line. That is a fact. Now is the time for other lines to step up and produce. The team needs to make necessary adjustments to playing against the Ducks. If you don’t like the system the Ducks play, adjust accordingly but don’t complain. Stop turning over the puck.

I do not count the Senators out at all. In 2003, the New Jersey Devils were up 2-0 before the Ducks came home to play games 3 and 4. The Ducks had a longer layoff than the Senators did this year and they also showed rust and did not look like the team that had played the previous rounds. Yet they were able to make adjustments and tie up the series at home. Ottawa has every opportunity to do the same thing starting tomorrow evening at Scotiabank Place.

Until then, it is another 24 hours of waiting and nail biting. Will the Ducks come out of Saturday’s game with a 3-0 lead in the series, or will Ottawa figure out how to solve the Ducks and their checking line bringing the series to 2-1? Time will tell.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.