Prolonged Absence

The time between posts is ridiculous. I will leave it at that and otherwise ignore the fact that I left this space untouched for three plus months.

NHL playoff races are heating up and unexpectedly the Senators are in the middle of it. I say unexpectedly given that when I last posted the Sens were still very comfortably out in front of the pack. Since then they have been at times decent but mostly a disaster. They have gotten a coach fired and stumbled back and forth between goaltenders and left themselves as nobodies favourite to come out of the Eastern Conference.

The biggest surprise in the East has been the play of Alexei Kovalev. He has been remarkably consistent all year in living up to his enormous talent and has gone a step further to be a leader and mentor on a young Habs squad that should only get better over the next couple of years. A close second and possibly first has been the fact that the Boston Bruins, minus Patrice Bergeron, have been in a playoff spot most of the year. It just shows that coaching really can make a big difference. The only major addition from last season on the ice, Manny Fernandez, has hardly played but the off-ice addition of Claude Julien has obviously made them a better team.

More to come soon.