Closing Out The Weekend

Evenin' peeps, and anyone else checking in - from the semi-regular visitors to those checking in for the first time, whether by accident or by design (like the newest member of hazelspeeps who said he did a search on Hazel and found the site - nice) to of course...Ms. Hazel Mae (if she has chosen to peek in tonight - think she has the page bookmarked? wishful thinking? perhaps...oh well...its here).

So its Sunday night - a bit of port, some almonds and a quick update before I log off to call my buddy in Southern Ontario for our catch up chat for the week. A great weekend here, except for this a.m. I was in a bit of a surly mood this morning, I had a few long-shot proline tickets on the English Premiership...Everton's failure to win against Fulham saw $1,200 bucks disappear and the Ontario gov't laughing at me for giving them $15 bucks - if that wasn't bad enough, I had another ticket worth $200 bucks that looked like a sure thing this morning -

I needed Manchester United to beat Newcastle United (they did...2 - 0)
I needed Inter Milan to win (they did 3 - 0, with three goals from Adriano...FIFA world player of the year...here he comes...by accounts Figo had a very good game too)

and I needed AC Milan to win against a team that was promoted to Serie A this year...THOSE PINHEADS TIED!!!!!!!!!!! unbelievable...they friggin tied a team that was in the "B" division last year....grrrrrrrrrrr. Ok, enough venting...but you know who will be leading off "Zeros" in the Monday morning Heroes and Zeros entry.

Another thing that got my morning off to an annoying start was reading the Sun today. Ya, I know, I shouldn't be starting my morning off reading the Ottawa Senators PR dep't - but what can I say, I needed a proline list and the probable pitchers for the day today.

Back to the Sun, they have a freelance writer who publishes on Sunday, her name is Erin Nicks - she writes an opinion piece in the Sports section (some of it mildly amusing, some of it interesting, most of it uninformed). Today's entry was a shining example of an award winning article from the Bruce Garrioch School of Journalism - as one would expect, the entry was about the Senators trade for Dany Heatley. The article, which read more like a Senators promo piece, talked about what Heatley brings the Senators - leadership, grit and a guy who is "brimming with potential" (I won't even get into how one "brims with potential") which is exactly what the Senators need.

I say this comes from Garrioch's school because it is so woefully uninformed and not grounded in anything that comes close to being fact. The Ottawa media is working very hard (in conjunction with the Senators Management and PR teams) to portray Dany Heatley as this tough, fierce, gritty competitor who is going to be a physical force and supply the Senators with a lot of muscle down the middle. This is a myth, Dany Heatley is NOT the second coming of Eric Lindros as the Ottawa media would have you believe - he is a good player, but certainly not everything he is being made out to be. Nicks goes on to promote myth number 2 - that Brian Smolinski is a bona fide second line centre in the NHL and the Senators did a great things by signing him to a $2.2 Million contract - yeah right. An no "Made in Ottawa" article would be complete without taking a few shots at the departed player - Nicks muses about:

• how John Muckler laid down the law with Hossa and any other Senator that is thinking of asking for too much money - huh? he laid down the law how? by trading a guy who is making at least $3 Million more than you wanted to pay him? The Ottawa media keeps talking about what a privilege it is to play in Ottawa, and as such, players should take much less to play here - Nonsense
  

• and of course there has to be a reference to Dirty Marty Havlat and what a great player he is going to be...especially now that Hossa is gone. Big things predicted for Havlat...like he won't be asking for a major raise next year.

I don't mean to hate on Nicks...but today's article was more suited to something Garrioch would write...and certainly not a freelancer who wants to be seen as credible. The article was garbage - the funny thing was that two pages later, in bold lettering Steve Simmons calls Atlanta the winners in the trade, because they got best player - Hossa. You figure it out. Hazel (if you are peeking) do you wanna wade in here? Who do you think won?

Ok, I've really gotta book here - its getting pretty late to call my buddy. One funny thing before I leave...I've got people on Maple Leafs message board talking about Hazel's departure...the consensus from Leaf Nation in Canada "we miss Hazel, Sportsnet not the same without her." I'm not kidding...seriously, and to my brothers and sisters (there was one there too) in Leaf Nation who miss Hazel...HERE HERE!

If you are a regular or semi-regular...you know that there is usually a song of the day to reflect the theme of the entry - and that on days where there is no real theme...it is editor's choice. This may be stretching it a bit...but here it goes.

The Song of the Day on Hazelspeeps at yahoo - In honour of Adriano's hat trick today (with plenty of help from Mr. Figo)...and to slap AC Milan and Everton around a bit today...(and for the CD I rediscovered early this week - Hazel you have to have a copy of Nelly Furtado's Folklore...seriously)

Forca - Nelly Furtado

Forca (Four'Sah) was the theme song for Euro 2004 *sigh* which sadly wasn't won by Portugal.

So I'm outta here for the night...have a great one peeps...Hazel, hope your week is a groovy one.

Peesth out.