S7 - Episode 16: A Funk In February

Its Official - the Sens are in a funk. And not the cool kind of ass-shakin', bass-slappin', James Brown funk. This is one of those "can't get a break to save your life" type funks.

Call it the February blahs, the NHL season's dog days, whatever. Right now, everything is going wrong. And if you think it's frustrating for us as fans, imagine how the Stache feels? The poor guy has tried every line combination known to man to find a spark but nothing has worked. Just check the results:

Isles 2- Sens 1

Screaming Trees 5 - Sens 0 ( ouch!)

Blues 3 - Sens 1

Remember when the Sens were scoring like crazy and were one of the most offensively potent teams in the league? Yeah, seems like a long time ago. With the team now in danger of falling out of a play-off spot, we try to give some insight into what has gone wrong and what some of the answers may be. It's a lot of speculation and grasping at draws but we do our best. 

We're actually a lot like the team this week - out of sorts. We even break format and "go commando", pretty much abandoning our regular format and just free-stylin'. Its like a thread we keep pulling and the whole thing keeps coming unravelled. Who knows, maybe we're better like this.

Aside from moping, we do touch on several other topics, including douche bag leafers, the parking nightmare at SBP, Clockgate in L.A., and what would a week be without our old friend Brian Burke showing up in the press, butting heads with someone or other. We read an e-mail from a long-time Groundhog and possibly put a stake through the heart of the weekly poll question.

Ok, come on guys, let's get back to some winning!

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HOCKEY POKER

Former NHL champ Mats Sundin and off-season players are known to play poker for charity. So no wonder why the Stanley Cup was a special guest to the WSOP ceremony. In this interesting article about Hockey and Poker you can see a poker table ‘tuned’ into a hockey pitch. The table appeared back in 2009 at the McDonald House in Vegas.

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S7 - Episode 16: A Funk In February

S7 - Episode 15: The Return Of The Rage!

So, we're back after a week off and you'd think that with all that time to calm our nerves and a week-end of Alfie love, we'd be calm enough to objectively reflect upon the recent issues the Sens have had with the officials. Well...

REFS!!! YOU SUCK WORSE THAN A PROSTATE EXAM!!!!

Seriously, what's left to say? Lots, apparently. Of course, it will all be passed off as just "whiney Sens fans" but we ask the question this week: when does it become more than just whining? How many times do you see it with your own eyes and simply shrug it off? When does the very integrity of the game come into question? Did Maclean handle it the right way? If you don't like ref talk, best skip this section of the show.

On the other hand, there was a lot of good stuff to be had this week, if you are a Sens fan. The All-Star weekend was a roaring success, with all the Alfie love you could ever want. Finally, the rest of the hockey world gets it; The man is a Gawd! We discuss all the festivities and possibly the greatest All-Star moment of all time.

Oh yeah, we do take a gander at the last 5 games too:

Sens 4 - Sharks 1

Sens 1 - Ducks 2

Sens 1 - Kings 4

Sens 2- Yotes 3

Sens 4 - Bruins 3

The Sens hit the wall last week as a crazy schedule finally caught up to them on the west coast. Maybe Karlsson wasn't really diving; maybe he was just collapsing from exhaustion?

Other topics that get the once over include OV and his selfish insult to hockey fans everywhere, Tim Thomas vs the media, Filatov and his never-ending spiral, a new wrinkle in the concussion debate and what would a week be without Brian Burke and his gargantuan ego making an appearance. This week he's pouting about his girls getting picked on by the big, bad CBC. This guy, I tell ya...

We top it off with a few e-mails and do what we can to keep Stooli awake.

Please enjoy show #193.

S7 - Episode 15: The Return Of The Rage!

S7 - Episode 14: The Final Babble of Ontario.

When we first began our podcasting days, the two goals we had were to 1) Support our team, and 2) Trash leafers at every turn. In an effort to further that second goal, in years past we have invited Dave and Jeff from A Foot in The Crease, a Leafs podcast, onto the show so we could abuse them first hand. We kind of let that fall by the way side the last few years but we figured that we should invite them back for one last go-round before we pack it in at season's end. After all, they are part of our Underground heritage. 

One of the reasons we did suffer these two is that, unlike most mouth-breathing, delusional laff fans, these guys are capable of constructing a coherent sentence and can have a sensible, well though-out take on their team. This final round is a pretty damn good one and we thank them for their contributions to our show this week and over the years.

Now then, on to the good stuff... the Sens! Another succesful week saw the team go 3 and 1:

Sens 3 - NYR 0

Sens 3 - Habs 2 SO

Jets 2 - Sens 0 

Sens 3 - Laffs 2 (snicker)

We're not sure which win is more satisfying, the one over a very tough Rangers team or the always hopeless Laffs. Either one will do but we'll just forget that Jets snoozefest. While we're very happy with the results, there is some concern about certain patterns that have been emerging in recent weeks that may catch up to the boys if they don't address them soon. We'll fill you in.

Some other things we go over are Melnyk's verbal bitch-slapping of Clouston, Anderson's star-hogging, a good news story involving a former Senator and Captain Alfie of the All-Stars! We read a couple of e-mails and make fun of various other league issues.

96 to go for Alfie!

S7 - Episode 14: The Final Babble of Ontario.

S7 - Episode 13: All-Stars, All The Time!

Congrats, Senators fans. You did it!

The All-Star game will be over-flowing with Sens, thanks to a phenomenal late comeback (not unlike the team itself) in fan voting that saw Milan Michalek knock The Screaming Tree's Kessell from the starting line up. 9MM will join Alfie, Spezza and Karlsson at the end of the month when the NHL's stars lace'em up here in Ottawa. Even George Dubbya was impressed with that ballet box stuffing!

But that was far from the only good news out of Sensland this week. Au contraire! (can I coach the Habs?) The good times just keep rolling as the pesky Sens continue to surprise the hockey world and add up points. We submit, for your approval:

Tampa 1 - Sens 4

Sens 2 - Philly 3 OT loss

Philly 4 - Sens 6

Sens 5 - Pens 1

The week started off looking like a tough road ahead but once again, the boys have come out smelling like roses and find themselves alone in 5th in the East! Not even the most optimistic Sens fan could believe that they would do so well, so fast! More good news is that Kyle Turris continues to justify the price Murray paid for him as he seems to have found a nice chemistry with Alfie (but then again, who doesn't?).

Now that we have Stooli back, there was lots of catching up to do this week and this lengthy edition will keep you busy and entertained as we discuss numerous topics including Anderson's awesome week, Z-Bad's new role as National hero in Sweden, The NHLPA's rejection of the proposed re-alignment and and good discussion on Bryan Murray's thoughts on what the Sens may do come trade deadline.

This was also a banner week for stupidity coming out of Laff Nation. Between their GM needing to hear the sound of his own voice and their delusional media going full-retard, they gave us mucho material to giggle about this week. Hell, even our own local media takes a good slap in the package from us this week. If that wasn't enough, the NHL players themselves tell the Laffs how over-rated they are. This is the part we'll miss the most - Leaf bashing.

Of course, we couldn't help but throw in our 2 cents on the Brad Marchand/Sami Salo incident. Considering our personal connection to him, we do keep an eye on his doings and one thing is for sure, the guy knows how to stir things up.

And finally, we tell you about how you can become a guest host on one of our final shows this season. Think you got what it takes to hang behind the mic in Studio 11? Have a listen and we'll fill you in on the details.

If nothing else, we'll fill up a few commutes for you this week. Enjoy!

S7 - Episode 13: All-Stars, All The Time!

S7 - Episode 12: 400 Reasons To Love Alfie.

Happy New Year, groundhogs!

The unofficial slogan for the SU over the years has been "by the fans, for the fans". After all, without you, there's not much point in turning on the Studio 11 lights every week. So, with Stooli doing God knows what in Hong Kong this week, we decided to try something different and invite one of our longest and most dedicated listeners to guest host with us on this show. Crazy Canuck joins us in studio this week. Anyone who has listened to the show over the years will be familiar with that name as he's been one of the most active participants on e-mail, in contests, and has sent us some classic audio bits too. We thank him for joining us and we know where to go now should we ever run out of cheese.

Now then, THE FREAKIN'SENS!!! These guys just keep finding ways to win guys, and in amazingly entertaining and dramatic ways. We take a quick look at all the games that were over the holidays:

Slugs 1 - Sens 4

Panthers 3 - Sens 4 OT

Sens 1 - Canes 2 OT

Habs 6 - Sens 2

Flames 3 - Sens 4 OT

Sens 3 - Slugs 2 OT

Devils 2- Sens 3 OT

Anyone see a trend here? Overtime is just a routine now and one that the Sens seem to be thriving in. And as if OT isn't exciting enough, how about mixing in the GOLDEN GAWD'S 400th goal for a game winner? Sens fans are still smiling ear to ear, as were his family that were in attendance. The man simply has a knack for the dramatic. Congrats to Alfie and we can't wait until 500!

Other big Sens stories in this show include Kyle Turris' debut, a couple more concussions for the Sens, a seemingly needless concern over our goaltending, and goal posts... a lot of goal posts. We also take a look at the World Juniors, the Winter Classic, more douchery for the Dept. of NHL discipline (or lack there-of), another brief round of fighting about fighting and a look at the leaked story on NHL ticket revenues.

We stick the rookie with the longest e-mail, drop a new poll question on you and, dammit, just have a little love-in about our 6th place "rebuilding" team.

Life is pretty good for Sens fans these days and we're enjoying every minute of it. You should too, starting right here!

S7 - Episode 12: 400 Reasons To Love Alfie.