Winning in Sports is Never Easy

While winning in sports is never easy, sometimes it can look easy. One thing it is never is however is guaranteed.

Welcome to reality Ottawa Senator fans. With all your pomp and righteousness your finally learning that winning is indeed harder than it looks. Despite a first half to the regular season that had many calling Ottawa an unstoppable juggernaut and the Stanley Cup Champion in waiting, the wheels came off in the new year.

Not only did the wheels come off but the driver was thrown clear from the wreck and none of the passengers were wearing seat belts.

As a Maple Leaf fan, I absolutely love this. If I was a Senator fan reading this, my level of disgust and sickness in the pit of my stomach would be boiling over ten fold knowing their misery is my silver lining to a dreadful season. It is salt in the wounds, not necessarily ground in but definitely poured on.

Of course us Leaf fans have known how hard it is to win for ages. The Leafs have had Borje Salming and Daryl Sittler put together the majority of their Hall of Fame careers as integral members of the Maple Leafs with neither even sniffing at the cup. Wendal Clark, Doug Gilmour, Pat Burns, Curtis Joseph, Dave Andrychuk and Ed Belfour each were members of good Maple Leaf teams that never won the big one or even play for it. Felix Potvin, , Vince Damphouse, Al Iafrate, even Larry Murphy and Alexander Mogilny , No Cups in Toronto.

Vancouver fans have gone through the Pavel Bure, Kirk McLean and even the Stan Smyl years. Soon Markus Nlasland and Trevor Linden will be added to that list. The Sedins and Roberto Luongo are on deck.

It took the New York Rangers 54 years since their last cup when they won in ‘94 and they haven’t been back to the dance since. In fact they’ve been downright awful for a lot of those years.

Chicago, the last time they won a Cup, the NHL was played outside on ponds* and the goalies didn’t even wear masks to protect their faces.

Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota,, Los Angeles, and certainly Washington fans will all tell you the same things,. Win the big one and THEN climb aboard your high horse.

Ottawa your recent existence in the NHL is still less than 20 years old and you’ve just begun your list. Zdeno Chara and Marion Hossa are a good starting pair.

Now I know there are exceptions to every rule. For every Chicago and Toronto there is a Tampa Bay, Carolina or Anaheim. To that I say, pfft, I’ll probably be dead the next time one of those three teams wins a cup again.

To Ottawa I say this; thanks for the first half and thanks for the collapse. It’s been fun.