Your Emotional Investment

[Do Make Say Think]

Waaaaay too early to say that.

Edit: Unless you just meant this year, then I would agree. I still think they'll both be serviceable d-men.

Yes I meant this year

I have doubts about Wericioch being good enough for top 4 due to how poor he is defensively but I certainly still expect great things from Cowen

 

[John Holmes*]

Well they say you can teach defense. Hopefully someone can teach Wiercioch.

He's got some upside, but he is so slow...

We're stuck with him, Cowen and Greening because of their contracts. All we can do is hope that they come around.

 

[Laphroaig]

I was a Montreal fan for over thirty years before the Sens entered the league. Once my hometown got a team I became a Sens fan. I remained a Sens fans through the lean years and the disappointing underachieving years.

I'd been growing increasingly disillusioned through the reign of error years starting with Bryan Murray being named GM. Add in the frequent asinine comments, attempts to extort a casino, and financial shortcomings of the joke of an owner and I was getting nostalgic for my days as a Habs fan.

The Chris Phillips re-signing was the last straw for me. It was all the proof I needed that winning was not a priority. It was clear to me that Melnyk and Murray take the fans for fools. Can a Craig Anderson signing be far behind?

I still have a real affection for warriors like Chris Neil but I found myself cheering for Montreal and it felt right. I need to cheer for an organization where winning the Stanley Cup is considered more important than filling the pockets of a sleazebag owner.

 

[John Holmes*]

Reign of error...

That's beautiful man.

 

[Flip_4]

Being a Senators fan doesn't have an on/off switch for me. I dont choose to be a Sens fan, I just am. Winning is just a bonus.

That is EXACTLY it!!! Thank you for putting it better than I could.

 

[Grizz MacArthur]

Being born and raised in Ottawa...I think that we are so fortunate to even have an NHL team representing my city. I will be a season ticket holder so long as I'm gamefully employed. I will cheer for the Senators until the day I die...despite the obvious ineptitude of current ownership.

 

[UnHappyDude]

My biggest frustration is the lack of commitment to "the rebuild". The fanbase was willing and ready to deal with a sub-par, budget team if it meant we were strategically positioning ourselves for the longrun. But instead of making the hard choices with his vets and fully committing to a proper rebuild, management tried to keep the team competitive by throwing assets out the window by loosing UFA's for nothing and resigning declining assets. There was so much promise initially that the team was doing the right thing but it seems as though the commitment to the rebuild has vanished and we are so middle of the road **** team. I would be more than happy, as would the fanbase, to deal with a losing team that showed future promise and that is heading in the right direction.

Thats what frustrates me the most and thats why my emotional investment in the team has evaporated.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

I felt like that a year after BM took over... Now I don't even care... I follow the team cause I have since 95 when I started watching hockey but emotionally I don't really care about them.

I'm sure when BM moves on the passion for the team will be rekindled

Lol.

At least you're consistent...

 

[coladin]

I could never bail on my hometown NHL team. While the OP and others apparently have a crisis in confidence, I will never abandon my team, emotionally or financially.

I am part of many here who remember this city without NHL hockey. No matter how bad things get, I still see the best hockey league in the world. In my hometown. How can that be bad?

I don't have a choice anyways, my 12 yr old is a diehard who plays hockey, just think how fun it is to be that age and have your own NHL team to cheer for. As bad as things get, he is an eternal optimist, sometimes convincing grumpy dad that things aren't that bad!

I am not happy with the team's performance, but my devotion is always 100%. Sure, I would have liked more success but at the end of the day it is as Benny says, a bonus.

I love my team, warts and all.

 

[ErikKarlsson]

I still love the team and could never cheer for another team but I really found I started to watch less and less hockey as the season went on. Everything about the year was just so disappointing after really good progress the last couple of years. You can call me fair weather or whatever but it really sucks to watch the team do poorly. This was the first year in a while that I never even went to a single game during the whole season but it wasn't all because of the teams performance, work kinda got in the way too.

I just hope next year the team can not be as disappointing to watch.

 

[ErikKarlsson]

Btw going to be interesting to see how my attention gets divided between the NFL and NHL next year, my interest level in the NFL has never been higher since I started watching it during the last lockout and I've really fell in love with it although I don't have a team yet. I can see myself skipping Sens games on Mon, Thur and Sunday if the team plays like they did last year. Or maybe stream and watch both!

 

[The Waffler]

My emotional investment to this team has taken a nosedive since last summer with the whole Alfie/Melnyk situation. Add to that a crappy season and unwillingness to improve the team and the Spezza situation. It's left a bitter taste in my mouth.

But hey, I'm still here.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Btw going to be interesting to see how my attention gets divided between the NFL and NHL next year, my interest level in the NFL has never been higher since I started watching it during the last lockout and I've really fell in love with it although I don't have a team yet. I can see myself skipping Sens games on Mon, Thur and Sunday if the team plays like they did last year. Or maybe stream and watch both!

Weird, I'm the complete opposite on the NFL, my fantasy football team is the only reason I even follow anymore as my interest has never been lower. The commercials breaks and the commercialism in general for the NFL is just getting out of hand where I feel like it actually interferes with the product. The elimination of the running game doesn't help either, although it was nice to see the Seahawks win.
I don't know, it just doesn't seem as good to me like it was during the 90's and early 2000's.

And I guess being here in the U.S. it makes it even worse that its NFL talk non-stop year round. I used to be someone who followed all sports back in the day with hockey being #1 always, now for me it's hockey and nothing else.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Lol.

At least you're consistent...

Anyone posting on these boards cares. Someone claiming otherwise is either deluding themselves or much like those people who claim that they don't care what anyone thinks. But of course they have to tell everyone repeatedly that they don't care what anyone thinks. Almost as if that's what they want people to think.

Funny how that works.

 

[FuriousSenator]

I was a Montreal fan for over thirty years before the Sens entered the league. Once my hometown got a team I became a Sens fan. I remained a Sens fans through the lean years and the disappointing underachieving years.

I'd been growing increasingly disillusioned through the reign of error years starting with Bryan Murray being named GM. Add in the frequent asinine comments, attempts to extort a casino, and financial shortcomings of the joke of an owner and I was getting nostalgic for my days as a Habs fan.

The Chris Phillips re-signing was the last straw for me. It was all the proof I needed that winning was not a priority. It was clear to me that Melnyk and Murray take the fans for fools. Can a Craig Anderson signing be far behind?

I still have a real affection for warriors like Chris Neil but I found myself cheering for Montreal and it felt right. I need to cheer for an organization where winning the Stanley Cup is considered more important than filling the pockets of a sleazebag owner.

[mod]

In Europe, if you have a **** season, you get DEMOTED FROM YOUR LEAGUE; and guess what, the fans still show up to support their team in droves. Imagine if the Sens had a rough season and had to play in the AHL the next. Would you still show up?

Fickle Ottawa fans I tell ya. This is why we're known as 'fold city' around Canada.... two CFL teams, an NHL team near bankruptcy at least once, multiple baseball franchises and who knows what else.

Support your team or watch it walk out the door and we can continue building our solid reputation as mediocrity-ville.

 

[bingo bango bongo]

My emotional investment to this team has taken a nosedive since last summer with the whole Alfie/Melnyk situation. Add to that a crappy season and unwillingness to improve the team and the Spezza situation. It's left a bitter taste in my mouth.

But hey, I'm still here.

I'm in the same boat. Been a Sens fan all my life, but this internal budget is really killing it for me. I made a really long post somewhere in the management thread about my feelings.

Losing Alfie felt personal to me. I grew up watching Alfie's career. And how it was done? Ugh. I could have accepted him being dealt at the deadline for a chance at the cup, but to lose him as UFA over a million or so. Disgusting.

Then we lost Tim Murray who lead the group that gave us our pretty good stable of prospects. Lost him to our rival Buffalo and for what? To keep Murray for another year or so. Such short sighted planning.

Now we're losing Spezza. 31 year old legit #1 C that puts up 60pts on a bad year. It will take at least 5+ years to replace him. Look at the Leafs and Sundin.

Murray can't shut up. I defending him in the Heatley situation, but it can't be the player that yaps to the media every time...Heatley, Spezza...come on.

Uncertainty of Ryan next year...

Been a lifelong fan, but this budget is ruining the fun of Sens hockey for me. And yet, people are still blindly holding on to "well Melnyk will spend when the time is right"...well wouldn't 2 surprise playoff visits, Alfie in his final years, a #1 C, #1 D, legit #1 G and promising G in Lehner, young players on ELC's with 10+mil in cap space be the right time to spend?

I think if the Sens aren't able to sign Ryan by Jan 2015, he won't sign at all. I think I'm done at that point. I can't support a team that has no commitment to spending or winning while losing Alfie, Spezza, Ryan in 3 years and having every move dictated by a budget (conacher on waivers to get hemsky while giving an extra pick to eat some salary then letting him go for nothing...that's not asset management).

Every single bit of Sens news since Alfie has been negative. I can live through losing seasons, been there done that, still cheered and spent thousands supporting the team in tickets, travel, and merchandise. But I can't support a team with no commitment to winning.

Hopefully this budget crap ends soon, real soon. I know I'm not the only one so close to giving up on this team after a lifetime cheering them.

How the **** do Leaf fans do it?

 

[FuriousSenator]

How the **** do Leaf fans do it?

They're real fans, that's how.

 

[DrEasy]

As fans we've been through a lot with this team. Never a dull moment, in no particular order between the major suckage early years, the perma-playoff years, the stars not wanting to play, the injuries all hitting at once, the Stanley Cup run, the change of ownership, the strike at the worst moment, the up-and-down budgets, heartbreaking losses to our biggest rivals, and on and on.

I have followed this team closely since 1998. The 2013-14 season has been the low point for me, clearly beating the last year of Clouston's tenure for that dubious honour. All other seasons there's been something positive to take away. In particular, the two years previous to 2013 were fantastic in terms of overcoming adversity and beating the odds. In contrast 2013-14 was a repeated punch to the gut.

Our top players -scratch that, our *captains*- want to leave, our owner is not committed to winning, our GM has been making some very questionable moves (I've always been mildly supportive of Murray, but re-signing Phillips makes me think he's lost it), our coach has turned into a pumpkin, and most of our players have underachieved (Turris and MacArthur are the only exceptions that come to mind right now), in particular our supposed leaders and Sens long-timers were often our worst players, we suffered some horrible losses to Toronto and Montreal and we missed the playoffs; what is there to like?

Ultimately though, I'm just happy we have a team, and I'll be watching as many games as possible next season as usual. But I find it harder to root for the Sens these days.

Still looking forward to:

- seeing the development of Ceci;
- hoping Karlsson gets back to his old self;
- hoping that in a moment of sudden clarity we keep Da Costa and give him a chance to be mini-Spezza;
- seeing the MoToR line back at work and at high rev!

But not looking forward to:

- seeing McStache behind the bench,
- Phillips logging too many minutes including plenty on the PP,
- an aging and declining Neil being a shadow of his old glorious self,
- Greening skating around with no purpose.

I think the negatives beat the positives for me so far.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

I was a Montreal fan for over thirty years before the Sens entered the league. Once my hometown got a team I became a Sens fan. I remained a Sens fans through the lean years and the disappointing underachieving years.

I'd been growing increasingly disillusioned through the reign of error years starting with Bryan Murray being named GM. Add in the frequent asinine comments, attempts to extort a casino, and financial shortcomings of the joke of an owner and I was getting nostalgic for my days as a Habs fan.

The Chris Phillips re-signing was the last straw for me. It was all the proof I needed that winning was not a priority. It was clear to me that Melnyk and Murray take the fans for fools. Can a Craig Anderson signing be far behind?

I still have a real affection for warriors like Chris Neil but I found myself cheering for Montreal and it felt right. I need to cheer for an organization where winning the Stanley Cup is considered more important than filling the pockets of a sleazebag owner.

Won't cheer for team with sleaze bag owner, will cheer for team that will hire coaches only if they speak French, even if it means not hiring the best candidate, meaning not doing everything to win a Stanley Cup.

Makes sense.

Definition of 'fairweather fan' yo.

 

[BonkTastic]

The A's are in a **** division. Try moneyballing in the AL East.

What the hell are you talking about?

The AL West has the highest combined winning percentage in all of Major League Baseball. AL East is 2nd last.

Jesus, man. Look this stuff up before you start parading this misinformation around.

 

[BonkTastic]

As long as they're in Ottawa, I'll never bail on my Sens.

Ever.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

What the hell are you talking about?

The AL West has the highest combined winning percentage in all of Major League Baseball. AL East is 2nd last.

Jesus, man. Look this stuff up before you start parading this misinformation around.

I just got tired of pointing out how wrong he is. Especially since the Rays made it to the World Series using smart money.

 

[Xspyrit]

Quebec city would welcome this franchise with open arms