Some thoughts:
This marks the end of a Sens era for me. The last offensive star to leave the team from our golden years. This team will now have to form a new identity and appears to be poised to rebuild slowly, rather than make moves to contend.
Like many of the older fans who have watched Spezza's entire career, this is a sad moment for me, though definitely from a sports entertainment perspective, rather than a real world one.
Spezza never got his due from a terribly vocal segment of the fanbase because they always had expectations of him that he was never going to fulfill. If he was a beast defensively, or was more aggressive, he could have been the best player in the world. The fact that he was neither of these thing soured so many people into being unable to appreciate the superstar player that he was.
There is a life lesson here that some people should learn; enjoy the things that you have for what they are, instead of always wishing they were better.
I'll remember that no matter what he did he also brought out the absolute worst in our fan base, some of the worst comments, and most dogged and mindless hate that I have seen, and all heaped on a player who never shied from the media, was a consummate professional, super in the community, and clearly loved to play the game. He loved the Ottawa Senators and gave 11 years of elite level hockey to our city and fans.
It really bothered me to come in here day after day and read the comments from the haters this year, to see how much they relished in Spezza's struggles early on, and how venomously they denied his later success when he was fully healed (and they're still doing it). People on here took personal offence against the guy because he didn't play the game they wanted him too. They seemed to feel that he could be much better, but chose not to be, as though a guy who lives and breathes, and loves hockey like Spezza was purposely not playing as well as he could. It made life on the boards almost unbearable.
With Spezza's departure at least there is some solace in the fact that these posters will finally shut the **** up.
To me Spezza was:
-Best offensive forward this team has ever had
-Scored some of the prettiest goals and set up some of the prettiest plays the league has seen
-Was a star prospect who actually became a star (as Trent noted)
-Was the offensive linchpin of our best offensive years, and some of the happiest times as a Sens fan
-Was always so excited about starting each season, and showed a willingness to learn and to excel at the game.
