Game 4 In The Books

And it's all over now except for the shouting. It has been 65 years since Toronto came back on the Red Wings from 3-1 down to win the Cup and quite frankly, Ottawa just does not have the discipline to get the job done.

I missed the opening period last night for Council business and I understand that the Senators came out with their pants on fire and came away with a 1-0 lead after one. The Thug Ducks had their go in the second period and they ended up tied at two.

However at the end of the second period and in the decisive third period, the Senators reverted to what they had done in Anaheim and tried to beat the Thug Ducks at their own game. On the game winning goal, two Senators went after the Anaheim player deep in his own zone and the once the pass got by them, the Thug Ducks had all sorts of open ice and used it to their advantage. The Senators had to know what a loss would mean and for them to lose their composure like that is inexcusable.

Ottawa might be able to force a Game 6 and maybe a Game 7 but this series is over folks. That could very well end up being good news because Don Cherry's much ballyhooed appearance on NBC last night was a total dud. Cherry flat out called for more fighting in the NHL and perpetrated all of the myths that I've been debunking. NASCAR took off when restrictor plates were added to slow the cars down and the roof flaps installed to keep them from flying through the air resulting in less crashes and less fatal crashes. The NFL has been for years cutting out the gratuitous violence. Yeah, we can kill the QB as long as he still has the ball and don't touch his head under any circumstances. Is Don Cherry even aware of that? Of course he calls for a return of the days of Dave Semeko when the NHL didn't have a U.S. National TV Broadcast contract and ESPN had about as much coverage as Versus does today (and of course, the NHL was kicked off of ESPN at the end of the 1980's). Don didn't do the NHL, CBC, or Canada any favors with his rant.

The only good thing is that it was highly unlikely anybody was watching Don Cherry on NBC last night...