Sharks Gameday: Let's Be Friends!

Did you know that some fans of the Ottawa Senators don't like Dany Heatley? What's up with that?

In fact, based on what I've heard, they really seem to hate him quite a bit. The way some people talk about him online you'd think he came into their living rooms and slapped them in the face while they were watching The Littlest Hobo or some other piece of crap Canadian TV show.

Some people are even saying that they're planning to boo Dany Heatley when the Sharks play the Senators tonight! Can you believe it? How rude! It's apparently a huge deal over there, with the Ottawa Sun devoting FIVE ARTICLES YESTERDAY to the issue*.

I don't know what Heatley could have possibly done to make Ottawa fans so angry, but he probably shouldn't take their booing personally. They just love booing people, even without cause. They boo Zdeno Chara even though he wanted to stay in Ottawa. That makes sense. They boo Marian Hossa because their general manager gave him a stupidly expensive contract that they then couldn't afford. Classy. And I think they boo Sidney Crosby because their booing helps ease the stinging pain of jealousy eating away at their brains.

So clearly these people are just very very angry at everything. That's cool. I can understand that. But I am disturbed by recent reports that Ottawa fans have been booing every mention of the Sharks for the past week in anticipation of tonight's game. That's just unacceptable. Look, I know people in Ottawa might not know much about hockey etiquette since they've only had a team since 1992 and everything, but even these newcomers to the hockey experience should know better than this.

San Jose and Ottawa really should be the best of friends. We have so much in common! Both of our teams have some great offensive talent and yet have sucked so far this season. Both of us have yet to win a Stanley Cup despite winning President's Trophies and all that other worthless crap. We've both employed Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo. (Although the Senators really should have known better about Cheechoo. What were they thinking?)

And there's even this fun fact uniting our teams: according to my research**, Ottawa is sometimes called "Silicon Valley North" due to its major tech industry. Here's a list of companies that have offices in Ottawa. I spent ten minutes trying to find page two of this list before I realized that was all they have. That's...great for them. No Google or Apple though, huh? Well...maybe some day, right? 

My point is, the Sharks and Senators have no reason to hate each other. They play in different conferences and there's no historic rivalry, and there's certainly nothing that has happened between us that calls for booing. In fact, when I do that quiz where you try to name all the NHL teams as fast as you can, the Senators are one of the ones I always forget! So you see, there's no animosity at all.

We cool, Ottawa?

Prediction: Ottawa's hate makes Heatley strong. Sharks win 4-2 with two goals from Heatley and one from Benn Ferriero and Logan Couture.

* = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Does this remind anyone else of stumbling across an ex's Livejournal page and finding out that they're still bitching about stuff you did long after you've stopped thinking about them entirely?

** = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa