My first post...

Hey everyone!

Well, here I am writing my first post in what I hope will become a regular thing as I take my first steps into the world of bloggers. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before I got that bored and in need of attention...

Now, I must say, last Friday I was treated to the best meal I've had in a long, long time. Actually, "was treated" is a wrong choice of words, because I did participate (ever so slightly) in the preparing of this wonderful dinner. I was at my good friend Jean-Francois', in Sunny Isles, and his girlfriend, the ever charming Marie-Eve, was at the helm in the kitchen. The menu included cheese souffles (my goodness were those tasty!) as the appetizer. I can't tell you what the name of the entree was, but it was basically lamb and onions covered with sliced potatoes. And although J-F complained that there wasn't enough salt, I thought it was excellent. And for dessert, Marie-Eve had prepared grapes that had been marinating in Port for 2 days (or something like that). Now THAT was amazing!! In the end, we wound up going upstairs to a friend's appartment where we smoked a couple of La Aurora cigars which were wisely accompanied by a Hennessy XO cognac. All in all, given that Oilers won 6-3 that night, it was truly a great evening!

On another note, I was once again very much entertained by another intriguing weekend of Hockey. The Oilers have now won 3 games in a row to take 3-2 series lead back to Edmonton for game 6. So far, their series with the Sharks has been, without the shadow of a doubt, the most physical, emotional and hard-fought series the Stanley Cup Playoffs have had to offer. Game 6, on wednesday night, promises to be another thriller.

Now, you all know I'm a big Oiler fan, so I won't bore you with how happy I am with their performance so far. Instead, let me turn to what I think are the biggest news to have come out of hockey this weekend:

1. The NJ Devils are out in 5. I knew that Carolina was going to be good. I had actually predicted that they would beat Montreal pretty easily, probably in 5. But when I saw the Devils sweep the Rangers, I truly thought that the Carolina-New Jersey series would be a long one, probably going in 6 or 7 games, with Martin Brodeur coming out once more as a hero... Boy was I ever wrong. Instead, aside from 1 game where the Canes barely showed up, all they did was bitchslap the Devils into next season. They dominated from start to finish, and the Devils never came close to looking like a playoff team. Still, I believe that Carolina's quest for the Cup will end in Buffalo, who also easily disposed of Ottawa. Which brings us to point #2...

2. Ottawa out in 5. Even though I wanted Ottawa to win, I thought Buffalo had a better playoff team. But not because I thought Ray Emery couldn't do the job. The problem with Ottawa has been the same for years: they are not built as a playoff team. In every team that goes to the Cup finals you have true leaders that come through in crunch time: Brad Richards or Dave Andreychuk with Tampa, Jarome Iginla with Calgary, Brodeur with New Jersey, Yzerman in Detroit, Sakic in Colorado, etc... The fact is, Ottawa was built around a second-year center who had yet to experience the playoff atmosphere (Spezza), a sharp-shooter who disappeared during the Olympics (Heatley) and a captain who has never been able to rally his troops during tough times (Alfredsson). They had more grit this year, but grit means nothing if it doesn't spread to the rest of your team. And that starts at the top; it starts with your leaders. And once again, Alfredsson dissapeared during the playoffs. I think it speaks volumes that night in and night out, their best player was often Martin Havlat. I think that this summer, Ottawa's priority has to be to acquire a true leader. They have to go get someone who will rally the troops when they fall behind, someone who will sacrifice his body to block a big shot, or pay the price in front of the net for a big goal and then tell his teammates to follow his lead. Andreychuk did it with Tampa in 2004, as did Iginla in the same year. Koivu was the guy doing it in Montreal in their first round comeback against Boston in 2004. And if you're looking for a reason why Edmonton has had so much success in this year's playoffs, look no further than guys like Ryan Smyth, Jason Smith, Fernando Pisani, Ethan Moreau, Chris Pronger, Shawn Horcoff and Raffi Torres. These guys, and everyone else on the team, are constantly putting their bodies in harm's way to help the team. But again, it all starts with their leaders, Ryan Smyth and Jason Smith. That's what the Senators need.

Check back later this week, as I'll review a couple of the best music releases in the last couple of months... there's been some good ones!

Later,

The Dwarf