Written by Graeme Nichols | 23 April 2009

When a Bruins fan, who masquerades as a professional journalist, is drawing attention to how you have to be at a game in Boston to appreciate Bruins fans chanting "So gay, so gay, so gay, so gay", odds are, you've had a bad year.

Now, Habs fans might be arsonist douchebags who sport bad facial hair, razor thin sideburns and sip molson ex through a straw while throwing molotov cocktails with the other - but to describe them using homophobic slurs? That's stereotyping and it's wrong.

What was the line from Vegas that Vancouver would have more riot related offences than Montreal following a first round sweep? Talk about a let down. With the Senators eliminated from postseason contention, Montreal's subsequent post-elimination riot was supposed to be a staple that we as fans could gravitate to and enjoy from afar. My interest has piqued. Until the playoffs are over and the media gives more attention to the NHL Entry Draft coverage, I'll be pretty bored. It's not that the playoffs aren't entertaining, they are. It's just that without any valuable Senators' information out there, things are getting pretty mundane.

Of course, I could still take interest in watching Redden and Chara match up in the second round but that's not really fun. The NHL playoffs well underway leaves Sens fans yearning for the days gone by where Chara and Redden patrolled the blue line for the Senators. Well, at least the Redden and Chara of old. It's kind of like having two ex-wives who took different paths. One moved on and married into money, got a boob job and ended up landing a plush high profile job with your old best friend who lost touch with you ages ago and feels no need to rekindle the relationship. The preference for all who end a relationship on poor terms is the other scenario which sees your ex marry an aspiring meth lab entrepreneur, relocate to a deteriorating trailer park, get fat and develop a nice case of bacne. Either way, I hope they both sink to new lows.

Fortunately, Bob Gainey went to the podium yesterday to address the media and launched into this attack on Tampa Bay's management team, lead by Brian Lawton:

"We had discussions with Tampa Bay. We had an agreement with them.

I got a call in January from them with a list of names that they wanted to talk about and those players ended up in public because they used those names to take them to other teams to see if they could create a different trade for Vinny Lecavalier.

I think it was disgraceful that Josh Georges, Tomas Plekanec and Christopher Higgins had to read that stuff."~ Bob Gainey, courtesy of The Ottawa Sun

So without disclosing whether or not picks were involved if Gorges, Pleckanec and Higgins are all that were needed to land Lecavalier, what exactly is Jason Spezza's comparative worth? Now maybe I'm being naive here, but I'm inclined to believe that it's slightly less than Lecavalier's.

I know, I know, there are some minor things happening in the Nation's Capital, but people are deeply engaged in conversations to determine whether Dany Heatley deserves to wear an 'A' in a glorified exhibition tournament, odds are, hockey news is really slow. I simply refuse to get caught up in conversations that begin with the phrase, "The only thing Dany Heatley can lead is the Senators in goals scored."

And all apologies to Mattias Karlsson, but news that he opted to sign with Timra of the Swedish Elite League (SEL) just isn't going to cut it for me either. It's not that losing a member of the AHL All-Rookie Team isn't a blow to the depth of the organization, it is. Even though his path was blocked with a backlog of average NHL defencemen, the absence of Bell and Karlsson next season will negatively impact Bingo's power play.

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