It's Wide-man not Weed-man

The countdown is on for the Christmas break and this mini trip to Boston and Atlanta should be very interesting. The Bruins and Senators are the top two teams in the east. Ottawa is the best offensive team in the NHL right now and Boston is now a top 10 team defensively. The Senators are in a difficult spot. Missing Fisher, Eaves and Volchenkov makes things tough. They are all important in their own ways. There will be no sympathy here in Boston where they are missing Bergeron and Fernandez.

Garry Galley should have some juicy bits on our Sportsnet broadcast tonight. His old Boston teammate Cam Neeley was at the rink this morning for the skate. They sat together and talked for almost the entire morning. I have a feeling very little of what they talked about will be useable on our telecast tonight. I was going to go over and listen in, but Gord bought me coffee this morning and I felt obliged to sit with him and Schreibs.

It’s like old home week in the Boston locker room. Zdeno Chara, Aaron Ward, Peter Schaefer, Marc Savard, Peter Chiarelli, Claude Julien and Craig Ramsay all either come from Ottawa, played in Ottawa or coached in Ottawa.

I talked to Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman after hearing another broadcaster call him Dennis Weedman and wondered if I had been mis-pronouncing his name all these years. He said his name is exactly the way it’s spelled and complained that they even mis-pronounce his name in the video game NHL 08.

Had a good chat with the Big Z. I own a log home and he is very interested in building one. We never actually talked about hockey, but instead spent all our time talking about log homes and post and beam homes.

The Senators went on to win the game 3-2 with Luke Richardson getting his first goal as a Senator and his first in 98 games. Spezza with his 2 goals continues his hot streak. 6 straight wins and now 5 straight on the road. Now its on to Atlanta.

See you at the rink.