Preville on Politics

Do not go gently to the golf course

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Philip Preville

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It's a topic of intense debate in Toronto as to whether it's okay to cheer for the Ottawa Senators. This debate is, I think, confined to lifelong 416ers and 905ers. Those of us who are part of the pan-Canadian diaspora— those who live in Toronto by choice rather than by birth—don't wear blue and white blinders, and we would be more than happy to see the Senators win. I'll go one step further and goad Leafs Nation: I really like Daniel Alfredsson.

His on-ice antics—like the time he feigned throwing his broken stick into a crowd at the ACC, or last game's slapshot right at Scott Niedermayer— are memorable. They are also the outward and visible signs of an inner temper, which he seems to work hard to control, and which makes him interesting to watch at all times. My favourite Sens player this playoff is actually Antoine Vermette, who has been unheralded despite being one of their best playoff performers, assisting on big, momentum-swinging goals in every series they've played.

In the past, whenever the Senators found themselves on the ropes like they are now, they'd fold up the tent. I don't predict that they'll win tonight, but I do predict that they won't go gently like they usually do. Vermette and Alfredsson will have big games, as will Dany Heatley, spurred on by ghosts. Last year the Oilers turned a 3-1 series deficit into a winner-take-all game 7. The Senators did the same thing a few years ago against New Jersey. Go Sens go.

Image: rabid Sens fan. (Not Philip Preville.)

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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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