I’m a Bay Area Sharks fan so I’m not well-versed on the Ottawa Senators but I think the team should hold on to Brian Elliot for now and wait until after next season to make a move.  Pascal Leclaire is a fragile and injury-prone goalie that will probably miss some time next year.  If that happens, Elliot can come up from Binghamton and split time with Auld, who is nothing but a disposable goalie.  If Leclaire manages to stay healthy he’ll probably put up good numbers and the Senators can be decently convinced that he’ll turn out to be their goalie of the future.

Obviously, Elliot’s trade stock would be much lower at that time but I think it’s a risk worth taking.  Leclaire just hasn’t shown enough consistency to be deemed the savior of the Sens’ net and make Elliot expendable.  Few would be talking about Steve Mason if Leclaire had stayed healthy.  Granted, he’s played on bad teams but so has Marc Denis who was durable enough to end up on the loss column 102 times during his last three seasons with Columbus.  That’s almost as many games Leclaire has played with the same team since he made his debut in 2003.

The only reason Leclaire is regarded so highly is his high draft position – #8 overall in 2001.  Oddly, I doubt Senators fan would be as excited if Rick Dipietro (#1 overall, 2000) and his brittle hips and knees showed up with his gear at Scotia Bank Place in Kanata looking for a starting job.

Look, I don’t know Pascal Leclaire and I don’t want him to fail but he just hasn’t done anything to make the Senators comfortable enough to warrant trading away a good goalie who can be great in Elliot.  That’s what this longwinded rant is all about.

Billy Squier, “In The Dark” off Don’t Say No (1981)

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I was born in San Jose’s O’ Connor Hospital in 1981 but I spent some of my early years in Juan Jose Rios, Sinaloa, Mexico.  From ages 4 to 7, I lived in an incomplete brick house on the same lot that my maternal grandmother’s house rested on.  In the summer of 1988, my immediate family, which consisted of my parents, myself, and two older brothers, made the 3-day trek back up to San Jose, California in a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Wagon.  When we arrived, we stayed at my dad’s friend’s place about half a block from the 2-bedroom apartment we would share for the next 14 years.

A few weeks after we moved into the apartment that holds many of my memories, my mother, middle brother, and I headed to the Capitol Flea Market at closing time.  This was a great time to go because sellers would leave all the stuff they didn’t sell and latecomers would have free reign over the leftover items.  During this particular Summer night in 1988, my brother and I managed to grab a forgotten and beat-up tape recorder from the pavement and a worn cassette by some guy named, “Billy Skier.”  That’s how we pronounced his name, at least.  The album was called, “Don’t Say No.”  For months on end, we listened to this tape and the first song, “In The Dark” became permanently tattooed in my brain.

By October 1989, we had saved up enough money to buy an NES and my brothers and I would spend the weekend evenings eating cheap Little Caesar’s Pizza, listening to “Billy Skier”, and playing video games.  We were dirt poor but I’d be hard pressed to remember another time I felt safer than I did at that point.

Almost 20 years later, I cannot listen to this song without being overwhelmed with emotion.  I’ve always believed in the power of song, but no other song takes me back to when I was a kid like this song does.

Suddenly, I want to eat some cheap pizza and play some Super Mario Bros. 2.  Who’s with me?

Crossfit Sunnyvale at Planet Granite is offering free CrossFit classes this month and I attended the first one this evening.  After some mechanics and form lessons followed by some warmups, we did 20 rounds (1 round per minute) of 3 pushups, 6 crunches, and 9 squats without weights. It sounds simple but at round 13 or so I was burning.   My quads feel very weak right now, but they felt great throughout the entire workout.  My abs, on the other hand, felt tired very early on.  I managed to finish all 20 rounds, though.

My next class is on Thursday night and I’m looking forward to being tired and achy that evening.  At least I know I’ll sleep well.

In the meanwhile, take a listen to “Lincoln Highway Dub” off Sublime’s Robbin’ The Hood.  This song was the basis for their most widely-known song, “Santeria.”