Joe Fan: "Let the real games begin! Phewww! 'Bout bleepin' time! The NHL preseason is about as entertaining as a leadership debate. The French version. When you don't understand French! There's no intensity, no electricity, no ... jam. I'd watch my Mom's Celine Dion live in Moose Jaw DVD before I'd sit through an entire preseason game. C'mon, those games are utterly meaningless. There's just nothing at stake. Nothin'!
Unless you are Brendan Bell.
You know Brendan, the likable Ottawa boy who wanted so badly to be a Senator. He has had a frustrating few years. He'd failed to survive training camp cuts in four of his five pro seasons in Toronto and Phoenix. Then along came the opportunity of a career: A shot at playing in his hometown on a defence that had spots open.
"I thought I had a real good shot," says Bell. "I figured we had four or five guys battling for three spots. I thought if I could just make it to Sweden, I could really show them what I could do."
He didn't make it to Sweden.
Bell only got into three preseason games. In one of them, he played 23 solid minutes against Philadelphia. And one horrific second. He had a brain cramp on a clearing pass and gave it right to Flyers rookie Darroll Powe, who buried it. And maybe buried Bell. For there it was, played over and over on the SportsCentre loop for the entire hockey world to see.
"Unfortunately, it was all anyone talked about," Bell says. "One play. Nothing about the other 23 minutes I was on the ice, but that's the way it is. Every little mistake is magnified."
Bell was cut a few days later.
"You try not to think this could be your last opportunity, try not to let it beat you, but this was my best chance," Bell says from Binghamton. "It's probably harder on my family. My Dad is like me; we try to stay optimistic, but the women in my life (his Mom, as well as his longtime girlfriend) were pretty devastated. For a couple of hours after (he was sent down), it was like the world had ended. But you just have to stay hopeful you'll get another crack."
Joe Fan: Preseason games are a joke! Heck, they gave away all the tickets in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and there were still tons of empty seats! (Oh, wait, they had to watch the Leafs. Sorry, bad example.) I heard they tortured prisoners at Guantanamo Bay by making them watch NHL preseason games. The preseason just doesn't matter!
Unless you are Rhett Warrener.
Warrener is a 12-year NHL veteran who is suddenly in jeopardy of losing his job on a deep Calgary defence. Preseason now equals survival.
"These are like playoff games to me," Warrener says. "I am a lot more nervous now for these than I have been for regular season games in years. I used to hate them (preseason games). Now I wish there were more."
Warrener does not want to play anywhere else but Calgary, and does not even want to contemplate life after the Flames.
"This is still my dream ... to play in the NHL,'' Warrener says. ''Calgary is my home. Playing for the Flames is my life. It scares me to think it could be taken away."
Warrener's $2.5-million U.S. salary doesn't help. He has to be that much better than the next guy. Especially if the next guy comes at half the price.
"He's desperate," says Flames coach Mike Keenan. "And that's a good thing. He has probably taken it for granted for years that these games are just to occupy your time. Sometimes you have to be reminded of where you are."
On Monday, Warrener was placed on waivers.
Joe Fan: The preseason means nothing to me. I want something real. The regular season is your first love, your high school sweetheart. The preseason is that waitress you met in Vegas at your buddies' stag in '04. What was her name ... Ashley? Amber? Alicia? The preseason is hockey's drunken blur. It's ... irrelevant.
Unless you are Robbie Schremp. He's the former London Knights phenom who can do cooler things with a puck than a stripper can with a pole. For four years, he's been trying to crack the Edmonton Oilers' lineup. He now finds himself in a three-way fight for the 13th forward spot. To him, this preseason only means ... everything.
"I want to be an Oiler," Schremp says, almost desperately. "I don't want to be a Springfield Falcon anymore, no offence to them. I'm so sick of the minors. This is where I've dreamed of playing. I don't want to go home."
And so every game, every shift, Schremp feels intense pressure to make all the right decisions and show he belongs.
"You just keep thinking, 'Don't screw up.' I just can't screw up because the next guy is right there. It's so close. It's incredibly frustrating, really, having no security. I just sit around my hotel room all afternoon thinking, worrying about whether or not I'll make it. It's hell."
The preseason ends Monday night. Just one mean meaningless game left.
From The Ottawa Citizen