Senators will never be Canada's Team

This is my rough guess:

Canada (population): 32.9 million
Ontario (population): 12.7 million
Greater Ottawa (population): 1.15 million
Percentage of Ontario that cheers for the Leafs: 90-95%
Percentage of Leafs fans that cheer for Sens: 0.1%
Percentage of country left over: 60-65%

It has been a lousy spring for hockey fans in many parts of Canada and understandably so as most of our NHL teams either failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs or got knocked out early. But the mood is particularly sour among the citizenry of the Leaf nation, as I have discovered in recent days by posing the question to many acquaintances:: Can you handle the Senators in the final?

The answer every time has been an emphatic, unequivocal "no," uttered with a mix of indignation and disgust. In fact, some even admitted that they were hoping the Buffalo Sabres would beat the Senators in the semifinal.

The fact of the matter is that, through the Flames' and Oilers' ultimately unsuccessful runs in 2004 and 2006, many of Leafs Nation's hardcore fans had no problem getting on the 'Canada's Team' bandwagon (it was, after all, nice to cheer for a winner) and I had little trouble finding accompaniment to the local watering holes to watch the exploits of Iginla/Smyth and friends.

Well, here's some advice for those who bleed blue and white, or the colours of other colours of other Canadian teams: take a pill and get over it.