HERE WE GO!!!!!!!

Fifteen years of dreaming.

Ten years of frustrating playoff runs (or whatever they could be called a few of those years!)

Good times, bad times.

Well they're all behind us - this is it - this is NOW! Today is the day that the Ottawa Senators compete in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals. Who would have thought?! Bruce Firestone, Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton did. And after around twenty years of blood, sweat and tears, their dream is finally coming true in front of their very eyes.

Our dream.

It's tough for me to get extra excited about the fact that "we're there". Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic - my office is decorated with Stanley Cup series "art". Up until the end of the season prior to the "season that never was" due to the lockout, I was a season ticket holder. Up until last year, I had never missed a playoff game at the Corel Centre. The lockout then happened - I noticed that there was more to do on Thursday and Saturday nights than to head west to the greatest arena on earth. Then I had to save up money for a wedding last year. I just recently recovered from that expense.

That meant that a ticket package for this year was not a possibility for me. That means that I am one of the fans on the outside looking in right now. I've been fortunate to be able to go to one game in each of the series thus far, but no matter what angle I take, I have been unable to get tickets for the biggest round ever. Members of the media reasoned with fans calling into local radio programs that it's the team's duty of sorts to help support those who have supported it this season. I do understand that - but what about those who were there through the lean years where the Sens couldn't even muster up a season win total in the double digits? What about those who were there for the last seconds of the season before the lockout transformed the league?

I know, this is a world of "what have you done for me lately" kinds of attitudes.

So, I have decorated my apartment's front window, I have decorated my office and I have been wearing nothing but Sens jerseys I bought in the past and other Sens-themed clothing I have purchased more recently. I will keep trying Capital Tickets in the hopes that a ducat or two frees up some time before Saturday night rolls around. I will also keep trying to get a pair of tickets on eBay in spite of continued threats from Senators officials who claim to be "retracting" them. Thanks for looking out for me, guys, but if it's the only way I can get some, what am I supposed to do!?

So let's go Sens - the moment is now and it may never come back... so starting at 4:30pm this afternoon when I can bust out of the office, it's no holds barred, all Sens, all the time... and whether I can get to ScotiaBank Place or not, it's time to get caught up in this wonderful story and see where it takes us.

GO SENS GO!!!!!!!