Sunday, February 5, 2012

Happy Birthday Scotty!

While America is getting ready for the Super Bowl, the province of Quebec is celebrating something entirely different today: the first anniversary of Scott Gomez's last goal. Indeed, the Montreal Canadiens' forward hasn't found the net since February 5 of last year, and while this is nothing special on its own, what makes this especially interesting is the fact that he's one of the highest paid players in the NHL, at eight millions per year. This is the same paycheck Steven Stamkos, who's heading towards a third consecutive season of 45 goals or more (at age 22, no less), cashes in every year. Sad. Even moreso when you realize his coaches have given him every opportunity, benching Erik Cole (the team's best player this year) in power plays and shootouts in favor of the Alaskano-Mexican-whatever. And the fans are tired of the neverending suckage, as at yesterday's game against Washington, they sarcastically applauded every time the 11 so much as touched the puck. And since today is the anniversary of his last goal, everyone's expecting things to go into overdrive, as sites dedicated to Gomez' unlucky streak are popping up everywhere.

For example, this site keeps track of the time passed since his last goal, how much he's been paid since then, as well as a video of his last goal:

http://didgomezscore.com/

This one's gotten quite a bit of attention from the media, and makes suggestions to the people who are going to attend this afternoon's game against Winnipeg:

http://www.celebrations-gomez.com/en/

Then we have this gem of a song, that I favorited on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUumD9pd2Hc&fmt=18

Oh, and I guess I should mention two locations of sports bar chain Le Skratch, who offer everyone present a free shot whenever Gomez scores. Needless to say, they have yet to spend a single penny over this promotion. As for RDS (the French Canadian counterpart to ESPN and TSN), they're holding a contest to see who can predict when Gomez will score his next goal. Yep, a contest, and there are actual prizes to be won too.

Mean-spirited? I don't think so, and even if it were, it's slightly insulting to see him cash on his yearly eight millions when us regular Joes bust our asses off every day and likely won't make that in our whole lifetimes. Besides, it's a really drab season for Canadiens fans (which I am not, as a reminder), and after hitting last place in the Eastern Conference yesterday, it's understandable that they'll want to have their fun in other ways.

3 comments:

  1. At least the Avs are a little better than them, I wish we would just fire Joe Sacco though.

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  2. I'm loving Montreal so much right now.

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  3. Aaand my Jets got blanked that day. Go figure.

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