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ALSO ON SLAM!
Sunday, November 7, 1999
Penny for your thoughts
Senators players enjoy games before real games
Sometimes the game before the game promises to have more excitement and drama than the actual on-ice event.
Such figured to be the case yesterday as a handful of Senators gathered for lunch about seven hours before facing the hapless Habs.
We take you now to Pesto's Deli & Fresh Pasta, a cozy little spot frequented by Ottawa players at the corner of Hazeldean and Terry Fox Dr.
On this day, Cheapseats has elected to cover the pre-game meal enjoyed by Bruce Gardiner, Marian Hossa, Patrick Traverse and rookie Karl Rachunek.
Again, it is all but guaranteed to be a tastier assignment than recording a meeting between the soaring Senators and the NHL's doormats.
Pesto's is owned by Rob Nicastro (whose brother Dave runs Il Negozio Nicastro) and working with, and for, Rob at the Kanata eatery is his other brother, Mike, as well as Sam Marrello and John Vivolo.
There are five or six tables plus a bar counter at Pesto's. The preferred meals of Senators is the linguini or grilled chicken sandwich, although Cheapseats opts for the "Bruce Gardiner Special" (a spicy deli-meat combo) primarily because Bruce Gardiner has offered to pay.
But that's just for Cheapseats' bill.
Who picks up the overall tab will be determined at the conclusion of Birds in the Bush. The game before the game. The object is simple:
Each participant has four pennies. Each secretly decides how many of the four pennies he is going to hide in an outstretched fist. Each then guesses the total number of pennies that are being held. When someone guesses correctly, he is out of the game. Round after round passes until only one person remains. That person picks up the bill.
Gardiner wouldn't let Cheapseats play -- despite Hossa's objections -- because Cheapseats was his guest. Oh well.
The game begins amid intense concentration. Traverse wins the first round with a guess of seven. Three players remain.
Hossa is the next out. Only Gardiner and Rachunek are left.
The rook' turns out to be no match for the experienced Gardiner.
"I don't know how they do it," says one witness, "but it always seems like it's a rookie who gets stuck paying."
Luck figures in, you'd think. The players have theories, however.
"You study tendencies," says Gardiner. "Patty always holds three. Hoss always has one. With me, it's three or nothing."
"It's like a goalie facing guys on breakaways," says Traverse. "Certain guys do the same thing all the time."
Whatever. All I know for sure is, no matter what would happen later on, at least I saw the one good game yesterday.
STOPS AND STARTS: A confession -- I watched the game from the Sun's corporate box. That's right, Cheapseats in the Cheap Suites ... What's wrong with the Habs? For one thing, their defencemen entered the game with a grand total of one goal, which is what Patrick Traverse has despite playing less than half of Ottawa's games ... Joe Juneau is four courses shy of an MBA. When is he going to pick them up? "Never," laughs Joe. And why should he? It's not like he doesn't already have a pretty good job ... The Senators are not even close to the quarter-of-the-way mark of the schedule, but Marian Hossa is a quarter of the way to the 40 goals Cheapseats predicted he'd score this season.
END TO END: The winner of last night's Cheapseats Giveaway was Peter Maniscalco, who owns the chip wagon across from Manderly on the Green golf course. Peter took his 10-year-old son Mark to the game.
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