Sens lost tonight.  I hate that they lost, but I hate more HOW they lost.  Outhustled, outhit, outworked, outplayed, outhearted.  And Daniel Alfredsson, their captain, showed a complete lack of class when he deliberately shot the puck at one of the opposing players with a few seconds left in the 2nd period.  What a loser.  Funny how some captains have no class.

Here's a hand with Jeff from a couple of weeks ago (I was gonna play a few with Scooter tonight, but watching the Sens game took priority.)

You pick up in 1st at favorable:

J94 / J52 / 32 / J9632

You pass, Lefty passes, 3 Clubs from partner, 3NT by Righty

You're up.

I didn't think I was worth 5 Clubs.  Jeff is probably on a 6-bagger here so I shouldn't hang him.  But 4 Clubs should be safe and is mildly obstructive (it prevents Lefty from bidding 4 Clubs, anyway.)  Surely this won't go for more than 500 unless opps have slam.

This was passed around to Righty who doubled, float.  I saw Jeff's hand as soon as his final pass reached my computer and it wasn't the hand of my dreams.

J94 / J52 / 32 / J9632

T76 / A96 / T4 / AQ874

19 trumps (10 for us in clubs, nine for them in diamonds) and only 16 tricks (11 for them and ... 5 for us.)  Mirror distribution sucks.

Defense was flawless.  Two rounds of diamonds.  Three rounds of spades.  A club switch through Jeff, who flew Ace and played another, hoping to endplay the NT bidder, but he exited with a heart from his Kxx, and we couldn't avoid 2 heart losers, 3 spade losers, 2 diamond losers and a club loser.  -1100

'Sorry partner, I should have opened 3 Clubs,' was all I could come up with when the hand was over.