Posted by Mike Fisher on February 21, 2008

We welcomed two new players, Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore, into our locker-room last week after the trade with Carolina. I find that fitting in just happens naturally in these situations. I’ve played against these guys for a while and some of the guys have played with each other on other teams.

For the guys coming in, it’s a little harder, not knowing anyone and trying to fit in. But they’re veteran guys. It’s not like they’re young guys. They’ve been around the league and they’ve done it before. And I think we’re a pretty easy locker room to fit in with.

It’s tough seeing players like Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo leave. You get the call in the afternoon about a trade and guys are gone that night. That’s the tough part of hockey, seeing guys go that you’ve become good friends with. That’s not easy, for sure.

Until the deadline passes, there’s always a possibility of some guys going or being traded. So there might be a bit of uneasiness about it. That’s always been part of it. There’s been some jokes made in the past, scaring guys and stuff about being traded. But we try to keep it light. It’s nothing that we can control.

We attended the Sens Soirée at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau on Wednesday night. It’s fun being able to interact with the fans and supporters of the team. It’s a big deal, too, because it raises a lot of money for the Sens Foundation and children’s charities and things like that. So it’s a big event for us. And we have a little bit of fun at it, too.

Posted by Mike Fisher on February 7, 2008

We’re all looking forward to the skills competition we’ll be holding here on Sunday afternoon. It’s kind of a fun event. It’s pretty relaxed and it’s for the fans, basically. We just go out and try to have some fun, and it’ll be a time to show the skills – or lack thereof – that we have.

I won the hardest shot competition last year, but I don’t have anything special planned to defend my title. I might tweak the stick a bit to get an extra mile an hour but I haven’t been practising for it. I expect I’ll have some good competition this year. Schubie’s a contender, for sure. Meszaros, Corvo … there’s guys who are going to be gunning for me.

I’m hearing we’ll have at least 15,000 people out on Sunday. That doesn’t really surprise me. The fan support that we’ve had all year has been great. Some of the open practices we’ve had, you see all the fans out. It’s pretty amazing. It adds to the whole thing if there’s a lot of people there. Hopefully, we can make it enjoyable for them.

It’s coming down to the stretch run for us now. We’ve got 28 games left, and this is when we’ve got to start ramping up our game. We obviously haven’t performed as well in December and January and there’s the trade deadline coming, with changes possible and a lot of different factors. But we’ve got to step it up.

There’s always a little bit of tension about the trade deadline. It’s worse for some guys more than others because of the rumours you hear. It’s a tough time, for sure. At the same time, it’s about making your team better and realizing that it’s possible. None of us really have control over that. Definitely, some guys think about it and there’s nervousness about it, for sure.