There are a lot of things that went wrong. You've got to give the actual actor credit; he was no Gerard Butler, but he did a half-decent job considering everything that was stacked against him. What on earth were the Sens marketers thinking, though? Why would you think one regular-sized guy, who wasn't even tremendously cut, wearing Greek garb, spouting rhetoric in a poor British accent, after a cheesy as hell opening video intro would get this crowd going? Why did you think you needed it, in what we're calling Hockey Country? This isn't Los Angeles or Nashville. The only reason we need for excitement is hockey.
Now, when I first heard it, this didn't seem like such a bad idea. A while ago I saw an ad looking for someone to be The Gladiator, I thought it would be another mascot, like Spartacat, who would walk around the bowls during the game and shout things during stoppages in play. Which would have been fine. But to have him as the main attraction of the opening ceremonies? Terrible.
If they do this again--and I won't be surprised if Eugene Melnyk calls and says that they can never, ever try anything like this again--they need an army. Give about 100 guys tickets and $50 or so, have them don this ridiculous clothing, and don't make them say anything.
Or, you know, you could just have had Daniel Alfredsson skate around the ice, and he would have had the whole crowd on their feet in a matter of seconds.
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