Where's the panic button!!!!

A new bench boss typically does not signal an immediate string of successes, but rather it signals changes. Quite often these changes are slow paced, for better or worse, and they take time to come to fruition.

Bryan Murray took over for the Sens to face the Flyers on Thursday night’s game and although there were significant improvements the team did not win. There was more grit, emotion and hitting in the game, but overall, the game was a trial of errors and struck with bad luck.

Top flight centre Jason Spezza, while celebrating his goal, was confronted by Flyers goalie (Biron) with a cross check that Spezza did not appreciate. Quickly the referees did their jobs and got in there to break up the scrum, but several Flyers took exception to Spezza asking what Biron’s problem was and dragged him out by his collar. Spezza’s emotional response of butt-ending a player got him ejected from the game and it knocked the wind out of the sails of the Ottawa Senators. They lost the 1 goal lead shortly and would not get back into it. To make matters worse, defensive specialist Anton Volchenkov had been suffering the effects of the flu and ended up getting winded. He ended up leaving the game and did not return.

A shining moment came when Mike Fisher took exception to Steve Downie, who all Sens fans remembers well for laying a dirty hit on McAmmond that side lined him for quite some time, and Fisher absolutely cleaned Downie’s clock. It is unfortunate that despite the efforts, Biron was the answer for the Flyers and the Senators were held at bay.

This morning the media and the Internet were both abuzz with the fair-weather attitudes of a tired fan base. Many questioned the coaching change immediately, some thought that Gerber being named as our start on Saturday was bad, and some even said that the team was hopelessly adrift. This last bit is for you ...

Murray was the coach last year and this year is almost done. He has to get back in the saddle and feel out the attitude of the team while attempting to challenge the players to be their best. Keep in mind that all year long he has had a coach who was the buddy to the team and rarely, if ever, played the bad guy. Paddock quite often got away with speaking his mind with the media because the players didn’t look up at him, but looked at him equally ... What the Ottawa Senators require is a basics game with a coach who tells them when they did good or bad. There are seventeen games in the schedule left and though the protective cover is off it is not time to press the panic button. Give Murray a couple of games and we will forget any of this ever happened.