Wednesday, December 31, 2008

At least it wasn't a Baker's Dozen!

That's right people... Finally the Senators waltzed into a Western market and played with passion, drive and determination to come out with two full points!

Granted, winning did not change a thing. The Sens are still low in the standings -- in fact that lost a spot in both the east and the league overall despite the win -- but should they build off of this win then they could actually do something with this season rather than scrap it.

Brian Lee: First NHL Goal and it was a biggie. Getting a game winner against a tough tightly fought game is huge, but doing it on the road is even more huge. Grats to the kid!

Martin Gerber: I am still and probably will forever be exceptionally nervous whenever he is in net. His rebounds are frightening. His adventures out of the crease give me cold sweats and his lack of trapper usage makes my stomach bind in ways that no mortal man should feel. However, if the team can back him up and we can get value for him on a trade then I don't mind a few games there to make him into trade fodder.

Chris Phillips: What on earth did Hartsburg say to him after his Alfie mess up that led to a goal? Now, sure, Alfie should NEVER in a zillion years lug the puck in close quarters to the net and go up through the middle. He should use the back boards or glass for the safe play, but when your captain is cut off and it leads to a goal there has to be something. After that Philly played with such intensity I almost forgot about his +/- stat!

Fisher/Foligno/Vermette: You naysayers out there in la la land who say Fisher does nothing can now cram it. No points, sure, but how many points did they prevent? How many shots did they fire? How many penalties and second chances did they produce. There is more to hockey then firing the puck and scoring on every shot.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Van-City Blanks Visiting Sens

What can I say that has not already been said?

Gerber is horrible in net. Period. Rebounds popping out... Cheating on break aways and getting caught falling over while poke checking instead of playing big ... Long bomb shots finding a hole the size of Stanley Park on him. Ultimately, Gerber simply did not play a half way decent game.

What about the rest of the team?

A total write off.

I'll write more later when I am not so disappointed and angry at this Bantam A effort.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Flames burnover Sens and more trade talks surface

Sens lost 6-3 in Calgary after blowing a 2-0 lead ... What else can I say? Inconsistent, sloppy and lacked desperation.

Is Murray a buyer or a seller up to the trade deadline?

He could easily be both, but neither will give him an impact player to the club, but rather signal that the era for the Sens getting the cup has come and passed for the next few years.

Over the last month I have seem some pretty stupid ideas about trades. I don't meed to call the posters themselves stupid, but rather that the trade itself was stupid to begin with. Fact is that no matter who Murray trades out of Ottawa he will not see the same calibre returning.

Fisher: Snake bitten, for the most part, since last January and unable to find consistency. A change in scenery may help him, but no club wants to take a chance on that far into the season.

Vermette: Much the same as Fisher's situation.

Schubert: A tough and rugged blue liner who is often shunted to fourth line forward despite his preference. People complain about how come he sucks on the blue line, but the reality is Heatley would suck out of position too. Trading Schubert would make him a better player for another team if they let him play his game.

Gerber: My favourite is to send Gerber away and call up Elliott. Two problems with this ... Gerber was supposed to be the #1 but sucked hard again. No one wants him at all. Bringing up Elliott, on the other hand, would take away from his development. Goalies get better when playing in goal. Auld will more than likely be given the ride until the end of the season.

Spezza: Just signed a new and very cheap contract. He is the smartest of all of them to trade, but under these desperate circumstances teams will gladly try to take Spezza for less than what he is worth. Murray won't likely look to make this move unless it is mutual in return as it is to giving away.

What made Ottawa terrible this year then?

On paper they were supposed to be absolutely fantastic. The reality is that they simply aren't ... If we look back over the past few years Murray and Muckler picked apart this club. Signing Gerber and then turfing Emery because of attitude. Corvo wanting out of the media hungry market and taking Eaves for Commodore and Stillman who both left in the off season. Chara over Redden; in the end both left for free. That's just to name a few! I like Bryan Murray as a coach more than I do a GM because at least then he seems to have a passion for the game. At this point and with each point slipping out of the hands of the Sens it seems more apparent that this season is a write off. What do we have to look forward to next year? Much of the same?

- W

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A Comedy of Errors...?

Watching tonight's no contest for the Thrashers was mind boggling. Yet another team sending in their back up against the Sensators, but worse ... they are struggling to keep the biscuit out of the basket! Looks like tonight was the rare exception for the Thrashers, yet par for the course for Ottawa.

Light Play:

All around the team has been playing light. There is no jam.... no sticking up for one another (rare case being Neil and Ruutu) and no real desire. Sure the media scrum produces the same idiotic cliches about how badly they want to win, but when they hit the ice they rather go for a skate. Watching tonight's game was like watching a beer league team being thumped by a PeeWee team. What gives?

cASH Line:

We always look to this line to produce goals, but not energy. Sure you can get energy from goals ... yet Alfredsson, Spezza and Heatley do not play for one another nor do they put their body on the line. They don't go to the corners and they won't lay a hit. Other teams are well aware of this and when these three hit the ice it is rather easy to play around them rather than checking your time and space. Maybe for once this line can be asked to actually hit ... not that they should be asked. I mean, this is hockey after all ... Not soccer.

Tempo Killer:

Right after Neil flattened Little, Ruutu had a dance with Slater. The tempo was back in the building, but Hartsburg decided to follow up this tempo with the cASH line. Like I said above ... no jam in that line. You think because the crowd is cheering suddenly these three give a damn about energy production? No! The other team is going to check harder, be more vicious on the puck and contain whatever offence is being created. That is EXACTLY what they did! My god... Why on earth would you follow up tempo with a lull?

Hartsburg:

I didn't like the idea of Hartsburg or DeBoer coming into the NHL because they are not tested. I thought Paddock too was a poor choice, but hey, no one listens to me. DeBoer has proven to have some worth, but I am not sold on Hartsburg yet. I mean, yeah, he has tightened up the D-game, but let's face it ... He has only continued the shitty record and inconsistency. However, it isn't all his fault. There is something to be said about Murray and how he built this team in the off season to be grittier, but watch any interview and you see veteran Senators, not new ones and you get the sense there is a divide in the room.

Murray: Buying or Selling?

Selling. I told people early in the season to wait til Christmas to pass judgement and I am passing it now. Time to trade off players for prospects and picks. There are a number of players that can easily be swapped around to rebuild, but for the love of all things sacred, do not wait too long. The long Murray waits the less likely teams will want to take a chance on a dead fish player. Some of our cheaper "home discount" players are a gold mine for problem cases like this.

Thoughts?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Oh how I should be studying...

yet, here I am posting another little diatribe about how the Ottawa Senators are totally floundering...

Wait... They won last night didn't they!? Oh well then! Let me put on my lucky Sens cap and get to breaking down how I felt the game went!

Big Three

CASH (that's Captain Alfie, Spezza and Heatley for the uninitiated) really lit the lamp list night! The first period was the best 20 minutes the Sens have played all season with big goals and big kills. These three potted a goal each and managed to give the upward momentum this club is in desperate need of. However, was 20 minutes enough? Nope... kept on rollin'!

Big D

Kuba added two more points to his league leading assist tally ... what an amazing pickup he was. Volchenkov played huge and started blocking shots so much he even inspired Vermette to do the same! It can't be understated how the forwards came back though. I mean, defensively, the Sens had all five guys coming back and ensuring that they trapped the play but still managed to get their asses in the saddle and back up the ice! Not to mention Auld. He played large, in charge and used that glove hand like it actually was meant to stop pucks not simply guide them to a rebound like a certain Swiss goalie may do.

Other Big D

How about the goal by Donovan!? My sweet-baby-christ-on-a-stick-wrapped-in-candy-and-lathered-in-chocolate! As JC put it on SensChirp probably THE play of the season. He not only pulled the puck through a defender, but his shot was picture perfect and added to a lead that the Thrashers simply could not keep up with.

Vermette

A great game by Vermie despite not seeing a tally in his favour, but like I said above, he played a big game. He was all over the place and and played along side Donovan and Fisher on a strong line that kept at the Thrashers as much as young Winchester (who picked up two fighting majors and a few hits) did. Vermette has been known to score plenty of goals in the past, but he simply needs to let of the stick a little and head to the net ... good things will happen and our secondary scoring will be better for it.

Back-stop

Alex freakin' Auld. I mean, his back is to the play and somehow he realizes the puck might squeek over him so he pushes his body up to knock it down and away from harm. It was a little luck, but the rest of the night he was a lot of amazing. He let in one goal on a picture perfect shot, but nevertheless, he was pure amazing.

Attendance

One of the guys I know from school has on his MSN name "I am happy I got to see a game in Atlanta today... wait that was Ottawa couldn't tell the difference with all the empty seats!" Now, by his fault, he is a Habs fan and can not appreciate what it means to have a 3/4 full house on a Wednesday night ... Either way. Yeah, attendance was lower than normal yesterday, but a mid-week game with a slumping club SHOULD by all accounts have a lower attendance ... unless of course you happen to be in Montreal or Toronto where rabid quasi-sports-nationalism runs through the veins of everyone and/or there is just a lot of free money being tossed around. I personally would go to more Sens games a year if the tickets didn't cost me my left testicle and some a few toenail clippings. Seriously!

A-Hole

I know... this is a Sens blog, but I have to do it. Sean "A-Hole" Avery has done it again. He has gone and run his mouth off and split the hockey world between apathy and screaming for his head. I think calling anyone "sloppy seconds" in front of a national broadcast as a way to piss off their boyfriend is classless. He isn't trying to spice up the game, but rather space up his own publicity. Had his terminology not been so crass and he had left it on the ice where the game is played I wouldn't care, but since he waited for the media to be ready, chose his words unwisely and has been a thorn in the side of so many clubs and players ... it's time for him to get his head checked. I think he has a serious disorder he needs fixed. A narcissistic anti-personality disorder. Dallas doesn't have a farm team so I hope they find room for him in some bush league across the pond where he can rot.

--- 'nough from me. I have to scrape dinner up for the missus and I and get ready to finish this semester. Oh and if you're a Philly Fan like my buddy Dan (from the Team 1200's Late Crew) ... keep your gloves on your hands. ;)