I know. It looks like Big Will abandoned his big heart in March and walked away from the team. That's not true. Regardless I am back and ready give my input on all things Senators. Where to start?
Let us roll back to the embarrassing playoff performance of our beloved red team. I was dead wrong with how Murray coming back to the bench would change many things, but I was dead right that entering the playoffs would not change a thing. The truth is that the team sucked as a team and that blaming any one individual seems like scapegoating -- I'll get back to this.
Let us fast forward now to the draft. What a wonderful weekend in Ottawa. Although the Sens were not high ranked in the picks we managed to add a little depth on the lines with some Swedish and Canadian kids. Kind of surprised me a little that we picked a couple of prospects from Sweden, but it is nice to see the recognition that the Canadian game has branched out and it might be a bit of a nod to Alfie and his host country. That and the NHL season openers being played in Sweden between the Senators and the Penguins may have something to do with it to. What about goal tending?
Remember that bit about scapegoating? Ray Emery was the toast of the town a year ago for taking the team to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in modern history ... on a broken wrist no less. He was always known for his egomaniac lifestyle and cocky attitude, but when he was playing it was no big deal. Soon as Gerber was hot Emery was out while his rehab took longer than usual and soon he became an apparent distraction with his antics. Last I checked we are fans of grown men playing a game in which they make millions to do so per year ... If they are rattled by one guy then they all should retire. Thankfully I don't buy this for one second despite Emery being bought out and turned into the black eye of the league. That is what you call a scapegoat. We did the same thing to Lalime after he fell in front of the Leafs regardless of standing up for the team and himself in previous season -- let alone the shutouts he had in the playoffs as well. Will Emery fail to bounce back like Lalime did? Patty never got it all back, but I think Ray is too cocky to be kicked down and kept there for long.
Moving on we saw Wade Redden leaving the orginization. We all saw that happening. We have also added to our roster the links of Jarrko Ruutu -- who adds the pest factor --, Alex Auld -- who replaces Emery to contest for the starting goalie netminder job --, Jeson Smith -- yet more grit and defensive prowess -- and Brendan Bell -- starting to sense a theme of grit here? I am --. We also re-signed Donovan, Glass and Vermette. I cannot wait for the the training camp to begin so we can get a closer look the team.
Now to a more serious note. One of my favourite sports media personalities in Ottawa, if not the world, passed away only a week ago. Tim "Buzz" Kilpatrick was one third of the popular Team 1200 morning show Three Guys on the Radio. Throughout my school days I would wake up around 6:00am and flip on TGOR for a good morning fix. Maybe I am bias because my first Senators game in five years came from writing them an email, but I became an instant fan and listened almost daily (live or through podcast). Listening to the tribute show that Steve Warne and Stuntman Stu put on with Kenny Walls (producer) was tear jerking and heartfelt. Buzz you will be sadly missed.
Lastly, but not leastly, the blogs and the future. So, I noticed that there is a new blog out there called SensChirp (http://senschirp.blogspot.com/) dedicated to the rumour mills. So far this summer he has only been dead wrong once which makes me wonder who he is sleeping within the organisation. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but still ... he has some serious connections. He makes both Eklund and Garrioch look infinitely more terrible than they already are at keeping track of rumours with the Ottawa Senators. Another blog is by a friend of mine and is amusingly named Don't Pick Daigle (http://dontpickdaigle.blogspot.com/) that is much like this one really. Brad puts his heart and soul into talking hockey, but we're often quite different in opinions so if you don't like what I have to say you can always go read his. Ha! Finally, Sens Undgerground podcast ... I gave them a listen once. I really didn't like what they had to say, but I decided to turn over a new leaf with them and give them another listen. I am currently wating on their latest podcast to download and I will give it a listen.
So there you have it Sens Fans and Fanatics. Big Will's summer wrap up (at least up to the end of July). As news and rumours break I will take a few minutes to respond whenever I have the time. Other than that let's get ready for the 2008-09 season and see how this new face of the Ottawa Senators looks with a few less teeth and a whole lot more grittiness.
Showing posts with label TGOR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TGOR. Show all posts
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
On Monday we saw our team host the Maple Leafs ... the laughing stock of the NHL. With the trade deadline looming I expected both teams to play like pros because jobs were literally on the line for each club. The Senators were coming off one of the worst months for any hockey fan to watch. Close games are nice, but not when they have to go to extra time to resolve them because the supposedly hottest team in the NHL can't collectively stop a goal against. When Monday rolled around it looked like Emery had passion to play again, but it could have also been the bolstering of trade interest that kept him between the pipes; either way, he was keeping the guys into it until they faced Toronto.
Losing so decisively was not because the Leafs were simply stellar. Don’t get me wrong, they were good, but they were no better than they have been all season long (exception being Tucker ... I may hate the guy as a player, but he played a great game). Last year I watched a spot when Alfie called out Emery at practice, asking him if he could stop a beach ball or not and I was reminded of that again on Monday. Not only did Emery drop the ball, but the team in front of him simply couldn’t do anything to battle back against one of the worst teams in the league.
Tuesday simply could not come fast enough and I am sure the players thought the same thing as they rolled into Bean-Town. I sat watching the trade deadline come, acquire LaPointe, laughed at the Penguins who blew away some future life and shook my head as Huet hit the Caps for a pick; it was an odd day of silliness, but I thought the Senators were free and clear. Again the Senators allowed another shutout and with the trade deadline passed there as only one thing the team could do ... fire John Paddock.
Wednesday afternoon the fans of the franchise, on the par, got their wish and Paddock (along with Low) was fired. Each have been rumoured to have offers within the organization, but I don’t know the validity or likelihood of those. What I do know is that I have been somewhat vocal, but patient with how this team has been split at the seams. So, with Murray back as the couch, what does this mean? I have made a short list of changes we’ll see pretty quickly based off of past successes.
- No more two or three men below the goal line pretending to be Gretzky
- No more cycling the puck around away from high percentage scoring zones
- No more open shots at the net without traffic going to get some garbage
- No more soft plays with no responsibility and accountability of each player on the ice
- No more quiet bench boss who’s too afraid of his shadow to actually yell at a player
- An immediate sense of urgency as the players are now facing the reality that they may lose their playoff contention if they do not turn it around now
- No more of Jason Spezza’s drop passing to the slot, no more Meszaros’ wimpy hands up checks, no more Alfredsson’s single handed passion, no more goaltending cry baby antics from either one of them and most importantly, no more skating around with the puck, standing still without it and not actually hitting someone ...
Welcome back to the era of Murray. The basics of hockey, hardnosed, fast paced, tight checking kind of game where you make a mistake you get told it. With Murray at the helm this Titanic may actually avoid that iceberg and turn itself back to home ... the same home as the Stanley Cup. Lapointe said it best this morning in a spot with TGOR (http://www.team1200.com/tgor/index.asp) that the team needs to have a common goal in mind and once everyone is on the same page the team will succeed.
So welcome to my first blog post about the Senators. During the regular season and playoffs I will do a post-game insight into how I thought the game went. This means I may be dead wrong, but that's OK. I am a fan ... I get some liberties of being dumb now and again. When we hit the post-season I will only post the big ticket things that happen until the training camp.
Cheers,
Big Will
Losing so decisively was not because the Leafs were simply stellar. Don’t get me wrong, they were good, but they were no better than they have been all season long (exception being Tucker ... I may hate the guy as a player, but he played a great game). Last year I watched a spot when Alfie called out Emery at practice, asking him if he could stop a beach ball or not and I was reminded of that again on Monday. Not only did Emery drop the ball, but the team in front of him simply couldn’t do anything to battle back against one of the worst teams in the league.
Tuesday simply could not come fast enough and I am sure the players thought the same thing as they rolled into Bean-Town. I sat watching the trade deadline come, acquire LaPointe, laughed at the Penguins who blew away some future life and shook my head as Huet hit the Caps for a pick; it was an odd day of silliness, but I thought the Senators were free and clear. Again the Senators allowed another shutout and with the trade deadline passed there as only one thing the team could do ... fire John Paddock.
Wednesday afternoon the fans of the franchise, on the par, got their wish and Paddock (along with Low) was fired. Each have been rumoured to have offers within the organization, but I don’t know the validity or likelihood of those. What I do know is that I have been somewhat vocal, but patient with how this team has been split at the seams. So, with Murray back as the couch, what does this mean? I have made a short list of changes we’ll see pretty quickly based off of past successes.
- No more two or three men below the goal line pretending to be Gretzky
- No more cycling the puck around away from high percentage scoring zones
- No more open shots at the net without traffic going to get some garbage
- No more soft plays with no responsibility and accountability of each player on the ice
- No more quiet bench boss who’s too afraid of his shadow to actually yell at a player
- An immediate sense of urgency as the players are now facing the reality that they may lose their playoff contention if they do not turn it around now
- No more of Jason Spezza’s drop passing to the slot, no more Meszaros’ wimpy hands up checks, no more Alfredsson’s single handed passion, no more goaltending cry baby antics from either one of them and most importantly, no more skating around with the puck, standing still without it and not actually hitting someone ...
Welcome back to the era of Murray. The basics of hockey, hardnosed, fast paced, tight checking kind of game where you make a mistake you get told it. With Murray at the helm this Titanic may actually avoid that iceberg and turn itself back to home ... the same home as the Stanley Cup. Lapointe said it best this morning in a spot with TGOR (http://www.team1200.com/tgor/index.asp) that the team needs to have a common goal in mind and once everyone is on the same page the team will succeed.
So welcome to my first blog post about the Senators. During the regular season and playoffs I will do a post-game insight into how I thought the game went. This means I may be dead wrong, but that's OK. I am a fan ... I get some liberties of being dumb now and again. When we hit the post-season I will only post the big ticket things that happen until the training camp.
Cheers,
Big Will
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