While watching the Washington Capitals completely dismantle the Ottawa Senators this weekend I went through several stages... First was my worry stage. I thought that Elliot had been playing good hockey recently, but I was concerned that he would be exposed. Apathy soon followed when exactly that happened and he was pulled from the net with Auld taking over. Next came amusement when Ovechkin notched another hat trick and then annoyance when Heatley brought the team within two and kind of seemed uninspired or unimpressed with it. Dean Brown, announcing that night, thought that the Senators had really poured it on in the third period, but I disagree. If this were November then I would have nodded my head and compliment Deano in his assessment. Sadly the back end of the season is well underway and the Senators poured it on with an early season rise rather than a late season fervour. Yet, nothing compares to how I felt today when I read the news about Coach Hartsburg.
HARTSBURG HAS BEEN FIRED
There, I said it nice and clear. I whined and complained when he was rumoured to be our coach that he was the wrong guy for the job. My hopes and intentions were for Pat Burns, but the poor guy is fighting cancer ... again. With Hartsburg out that leaves the position to Murray to sub in or Cory Clouston, the Binghamton Senators head coach or a third alternative like Pat Quinn... Talk about a real piss off.
I have already stated why Quinn would be bad, but I am going to say it again in brief. We just fired a guy who has the same philosophy as Quinn with as much actual success as him as well. Forget it. Now what about Cory Clouston? He has similar experience in the minor leagues as Hartsburg did, but he is Bingo’s coach now. He came in to replace Cameron when he went back to the St. Mike’s Majors ... yadda yadda yadda. Let’s be honest. Another minor league coach in Ottawa would not help this ship. Worse than that it will not help Binghamton in the least ... Every time that Ottawa has had a coaching rotation it seems Binghamton has as well. If we want our picks and prospects to develop into solid players we need a solid coach down on the farm!
WHAT’S NEXT?
At the start of the season the word was accountability. This would be the new philosophy for the Ottawa senators after there was some barn burning done. Murray decided that instead of developing talent and dealing with problems he would simply fire them under a bus and hope for the best. It started with Paddock ... John Paddock was, by all accounts, the bulldog for the Ottawa Senators. He was a prick with the media, but was intimidated by the spotlight when he shifted from assistant coach to head coach. Although he knew the players from his time in Bingo as a coach there the transition didn’t go well for him and the team slumped. He was the first to go.
After the horrible season last year Murray continued throwing people under the bus, but moved to players. Ray Emery, our once golden boy between the pipes, was chucked for attitude rather than given an attitude adjustment. Easier to get rid of a problem than it is to confront it ... Several free agents were let go and our back end disappeared. Hate him or not, Meszaros, though a horrible defensive player was a decent opening pass player and the Senators have missed him. I personally thought he was overrated, but neither Picard nor Kuba have made up for that one pass despite the point totals from power plays and slappers from the blue line.
Anyway, before I go on too much of a rant here, that bus is getting pretty full and all eyes are now on Murray. Firing Hartsburg was not the answer. Yeah yeah. I know. I said he was a bad choice for this job, but let’s roll back to accountability. Who put this team together? Who was it that decided to turn Ottawa into a coach-killer? Who was it that has been secure in his job despite these blunders? With Hartsburg fired it has singled that the Senators are truly done for the season and either the UFAs are gone and we bring up Bingo kids (and Clouston) or a fire sale (that means home town discount guys would be in the way of the moving bus) with a new head coach for next year.
Lastly ... who would I see as a coach in Ottawa? John Tortorella. Yup. I said it. However, Torts is a smart guy. He would want a few stipulations if he came in. One he would need impunity for how he is going to coach and what he says. And two he would need some sort of assurances that come this time next year he too doesn’t befall the axe.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
“If we just make the playoffs”
“Perhaps the Ottawa Senators, like their fans, believe that getting into the playoffs will cure everything.” - Mar 7, 2008
The axe is at the ready and getting ready to cut off each of the heads of Cerberus that guards the path to hell which I like to call reality. Last year I posted that the Senators had a far cry to reach the playoffs and though I was wrong about making it, I was right that they will not fare well. Swept in four games, the Ottawa Senators went to an early summer break to retool the team.
RETURN OF THE HOUND OF HELL
Last year we heard the team, the fans and even ownership talking about how things will change in the playoffs. Sadly, it did not. This year the fans and ownership are both touting the same line with the players less optimistic. However, the reality is that as each game passes the hound gets closer to being destroyed.
The Ottawa Senators only need to lose nine games to be out of playoff contention. Considering the history of the past calendar year it is highly unlikely that they will muster what it takes in order to hit the eighth spot. Even if they did hit the eighth spot they then have to face the number one seed ... a team that will have a scoring touch and we all know how likely it is the Sens would be facing a deficit early on and how less likely it is they will bounce back.
TANK OR NOT TO TANK
Any club that purposely tanks is poorly run. I do not care who the first overall pick is you simply do not do it. That said, the Senators will need to draft well if they plan on being a contender in five to seven years. Personally I would rather that we draft a high pick goalie and a D man. The Senators need a franchise goalie and Elliot needs to prove that he can be that guy. However, we need to replenish our pool of goalies in Bingo and continue to develop young, strong and talented netminders. Consider how many we have traded for, traded away or bought out in the club’s history.
- W
The axe is at the ready and getting ready to cut off each of the heads of Cerberus that guards the path to hell which I like to call reality. Last year I posted that the Senators had a far cry to reach the playoffs and though I was wrong about making it, I was right that they will not fare well. Swept in four games, the Ottawa Senators went to an early summer break to retool the team.
RETURN OF THE HOUND OF HELL
Last year we heard the team, the fans and even ownership talking about how things will change in the playoffs. Sadly, it did not. This year the fans and ownership are both touting the same line with the players less optimistic. However, the reality is that as each game passes the hound gets closer to being destroyed.
The Ottawa Senators only need to lose nine games to be out of playoff contention. Considering the history of the past calendar year it is highly unlikely that they will muster what it takes in order to hit the eighth spot. Even if they did hit the eighth spot they then have to face the number one seed ... a team that will have a scoring touch and we all know how likely it is the Sens would be facing a deficit early on and how less likely it is they will bounce back.
TANK OR NOT TO TANK
Any club that purposely tanks is poorly run. I do not care who the first overall pick is you simply do not do it. That said, the Senators will need to draft well if they plan on being a contender in five to seven years. Personally I would rather that we draft a high pick goalie and a D man. The Senators need a franchise goalie and Elliot needs to prove that he can be that guy. However, we need to replenish our pool of goalies in Bingo and continue to develop young, strong and talented netminders. Consider how many we have traded for, traded away or bought out in the club’s history.
- W
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Seven of Eight into the Break
Unlike my fellow bloggers, I decided not to go on the Bell tag line. Not to say it is a bad line, but rather that is overplayed. Yes, Bell’s goal was great, but it was also lucky and comes off of him being scratched for a few games prior to last night.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND PIERRE
I did not want to lead off my first little blurb about Bell, but the goal was lucky and decent. However, I wanted to avoid the topic of Pierre McGuire from TSN and Alexander Ovechkin like the plague. Sadly with all the talk about it I simply cannot.
McGuire is, by all accounts and somewhat rightfully so, enamoured with #8; I can’t blame him. He is the most exciting and electrifying player to lace them up since Gretzky ... at least to Pierre. He is star struck by him and it showed last night as he kept riding the wagon around his reporting on the game even to the point of asking him if he was OK after a high stick clipped his visor.
That said ... people need to understand that McGuire is being paid to say the favourable talk. He works for TSN because he does his job well and right now the Senators are not in favour with the sports world regardless of getting seven of possible eight points in the past four games. The Senators may not have started a comeback by most, but they certainly enter the All-Star break on a great starting point. A huge part of that is team play and secondary scoring.
GROUPTHINK
For once it is nice to sit here on my laptop and write about the positives of the team play. Sure, it was not as fantastic as it could be and there were some things to keep working on, but again it was a great step toward the strong play Hartsburg’s system preaches. The more the media hounds the Senators for stalling and falling flat the more the players appear to come back with a bit of a vengeance to play better. This begins with the coaching staff ... and Hartsburg commented on the lag in the standings well before beating Washington with just one word: consistency.
VERMETTE VS HEATLEY
Last night Heatley put on a shooting clinic to get two goals and Bell put the nail in the coffin, but for me it was all about Antoine Vermette. An assist on all three goals when just a few weeks ago we wanted to see him traded away for a bag of pucks. If you ask me, Vermette was more key to last night’s game than Heatley because he was hounding down the puck and making the plays to get the puck to the right spots for a second pass or a shot on goal.
PAT BURNS
TSN is reporting that Pat Burns, former New Jersey Devils Stanley cup winning coach, has now going through his third bout with cancer. My heartfelt thoughts go to Burns and his family and I wish him a speedy recovery.
W.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND PIERRE
I did not want to lead off my first little blurb about Bell, but the goal was lucky and decent. However, I wanted to avoid the topic of Pierre McGuire from TSN and Alexander Ovechkin like the plague. Sadly with all the talk about it I simply cannot.
McGuire is, by all accounts and somewhat rightfully so, enamoured with #8; I can’t blame him. He is the most exciting and electrifying player to lace them up since Gretzky ... at least to Pierre. He is star struck by him and it showed last night as he kept riding the wagon around his reporting on the game even to the point of asking him if he was OK after a high stick clipped his visor.
That said ... people need to understand that McGuire is being paid to say the favourable talk. He works for TSN because he does his job well and right now the Senators are not in favour with the sports world regardless of getting seven of possible eight points in the past four games. The Senators may not have started a comeback by most, but they certainly enter the All-Star break on a great starting point. A huge part of that is team play and secondary scoring.
GROUPTHINK
For once it is nice to sit here on my laptop and write about the positives of the team play. Sure, it was not as fantastic as it could be and there were some things to keep working on, but again it was a great step toward the strong play Hartsburg’s system preaches. The more the media hounds the Senators for stalling and falling flat the more the players appear to come back with a bit of a vengeance to play better. This begins with the coaching staff ... and Hartsburg commented on the lag in the standings well before beating Washington with just one word: consistency.
VERMETTE VS HEATLEY
Last night Heatley put on a shooting clinic to get two goals and Bell put the nail in the coffin, but for me it was all about Antoine Vermette. An assist on all three goals when just a few weeks ago we wanted to see him traded away for a bag of pucks. If you ask me, Vermette was more key to last night’s game than Heatley because he was hounding down the puck and making the plays to get the puck to the right spots for a second pass or a shot on goal.
PAT BURNS
TSN is reporting that Pat Burns, former New Jersey Devils Stanley cup winning coach, has now going through his third bout with cancer. My heartfelt thoughts go to Burns and his family and I wish him a speedy recovery.
W.
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