What a fuckin’ waste of 5 million dollars!  No, he’s not “making it look effortless;” he IS effortless.  Watching the forecheck game of the Senators is beautiful…until Kovalev is on the ice, then it’s a damn joke.  He’s the only one not putting forth the effort to make it work.

Carcillo’s Suspension is a JOKE
I have never been more disappointed with an NHL ruling than the one that suspended Dan Carcillo for his punch on Matt Bradley.  Bradley was dropping his gloves to fight.   Carcillo got around to punching earlier than Bradley; good for him….end of fucking story.  I have n0 idea what the NHL is thinking.

Fantasy
If you’re looking for a fantasy flier, think about Erik Cole.  I know I am.

Long Term Deals
Hossa, Alfie, Savard, Kipper…..they’ve all signed long term deals with ’sweet heart backends’; meaning that the last year or two of the deals are on the cheap simply to reduce the cap hit in the near term.  There is very little chance the player will play in the league on the last year of their deal.  Does anyone really think Marian Hossa will play past age 37 and into the last four year of his deal that will pay him $3.5 million over four years?  NO !!

The league is talking ab0ut legislating this type of deal out of the game.  Can anyone tell me why?  I’m completely befuddled.  It’s not good for the team to do this.  If Alfie retires and doesn’t play for his  $1 million in 2012/2013 the Senators still have to deal with the $7 million cap hit.  Why does the league care??

STOP trying to save the GMs from themselves!!!!  The salary cap was one thing: the playing field wasn’t level….but to try to stop the GMs from screwing themselves on a mostly level playing field is just stupid….STOP IT!!!!!!  No one made Stan Bowman sign Hossa for a RIDICULOUS number of years.  Some would argue that former GM, Dale Tallon looks pretty good given this decision and they’d be right.  Hossa will be an albatros around the neck of the Hawks for maybe 4 years and certainly 3.   It’s all just so stupid!!

Have a nice night!

Am I referring to the Senators or this humble writer?  It’s been so long since I’ve written here that I had to guess at my password.  Welcome back, dear reader.

My Take on the Heatley Saga
Prepare for a path of thorns, but, let’s begin with a bit of fluff.  Dany Heatley is a fan of the Dave Matthews Band.  How do I know this?  Because I was standing right in front of him at Alpine Valley (Wisconsin).  I was in row 7.  Yes, I had better seats than Dany Heatley.  Of course, he probably paid for about 30 seats I would think, just given the number of people in Badger red behind me.

So, did I take the opportunity to let him know how pissed I was about him betraying my favorite team?  Did I seize the moment and spill my beer upon his noggin?  Did punch him in the face?  Nope, I partied with him.  I turned around and said “Dany Heatley?”  He said “yep”, and reached out his hand to shake mine.  At that point, all the aforementioned thoughts ran through my head.  In the end, I decided that he was just a guy enjoying one of his favorite bands and left him to his own devices.  By the end of the show, however, we were fist bumping and sharing a beer.  Do I wish I had handled the situation differently?  Nope!

In any event, I suspect there’s something of his story out there in the weeds, of which we will never know.  By the way, Heater has a smokin’ girlfriend.

Trading Salary
Last night on the Hotstove segment of Hockey Night in Canada, the panel (which is a dyfunctional group, to say the least) talked about Brian Burke’s obsession to re-open the collective bargaining agreement in order to allow teams to trade salary cap space along with players.  Amid all the screeching and talking over each other, not one of the panelists brought up either of the two key points in this argument, as far as I’m concerned:

1.  Why is it so damn important to people that teams be able to trade?

B.  If teams are so damn intent on being able to trade, the GMs are in full control of this simply by leaving enough space under the cap.

I truly don’t care if teams are able to trade or not.  One would hope that a GM makes decisions about their roster as best they can given their circumstances.  If a GM spends up to the cap in the offseason, they have to accept that they may not be able to make a trade to improve their club later on.  If a GM decides to pass on a high priced free agent in order to save space to make a move later, that is his choice.  The salary cap, to some extent, was brought in to protect the GMs from themselves and it works in that regard.  I see no reason to remove that protection by circumventing the cap and allowing salary swaps in trades.

It’s infuriating to me that in the Hotstove segment, not one of the commentators made either of these arguments.  And why?  Because media types love to talk about trades.

The Question of the Day
Are the Senators for real?  As I write this, the Senators are 1 point behind the first place Bruins in the division and have 2 games in hand v. the Bs.   They’ve shown some moxie in coming from behind in games.  They’re getting scoring from more than one line.  Their most talented player (arguably) has yet to find his stride.

Here’s where I stand:  I honestly don’t believe this is a team that can make any serious noise in the playoffs.  The goaltending is not good enough.  The defense isn’t good enough.  They have Alexei Kovalev on the 2nd line.  Having said all that, I have NEVER enjoyed watching the Senators more than I do right now.  This forechecking game they’ve instituted is manna from heaven and very easy on the eyes.  And since I’m mixing metaphors, it smells of sweet cherry blossoms.

What I Like Best About the 4th Line
It’s not the 3rd line…’nuff said.

Someone ‘Splain to Me Why Colby Gets Five for Fighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIV1O-Nc_os

You win some, you lose some.  Sometimes losing some is winning, some.  Unfortunatly, sometime not losing, some; is…well….not winning, some.

Losing is Winning
The Senators “lost” Marty Gerber when he was picked up by Toronto off waivers………..HEY!  I’m still talking here; get up off the floor and stop laughing.

Losing is Sad….and Happy
I honestly felt bad for Antoine Vermette.  While he was addressing the media after the trade, the guy just sounded so sad to be leaving the Senators.  It was heartbreaking and I’m going to miss the lad.  His speed and penalty killing were fun and appreciated (by me).  Having said that, I like this deal.  The Senators received the Blue Jackets’ 2nd round pick in this year’s draft and goaltender, Pascal Leclaire.  Taking on Leclaire is a gamble for the Senators.   He was expendable in Columbus because of the emergence of Steve Mason and his cap hit is $3.8 million for the next 2 years.  Pascal Leclaire had one good year, but he was REALLY GOOD that year.  We’ve seen this phenomena before (see Jose Theodore…twice, among others); a player having a stellar season when their contract is expiring, only to return to prior form when he gets the bucks.  So, do we get the stale Leclaire or the Chocolate Leclaire?

The Senators are in a spot where they have to get their goaltending on the cheap and in the scheme of things, $3.8 million is cheap for a number one goaltender….provided he performs, of course.  Pierre McGuire says Leclaire is the best goaltender the Senators have ever had (I’ll see his Leclaire and raise him a Hasek.)  To me, it comes down to this:  the Senators can stand pat with their goalies and see if Elliott can take the reins or they could try Leclaire.  I’m an Elliott supporter, but I’m happy with this option.

Not Losing is Losing.
The trade deadline is passed and Chris Neil remains with the Senators.  This is damn near inexcusable.  I don’t care if you’re not getting full value for him, when 2:55 eastern rolls around, you accept the last offer you received for him (assuming there was at least one).  There is NOTHING to gain by keeping him around.  Mr. Neil needs to get over himself if he thinks he’s worth $2.5 million/year.  Maybe the lack of trade deadline interest will convince him of this, but I seriously doubt it.  The Senators lose here.  A third round pick would have been fair.  A fifth round pick should have been enough.

What the hell is Filip Kuba still doing on this team?  If he was going to be re-signed, it should have been at a discount from his current salary of $3 million.  The guy sure as hell doesn’t deserve a raise!!!  I’m despondent about this signing.  Just terrible!!!!  Not only do we not get future assets for a guy that was said to have attracted a lot of attention, we have to watch this piece of shit for another three years.  I was fine when he came as a 2 player package for one overpaid Meszaros, but this isn’t much better than overpaying Meszaros would have been.  WFT??  The Sta Puft Marshmallow Man is just not a top 4 guy (not for a team that wants to win, anyway) and they’re paying him like one.  If they get a decent puck mover in the offseason, or Karlsson comes in and impresses, Kuba will be relegated to 5th defenseman minutes and now we’re paying him $3.7 to do so?  I want to die…..or better yet, kill Filip Kuba. (I remind you that I’m against killing and only employing hyperbole)

Going Back a Bit
I liked the trade acquiring Campoli.  Clearly, getting Comrie was simply a salary dump for the Isles.  Murray may well want to sign Comrie, but that could have happened in the off-season without trading for him.  So this is a late first round pick for a decent puck moving defenseman.  He’s not a top flight guy, but he’s pretty good and he’s dirt cheap for another year.   He can play top 4 minutes and is a second unit power play guy.  Unfortunately, we need him on the first PP unit.   McAmmond, who went the other way, simply didn’t fit into the Senators’ plans.  Old guys with scrambled brains typically don’t.

In the telecast tonight, you seemed to enjoy talking about how the Senators have “mismanaged” their defense.  Chara is one thing; huge mistake.  But, there are not many competent hockey people who would say the Senators made a mistake letting Redden and Meszaros go given the amount of money they wanted and are currently making.  Ask the Lightning and Rangers if they would like to undo those deals.  Corvo didn’t want to stay because he couldn’t take the media scrutiny.  What are you going to do?  Keep him around and have a miserable wreck messing up the defensive end because he has zero confidence?  No, you do the honorable thing and make the best deal you can for him. 

It looks as though some of my friends at the Ottawa Bloggers Collective finally found the point at which I arrived on December 17th.  Welcome to the club.  Now go grab your knives and start slicing at your fingers. 

Now, to catch you up on what I’ve been up to, since I know that’s why you all come here.  This has landed me a 5 day stay in the hospital.  Yes, the Senators weren’t happy enough just crushing my mind, hope, dignity and hope (did I say that already? sorry), they’ve also crushed my pancreas. 

In my absence, the Senators lost 4 games.  So, let’s bring Brian Elliott up to the bigs and throw him into the fire for the Rangers game.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the move and it is likely to lead to Martin Gerber being waived so that will get one albatross from around our necks.  But, I just hope that whatever results they get from the “boy” (I think he’s 23 now) are tempered in the eyes of the overlords, by the sorry state this club is in. 

The Elliott Report
The first goal wasn’t his fault as it came on a scramble in front of the net and the Senator’s defensemen didn’t clear anyone out.   I didn’t love the second goal as it came from a bad angle, but it was from a mere 12 feet and perfectly placed in the top corner on a bang bang play.  All in all, I would call this an unqualified success for Elliott.  Sure, he didn’t win, but I don’t expect the Senators to win any more.  A 2-0 loss is the moral victory; we’ll give the boys a silver star for not losing 4-0 (that’s about all the Rangers can muster, I would say)  Elliott didn’t give up any stinkers, a GAA of 2.00 is pretty good as is a Sv% of .920 and he made some damn nice saves.   There was nothing in this game to deflate the poor boy’s spirit.  Ding ding; an angel gots its wings.

The rest of the guys played like they’ve been playing.  Wade Redden coughed up one of his patented cross ice, attempted zone clear give aways, just like he has every game of his life….wait, oh yeah; wrong team.

By the way, I have no comment on the Carrie Underwear “story”, except to say I hate country music.   Far as I can tell, hockey players have been dating, marrying and generally carrying on with their lives for 100 years now.

[Hello to you Hammers coming over from Iain Dale's blog.  Just thought I'd let you know I'm a Spurs supporter.  We don't need Bellamy because Keane is on his way back to White Hart Lane]

Some of you might have thought I was just being lazy with my one sentence review of the Flyers game and it would not be a huge stretch to assume such a thing about me, but it really isn’t accurate this time.   I’m just a little angry about my team and when I see such a lack luster effort (I’m not one of those fans who mistakes scoring goals with putting in effort) and I’ve been watching that same effort for the better part of the season, it just leads me to one conclusion.  It’s a conclusion that I can hardly bare to write; one that Bryan Murray cannot pull off with a straight face; one that King Biovail won’t be very happy about. 

The Senators have to fire Craig Hartsburg.  They have to do it now.

Exhibit A
On a snowy, icy, rainy night in Newark, the Senators looked very much under the weather. So much so, when I asked one Devils player about the opposition after the game, he responded by saying, “No heart.” Then he backtracked a bit, saying: “They looked disinterested; you could see it in their faces.”

Exhibit B
I watched the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Flyers game.  I didn’t see one; not even ONE meaningful hit from the Senators.

and Exhibit C
“Certainly I thought we went out and did something about it,” said Hartsburg, who also was confused as to why Lehtinen wasn’t thrown in the box.

“In a hockey game like that, you need to respond with constant physical play. Guys like (Chris) Neil, (Jarkko) Ruutu and (Cody) Bass did that. That was as physical a game as we’ve played, and a lot of it happened after that point. It was a strong response by our team.”

And lastly, Exhibit D

Let’s see if I can pull this all together:  The opposition knows you’re not playing hard.  Your fans know you’re not playing hard.  Your coach thinks that playing a physical game is a good response instead of a way of life and you’re in 12th place in the conference.  If that’s not enough, the coach also thinks that putting Jason Spezza with Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Neil is a recipe for success.

Hartsburg said if Spezza doesn’t have success playing with rugged wingers Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Neil, the next stop could be the press box for one of the club’s highest-paid players.

It’s pretty clear to me that Hartsburg does not have the attention of this team.  I don’t know exactly why that would be; whether it’s that they don’t respect his systems, his decisions or his methods, but whatever it is they’re not playing for Hartsburg and they’re apparently, not playing for each other either.  Here’s a comment I posted on The Sixth Sens (he sees Daigle people) website in regards to sticking up for Alfie when Jere Lehtinen squashed him into the boards.

To be sure, there are other issues with this team.   There’s not one defenseman on the team who is a threat to carry the puck up ice and make a play and honestly, I’m convinced that if we had just one such defenseman, you would see some of our forwards come out of their scoring slumps as offensive pressure from the backend opens up space for the forwards.  But, one thing you can always control and the one thing you absolutely have to bring to the rink every night ESPECIALLY if you’re challenged a bit offensively, is a physical game.  And that, my friends is coaching or lack thereof. 

In closing, is anyone else getting tired of the same quotes from the coach “we’re not putting in a 60 minute effort” and players “we’ve got to be better” after every loss.  Please find something new.

I watched the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Flyers game.  I didn’t see one; not even ONE meaningful hit from the Senators.

We tried it their way and they ended up doing it our way instead.  So, the Ottawa Bloggers Collective decided to make a campaign out of it.  Check out the other ads in the campaign.   There’s the Cynical;  there’s the Heart Wrencher; the Heart Wrencher and Serious; and the I Don’t Know What.  No, really….I have no idea what he’s doing.  I call mine, Man Contemplates  Turnaround.

If you would like to join the campaign, email your photos and a brief description to anyone in the Ottawa Bloggers Collective.  Bring your funny stick!

And that from a game the Senators won.  It was abundantly clear that this was a game between two struggling teams.   The best part was really the end; partly because it was mercifully over and partly because Jason Smith got the game winner in overtime; his first point as a Senator.  Yes, his FIRST POINT.  You’d think in 30 games, he would have lucked into a second assist or something, but no.  The way the Sens celebrated, you would have thought they’d just won a playoff series.  Oy!

Gerber has a stinky five hole.
This was easily the worst game I’ve seen Martin Gerber play.  Anyone who has followed the Senators at all knows just what a powerful statement that is.  The Dallas announcers were even making fun of him.  One of the niceties of having Centre Ice, is that every now and then, you get a telecast that doesn’t take you to commercial but you continue to get the announcer’s conversation at commercial breaks.  These guys were really making shit out of Gerber and then they toned it down a bit but kept it going during the telecast.  “This thing looks like it’s headed to a three point game here again tonight….barring another shot on goal at Gerber’s end….”.  Hilarious!!

We use words like honor, code, loyalty….
The Senators use them as a punchline.  Alfie gets cleaned out and sent to the lockerroom on an illegal hit from Jere Lehtinen.  I do not care that it wasn’t penalized.  No one watching that game would argue it was a clean hit.  Even the Dallas announcers thought it deserved a penalty and I would say it deserved 5 minutes.  There was no answer by any Senator.  The fact that it wasn’t penalized should further dictate that retribution is exacted.  This is your CAPTAIN, you jackasses!  The one player on the team this team that absolutely deserves better than this putrescent season and you can’t even stand up and be counted when he’s cleaned out?  

And I thought I was embarrassed by this team up until now.

This win means nothing.  Sure, Vermette got off the schneid with his first goal in forever.  (how does someone get ON the schneid?)  Sure Spezza looked like he gave a shit (Heatley still doesn’t).  Sure Cody Bass would have hit his mother if she was on the ice.   This was still a win against a bottom feeder.   Win the next two and then we’ll talk.

If I had money in a gambling account, I’d bet against the Senators tonight.  Oh, lookie there; I do.  First time I’ve ever laid a wager against the Senators.  It feels funny; like I have headcheese in my shoes.  

I don’t expect a thing from the Senators tonight.  The Devils are hot and the Senators are playing with 4 revamped lines, so chemistry will be an issue at best; comedic at worst. 

I am immediately rewarded for my insolence with a Devils goal a mere 40 seconds into the contest.   Wheee!  Luckily, this torture is going to be broken up as I must leave shortly to take my wife to dinner.

[cue the elevator music]

I’m back; that was some good mahi mahi.  The Senators gave up a power play goal just as I was turning on the car to listen on XM.  I promptly shut it off and went with music.   

Laugh It Up
Doc Emrick, play by play man for the Devils; known in hockey circles as one of the best at what he does, has been referring to Alex Picard as Alexandra Picard (presumably because it’s spelled, Alexandre) and Christoph Schubert as Christian Schubert.  He has a block with Schubert’s name as I’ve heard him make that mistake in the past. 

Other funny stuff includes the afore mentioned Christoph Schubert falling down a lot and the Senators trying to enter the offensive zone when no one has a clue where their linemates are going.   It’s a regular 3 car pile up. It’s also hilarious watching the Sens try to exit the defensive zone.  Oh, and all these goals they’re giving up are gut busters too.   Remember when at least our penalty kill was good?  Senators lose 5-1.  What laughs!! 

My 42 inch plasma for a number 1 defenseman.
The answers are not going to come from within.  The Senators will likely roll up 3 more losses before the Christmas roster freeze is over.  They have a chance against Dallas, but it’s not a good chance after traveling tonight while Dallas sits in Ottawa and watches them play the Devils.  Road games at Philly and Calgary you can pretty well write off.  If this happens, the Senators will likely be 12 points out of a playoff spot.  The only question is whether they retool a touch or trade a piece of the core.  I guess they could just continue to suck and take a shot at the first pick in the draft, but after Melnyk came out and said they’d be in the top 4 teams in the conference, I doubt that’s the course they’re looking for. 

An Ottawa scout was in Minnesota this week; discuss.