The Backhander: Notes From A Long Night At The Rink

It’s late, I’m groggy and there’s popcorn in my hair. But here’s a few notes from the Senators home opener against the New Jersey Devils which I viewed from the nosebleeds in lonely Section 306.

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... There were only four people in our row way at the top. Looking around the rink five minutes before the opening ceremony, it looked like there would be swaths of empty seats, especially in the lower bowl. Those seats filled up quickly once everything got underway but it seemed like each upper corner was almost completely unsold from the middle to the top. Strange to see during a home-opener, especially one with free parking on a warm night. Yet it didn’t seem to damper the atmosphere at all once the game got going. It was loud from where I was sitting, with lots of “Andy” chants and profanity filled screaming at the refs. When Milan Michalek blew a puck by Martin Brodeur in the third to put the game away, it was deafening. It can still be a hell of a loud rink when it needs to be.... As for the pre-game ceremony and the hype that came with hiring the guy out of Montreal who used to do their in-house entertainment, it seemed to fall pretty flat. All that happened was they dimmed the lights and played a predictable video on the scoreboard before announcing the players one-by-one. Not much of a light show and the video was that tired old schtick with the Roman Gladiators that looked about 10 years old. As usual, anthem singer Lyndon Slewidge had to be relied on to get the fans pumped up and he came through. I don’t remember hearing the old beloved Senators entrance theme song but maybe I just missed it. If they’re thinking of screwing with that tradition again, they better get their heads screwed on right. No matter how cheesy that song is, it’s the Senators through and through and should never be replaced by canned UFC music....You could hear a few boos mixed in with the cheers when Eugene Melnyk was introduced at centre ice. Not too many, but it was there. I was cringing, to be honest....

.... Still hearing lots of criticism of Erik Karlsson, who ONLY got 3 points on the night, but apart from one or two bad giveaways that I saw, he played a slick game. Giveaways are going to happen for Erik just like they happen for Jason Spezza, because both players are trying to make plays out there instead of being safe, but Karlsson got everyone on their feet when he raced back from the far blueline and stripped Stephen Gionta of the puck after giving it away in the first place. That wasn’t the only strong defensive play he made on the night, something he rarely gets credit for outside of people who watch him every night. He could have easily been one of the 3 Stars last night. He’s going to have an incredible year.... Speaking of which, hard to understand why they gave Gionta the 2nd Star last night. It was a polite move, but if it had to go to a Devil, it should have gone to Steve Bernier who at least scored a goal and tied Gionta with 5 shots. I would have given it to Karlsson. .... The 3rd Star, Bobby Ryan, probably couldn’t have scripted a better home debut in Ottawa and the fans really embraced him throughout the game, including a video they played during a commercial time-out that welcomed him to the city. I’d still like to see him with Spezza again now that injuries and slow-starts are out of the way, but it’s hard to argue the chemistry he’s finding with Kyle Turris. Once again, Turris was flying out there. I was one of those people who turned my nose up at the trading of David Rundblad, but I gotta admit I was wrong there. It will be interesting to see if opposing teams load up defensively against that “second line” now with Ryan there, and how that will affect Turris. He struggled at times going up against shutdown defenseman when Spezza was out last year, but at least he looks stronger in the early-going and might be able to fight through that better.....

.....Michalek is showing no signs of struggling with that bad knee. The guy is skating as good as I’ve ever seen him in Ottawa. That was a nasty shot that beat Brodeur high in the third period. ..... Maybe shaving the beard off was bad luck for Eric Gryba. He struggled in his own zone last night and still looks like a guy who missed most of training camp. I still think he solidifies his spot on that blueline but he might be in and out of the lineup for a while until he gets better. ... Craig Anderson once again put to rest any worries about his play with a 40 save performance that included a desperation paddle save at the goal-line that will be in every best-of-year highlight package. For some reason, this guy has a lot of doubters when he struggles even for a few games, probably because Robin Lehner is still unblemished in many fans eyes, but Anderson always reels them back in with games like that. .... As usual, the parking lots after the game were a confused nightmare. Took a solid hour to get back on the road. But, hey, there’s worse things to complain about. It’s kind of a Kanata tradition to sit in your car and listen to the post-game show, wondering when you’ll ever see your bed again. They should just dig up that grassy hill and put 5 more on-ramps to the Queensway and say to hell with it.... It may have seemed like a less than glamorous opponent for a home opener, but seeing both Martin Brodeur and Jaromir Jagr in person is still something all fans should appreciate. We’re talking about two players who are arguably Top 10 all-time in the history of the league, both first ballot Hall Of Famers. This might be their farewell tour but it’s still special to see them out there, especially if you’ve watched their entire careers. Brodeur had a tough night but I thought Jagr was still dangerous, especially in the Senators zone. The guy still has power. And he’ll have a chance to get a Cup this year. Expect him to be dealt at the deadline when the Devils finally throw in the towel. Imagine he went back to Pittsburgh? It could happen.

BLACK ACES SENATORS 3 STARS

1. Craig Anderson
2. Erik Karlsson
3. Bobby Ryan

Sens Hope Bishop Deal Mirrors Giguere Swap... Dull Devs Loss... Jobu Approved Game Notes

With seven games in the books as an Ottawa Senator, and with a respectable 3-2-2 record, Ben Bishop has settled in comfortably as option 1B for at least the rest of this season, even as his arrival seemingly coincided with the Senators entering a Twilight Zone of flat performances.

Option 1A remains Craig Anderson who is very close to returning from a freak Julia Child/Dan Aykroyd inspired kitchen accident, but if more of the unexpected happens, Coach Paul MacLean knows he can throw Bishop into the nets and his boys will have a chance to win hockey games.

Yet there was some anxiety for a few fans when GM Bryan Murray moved a 2013 second-round draft pick for the unproven behemoth, but they had good company in a few NHL GM's who were also chasing Bishop but didn't want to pay the asking price.

Here's the CBC’s Elliotte Friedman on Ottawa trading for Bishop: “Other teams (Toronto, Tampa Bay) didn't want to give up a second-rounder. But when the time comes to decide between him and Robin Lehner, you've got to figure the Senators get back that pick, if not something better.”

It's strange how much of a no-brainer this seems now, only weeks after the deal. You'd think a second-rounder would be a very reasonable price to pay for an NHL goalie but obviously some felt differently. I think some fans feel the accumulation of draft picks is more important than actually winning hockey games but it's surprising to hear some NHL GM's were that cautious. If Bishop were to be drafted this season, he’d be a late first-rounder or a second at worst.

Of course, pro and amateur scouting has a lot to do with successful trades but when it comes down to pushing the big red button on a transaction, the GM has to have the nerve to make the decision, knowing it could flop and make him look foolish in the eyes of some critics.

Goalies in particular seem hazardous to the sanity of GM's. You feel for guys like Bobby Clarke and Rejean Houle.

Yet there's a fairly recent example of second-rounder/goalie swap that worked out well for the team acquiring the warm body.

The Anaheim Ducks traded a second-round pick to Calgary for Jean-Sebastien Giguere, another big goalie (for the pre-Rinne era at least) back at the 2000 Entry Draft. Giguere led the Ducks to the Stanley Cup Final in 2003 where they lost to the Devils (Giguere won the Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing the series), and then finally won the Cup in 2007 against the Senators. That second-rounder traded away by the Ducks (and then later moved to Washington) became Matt Pettinger, a serviceable player but not a true difference maker like Giguere was for many years.

If you don't take any risks, you end up watching other team's parades.

***

New Jersey 1 Ottawa 0

This was another frustrating game for the Senators, who look like they've hit the wall after a long season of giving us entertaining hockey.

That's about 3 clunkers in a row and on Tuesday night the Senators were even without Jason Spezza who missed the game for undisclosed reasons, although it's been acknowledged he's had a tough week away from the rink

Whatever insight you could gain by breaking down the last week of plodding, low-scoring games might be misleading. The Senators look tired and frustrated on their own home ice but these kinds of spells hit most teams at some point in the season.

They remain 6 points up on idle Buffalo who seem to be the only team who could realistically pull the Senators kicking and screaming from the top eight. Ottawa's not going to catch the Devils for 6th and a Florida first-round matchup anymore, but they only need to tread water at .500 to reach their goal.

No reason to scream for the lifeguard just yet.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Ben Bishop (.971 SV%)
2. Chris Neil (9 hits, 4 shots)
3. Erik Karlsson (6 shots)

Honourable Mentions: Matt Gilroy

NOTES

Matt Gilroy – still tanned…. Daniel Alfredsson has been fairly cold for a while now, but I suspect the wise veteran has learned a few hard lessons over the years (thanks to Mark Bell) and is making sure he reaches the playoffs healthy so he can put it all on the line when it matters. He knows this could be his last chance at the post-season and I’m sure these final few games can’t go fast enough right now…... As I said on Twitter this weekend, the Senators have fallen flat way too many times against the Toronto Maple Leafs over the years to call it a coincidence. It’s more like an incurable neurosis that spans generations of players through a mysterious process that no one can seem to grasp. I propose a dressing stall in the Senators locker room be cleared to make room for the exact same altar of worship that Pedro Cerrano from Major League set up for Jobu. “Tis' very bad to steal Jobu’s rum. Tis' very bad.”



…. Another reason hockey is the best? One woman proposed marriage to another Saturday night on the ice in Kanata. And the Senators helped facilitate the moment, which was a classy move on their part. But what if Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been in attendance that night (as he sometimes is at Scotiabank Place)? Would he have sat on his hands and frowned (as his core far-right supporters would insist he do) or would he have applauded like the rest of the crowd who clearly enjoyed the moment? That would have been ten times more interesting than the game that night…. No surprise we hear the typical hand-wringing from pundits horrified that the Devils and Rangers started off their Monday night game with three “staged” fights off the opening faceoff. “O, the humanity! The barbarism!” Personally, as a fan of the game, I loved it. I wish more games would start that way. If Ottawa went out for the opening faceoff last Saturday night against the Leafs and immediately started a line-brawl, it would easily go down as one of the great Battle of Ontario games, no matter what happened the rest of the 59 minutes. Nothing wrong with a good yard-sale once in a while, especially between bitter rivals like the Devils and the Rangers. The players seem to enjoy it. That’s good enough for me…

....If rumours are true that Patrick Roy already has a deal in place to take over as Montreal coach this summer, the Habs have hit the jackpot. There will be a lot of doubters out there but Roy is a winner and he’ll find a way to win as an NHL bench boss as well. And as an ex-player who clashed with more than a few head coaches, he’ll understand what his players are going through and what it takes to survive in Montreal as an object of fanatical obsession. Now, what's Mark Messier doing lately…. Lots of hype about Alex Radulov and the Nashville Predators, but there does remain the very real possibility that Radulov doesn’t make much of an impact and the Preds lose to Detroit or someone else in the first round. The expectations have risen so quickly that a potential disappointment may not be far behind. We’ve seen this type of thing play out so many times in the first round. Ottawa fans know this reality all too well. Nothing against Radulov or the Preds at all, but it just seems too storybook right now....

.... Here's Mel Bridgman, the Ottawa Senators first GM, on the cover of the Devils 84-85 Media Guide (click for larger image). I'd love one of those old foam and mesh caps the kids are wearing.

..... Roy MacGregor, one of my favourite sportswriters,  has a little fun at Ottawa’s expense in Tuesday’s Globe by calling the capital city and Winnipeg “(t)he two lesser cities, of roughly equal size…” Oh Roy. Ottawa is the 4th largest census metropolitan area in Canada with a population of 1,236,324. Winnipeg is 8th with 730,018 people. But give Roy credit. He knows how to get an easy rise from us Bytowners, and that’s to call the city small and boring (in the same article he calls Ottawa fans “so librarian”). Hey, columnists have been doing it for a century. Roy’s just doing his small part. But here’s the catch - When you complain, like me, that someone is calling your town small, you’re basically confirming it by the act of complaining. I even trotted out the stats. How small-town and sad is that?.... Here's “Dobber” via Puck Daddy on the woes (and sudden emergence) of Columbus goalie Steve Mason, who recently switched to bigger pads, and what that could mean for a future crackdown on oversized goalie equipment: “Probably the worst goalie in the league from October through February, Mason has suddenly become one of the best. The reason? Bigger pads? If that truly is the case, then the NHL would have all the proof it needs to increase scoring. If bigger pads can turn a guy who was probably not fit to start in the ECHL into an NHL goalie with a 94% save percentage, then what would shrinking said pads do for league-wide offense?”

This is what NHL shooters used to face:

This is what they face now:

Sweet Lord.

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Sens Pull Another Late Comeback .... Plus Why Ottawa Shouldn't Trade Kuba and Gonchar .... And Endless Game Notes

Ottawa 3 New Jersey 2 (OT)

Is anyone really surprised anymore?

Yet another scrappy third period comeback.

A clutch Daniel Alfredsson overtime goal, this one nearly identical to the one he scored against the Calgary Flames just after Christmas for his 400th career goal.

The entertainment value of the Ottawa Senators hasn't been this high since the mid-2000's but for much different reasons than anyone would give those old teams credit for.

The old Senators teams won on a vast array of overwhelming skill while these ham-and-eggers win games on what often feels like character alone. I've lost track of how many third period comebacks we've all sat through and watching this game go into overtime, I'm sure many Senators fans just knew this team was going to find a way to get the extra point. The fact that it was another Erik Karlsson to Alfredsson play just adds to the awe factor that is quickly creeping into this storybook season.

Further below you can read my take on why the Senators should be in no rush to trade their veteran d-men and tonight's win just further cements my theory. Something is happening with this team and where it will end, nobody seems to know right now.

They can play the game any way you like it. With speed, with skill, with fists or with a huge dose of plain old luck. And it all seems to come at just the right time.

For the first two periods against the New Jersey Devils, it clearly looked like the Senators were the inferior team. The Devils just looked bigger and faster while they played a textbook road game, backed by the ubiquitous Martin Brodeur who looks pretty much the same now as he did in 1995 behind that tiny gear.

Then the third period switch was flicked somewhere in that Senators dressing room and Ottawa created an unstoppable flow of momentum that now seems so strangely familiar.

How do you explain it?

Maybe it's time to drop the pretense and just admit that this is a good hockey team, much better than we all thought.

But then again, nobody wants to lose the underdog label. Sens fans might want to curb the effusive praise and just see where this "underdog" role carries the team.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Erik Condra
2. Daniel Alfredsson
3. Craig Anderson

Honourable Mentions: Jason Spezza, Chris Neil, Filip Kuba and Erik Karlsson.

***

Sens Might Want To Hold On To Their Older Defensemen Past The Deadline

No one can be sure in the first week of January, but this Ottawa Senators team doesn’t look like a club who’ll be desperate to shed two of their top defenseman, even if one of them is a UFA next season (Filip Kuba). It’s rare for a team in 8th place in January to fall out of playoff contention completely, so if Ottawa is still within striking distance of the postseason at the trade deadline (very likely), I can’t see either Kuba or Sergei Gonchar getting dealt like many believe.

Sure, that seemed a likely scenario at the start of the season when it was expected that Ottawa would be a lottery pick team, but circumstances have changed and the Senators would be doing a disservice to themselves and the fans if they moved important players for draft picks. Both Kuba and Gonchar, targets of cave dwelling boo birds to start the season, have rebounded quite nicely from disastrous years and both would play big minutes in any playoff series the Senators find themselves in. If a team dangled a first-rounder, then maybe you reconsider, but what are the chances of that happening? Nil to zero?

It doesn’t mean that Bryan Murray has to actually add more salary at the deadline to help in a playoff push, but he would likely be loathe to subtract. You have to take into account Murray’s position here. Ever since he took over as GM following the Senators run to the Cup final under John Muckler, he hasn’t won a playoff series. Don’t think for a second he isn’t dying to get in there and see what this overachieving team can do to restore some of his reputation. I highly doubt he’d sacrifice any of his own draft picks to do so, but Murray wants to win now just as much as he wants to win in the future. See the Kyle Turris trade. Turris helps the team right now and in the future. David Rundblad was more of a future prospect, even if he is somewhat more highly touted than Turris at this point.

As for losing Kuba (and possibly Gonchar in a year from now) come July 1st, that’s just reality in today’s NHL. While it’s great to get a pick to show for a pending UFA, it’s not the end of the world anymore if you don’t, especially for a mid-level player who can be replaced by prospects already in the system. What you lose in a UFA you gain in cap space and the opportunity to do something different with that money. You’d never want to see a star like Jason Spezza walk away for nothing, but a playoff spot is far more valuable than what you can get on the market for players like Kuba and Gonchar. Enough said.

NOTES

 Robin Lehner getting in trouble again for going absolutely nutzoid during an AHL game may signal that the competitive young man gets frustrated from time to time playing in a league that he clearly feels he’s too good for. Or it might suggest that it’s actually the NHL that he’s not ready for. Take your pick. He’s not having the best year he could have, but I’m betting Lehner will be a better NHL’er than he ever will be an AHL’er because he has the type of personality that thrives on competition. If, in his mind, he feels he’s not competing against the best, maybe he doesn’t bring his best. Or maybe that’s all a load of s**t. Again, take your pick….I'm guessing Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons is going to get some heat from Ottawa fans after he tweeted this at around 5:00 today, "I used to think the dumbest hockey fans in Canada were in Ottawa but not anymore. PS - I voted for a Sedin for MVP in each of the last 2 yrs". This was in response to some heat he was getting from Vancouver fans. It's pretty impressive when you can inflame two fanbases in one tweet. Yet, any good sportswriter worth his salt should piss a whole swathe of people off once in a while, just to make sure he/she still has it. Clearly Simmons does.....

......How does Erik Condra, a right-handed shot, not fire a laser when Daniel Alfredsson sets him up with a perfect pass on the left side of the ice during a 2-on-1 with Martin Brodeur in motion across the crease? Could he have been intimidated by the legendary Brodeur? If he was, you can't really blame him, can you? I wonder if Alfie told him to smarten up when they were back on the bench. Whatever it was, Condra got over it pretty quickly as he started firing shots from all angles, including the beauty that resulted in his game-tying shortie in the third.....

....That was one of the meanest, hard-nosed scraps of the year when Chris Neil and former Atlanta Thrasher Eric Boulton went at it late in the second period. Neil was landing heavy bombs early on but Boulton evened it out with a strong finish. All of it was nasty..... Speaking of tough guys, does anyone else find it strange that Matt Carkner was pegged to be a healthy scratch until Sergei Gonchar pulled the chute after warm-ups? Especially after one of Carkner's best games of the season? For cherub Brian Lee of all players? Either Paul MacLean was trying to keep big #39 humble or he was still hungover from New Year's Eve when he made that decision......Someday, an NHL player will separate his shoulder after jumping into the glass to celebrate a goal. And that someone will probably be Peter Regin.....

.....Finally got a chance to see the new scoreboard in person after taking in the Calgary game last week. That thing is a beast. It almost seems too big actually, though I'm hardly complaining. From where I was sitting in the lower bowl, it blocked out most of the other half of the arena. I kind of like the bare bones look of it with just the huge screens. Makes the rink look like a massive living room with 20,000 people spilling soda all over your couch and carpet.When they finally add the fancy casing to it, the rink will look more like Pizza Planet from the Toy Story movies.....I have yet to be in the rink to hear a louder roar than when Daniel Alfredsson uncorked his 400th career goal in overtime against the Flames that night. Pure bedlam in the stands. I think the girl next to me peed her pants for real. So did my brother on the other side of me, but he does that whenever he hears loud noises. Erik Karlsson looked like a kid running down the stairs Christmas morning and the guy on the goal horn was putting some major stank on it for close to 30 seconds. And Alfie evidently still had the adrenalin going when he was announced as first star of the game. He launched the traditional giveaway stick into the stands like it was a javelin. The folks rushing for the parking lot missed the sight of two middle-aged men fighting tooth and nail over that very same stick to the point where I thought punches were going to be thrown. Alas, cooler heads prevailed and we all walked out into the freezing rain having just seen a hell of a show......Unfortunately for Spartacat, he was shooting blanks at the Calgary game when his t-shirt gun went on the fritz. Those shirts were popping about three feet into the air and dropping to his feet rather sadly. So he got the natural guns out and started heaving them into the upper decks on his own. That's what you look for in a mascot - the ability to improvise.....

.....I have a friend who went out and bought a ticket to the last home game of the season, April 5 against the Bruins because he thinks it might be Alfie's last game. After watching the way Alfie's been skating the past month, I think I'll tell him he's going to need another ticket for April 2013....Wonder what it was that Martin Brodeur said that Milan Michalek found so funny after a scramble at the Devils net in the third period......With the way Henrik Lundqvist played in the clutch during the Winter Classic today (and through the whole season), it makes you think the Rangers aren't really that far away from winning a Stanley Cup. They don't seem to have much firepower outside of their two big forwards stars but they could win it all with goaltending and coaching. If Marc Staal can stay healthy, the Rangers will give the Bruins all they can handle in the East.......Both the Flyers and the Rangers did a great job with their retro sweaters for the game (as seen below). The bright orange looked incredible in HD (although white shoulders would have been better than black) as did the "vintage white" of the Rangers with the simple blue and red stripes. I was skeptical before but now I'm completely sold on vintage white as a good choice for a permanent road colour for the Senators, maybe as a mirror to their current black retro's.

Sens Get Cleaned Out, Pick Themselves Back Up

Two games into the season, the Senators are both terrible and wildly entertaining as they staged big comebacks in both matches and almost caught the panicking Leafs on Saturday night. Ultimately they came up short again and are sitting at 0-2 going into their home opener.

Okay, cancel the parade but don't cancel your cable package. It looks like every night has the potential to be either a massive train derailment or a fight filled, goal scoring frenzy. Or both. Quite likely both.

Even when the Senators were getting absolutely hammered by the Leafs in the first two periods, guys like Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka basically went to war in order to salvage some pride for their team. Konopka came as advertised in his first Senators game - yapping, fighting, selling penalties, winning faceoffs and ....yapping a little more.

Neil unfairly got an instigator and a misconduct penalty when he schooled Luke Schenn near the benches in the second period. Neil was going for a change when Schenn stepped into his path on purpose but clearly got more than he could handle. Refs must have felt sorry for Schenn and tossed Neil, leading to the Leafs scoring on the ensuing power-play. Things were hitting rock bottom rather quickly for the Senators, just like it did against the Wings on Friday.

Dion Phaneuf delivered what will probably be the biggest hit of the year on waterbug Stephane Da Costa. The rookie could have lain there like a shattered human being, wishing he was back in Paris strolling along the Seine, but to his credit he got right back up, took a bit of ribbing and probably some short advice from Daniel Alfredsson on the bench. The cameras clearly caught him mouthing the words "my fault" and letting slip a smile.



If the NHL can keep those kinds of hits in the game and eliminate the "Cooke on Savard" type disasters that repulsed so many, both players and fans will certainly be satisfied on both sides of the violence debate.

More encouraging news was relayed by CBC reporter Elliotte Friedman on the pre-game show when he said both Brendan Shanahan and his assistant Rob Blake went back and viewed the Scott Stevens clips that Don Cherry showed on Thursday's now legendary Coach's Corner segment and said that all but one of those brutal hits would be completely legal under the current rules. Only the Paul Kariya hit in the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals would have been deemed illegal. Perhaps now some critics can also stop piling on Hall Of Famer Scott Stevens with comments like "those are the type of hits we need out of the game." In fact, we need more of them, and Phaneuf delivered a memorable one tonight.

And a little like Kariya years before him, Da Costa rose like Lazarus and ended up scoring a clutch goal (his first in the NHL) near the end of the third to put the Sens back within one in a see-saw battle right to the final faceoff in the Leafs zone with less than ten seconds remaining.

A few thoughts the Sens coaching staff can take with them after the short but brutal road trip are probably these:

1. Da Costa is an NHL player and a top-six forward who's going to put up points. Despite getting cleaned by Phaneuf, this guy rarely gets taken off the puck when he's on the rush. I've said it in about 5 or 6 posts dating back to the rookie tournament, but the one word that best describes Da Costa is "sneaky".

2. Erik Karlsson woke up tonight and is back on track to put up some huge totals.

3. Daniel Alfredsson needs to be on the first power-play unit, not Nikita Filatov. What were they thinking? Also, Alfie is back to his old self. Took this team on his back in the third. What else is new?

4. Sergei Gonchar needs to get better very quickly if they have any chance of turning this around. We all saw his mistakes on the goals, but he wasn't very good on the power-play either. Zero shots recorded and I don't remember any being blocked.

5. It really is a problem that Matt Carkner is out with an injury. The Sens just can't put muscle on guys in their own zone and it's costing them big time. Turnovers are killer, but so is the fact that nobody on the Leafs or Wings were even remotely worried about going to the net or into the corners with the likes of Karlsson, Filip Kuba, Brian Lee or Gonchar. Carkner isn't exactly fleet of foot, but sometimes you don't need to be when you're laying the lumber on guys trying to get close to Craig Anderson. Jared Cowen is doing a good job on his own but he needs some help.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Daniel Alfredsson
2. Jason Spezza
3. Erik Karlsson

All right, short post tonight. Happy Thanksgiving. See you Tuesday, a little older, a little wiser, a little fatter.

Cameron Gets The Call... and more Vancouver Fallout

News that Dave Cameron has been hired (allegedly) to be Paul MacLean's assistant in Ottawa is sure to raise a few eyebrows, none more so than mine, which almost flew off my head when I first heard. 

There's a bit of a wink and a nudge (and possibly a blind horse) attached to this hiring if you've at all been following the Senators coaching search this summer. It is indeed strange that owner Eugene Melnyk's first choice to coach the Sens ends up with the consolation prize and, essentially, the title of "Coach In Waiting".

And before we get any further, there's no reason to cast aspersions on Cameron's qualifications. Everyone agrees he's a good coach and that he's likely ready to be in the NHL.

This is purely about optics here, and Melnyk somewhat poisoned the atmosphere when he seemingly hijacked the hiring process by publicly casting his vote for Cameron. Ultimately, GM Bryan Murray proved he makes the hockey decisions by hiring MacLean from the Red Wings organization, but this latest news is sure to crank up the gossip machine to full power.

Obviously MacLean approved this hiring, but did he feel pressure to accept Cameron from up above or was this a hire based only on merit? We may never know the answer, and it may not be important anyways.

It's important to remember that we are debating the finer points of assistant coaches here. The fact that this is big news probably means we are all insane or, as others would put it, "passionate". The truth likely lies somewhere in between.

The end result is that Ottawa is adding an intelligent and highly rated coach to their staff, even if the process was riddled with politics. This is Ottawa, after all.

***

A lot of ink has been spilled on the idea of the Canucks being "Canada's Team" during their failed Stanley Cup run, and ultimately the rejection of that team because they were just way too hard to like for anyone with a conscience, Canadian or not.  Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun described the Canucks as "soccer-style divers, finger biters and whiners", and you'd be hard pressed to find a better description out there, although I'd add "inexcusably cocky" to that list (see Roberto Luongo's comments on Tim Thomas if you have any doubts). It also didn't help that a solid core of their fans have proven to be raging psychotics, trashing their city, beating up innocent people, stabbing Bruins fans and leaving them to bleed in the streets like animals, throwing glass bottles at reporters, attacking homeless people, and then having the gall to get so mad and disgusted with themselves in the aftermath, with the whole world laughing at them, that the supposed "good samaritans" opposed to the riots have now called in death threats to that rich polo kid and his family after he confessed to trying to light a cop car on fire. So, it's a sin to riot in the streets but its okay to harass and threaten someone's life for doing so? It's all very civilized isn't it? Even Oakland Raiders fans are probably thinking "Woah, that's completely out of control".

Then you throw in the merciless and completely unfounded booing of Gary Bettman as he tried to present the Stanely Cup, believing that there was an NHL conspiracy to make sure they lost to the American-based Bruins, and a general manager who has never been seen to smile on camera, and you have the makings of the most hated team in the NHL since the New Jersey Devils of the mid to late 90's or perhaps as far back as the Philadelphia Flyers in the 70's. But the Devils were hated for being boring, the Flyers were hated for being too violent. The Canucks are hated for a whole cornucopia of sins, many of which have been deemed "un-Canadian" by the Canadian press, just like the cops in Vancouver trying to tell us that the rioters weren't Canucks or hockey fans, but "anarchists and criminals". Of course, that's a lie too outrageous to leave unchallenged.

Of course, there were "anarchists and criminals" rioting, but they were probably outnumbered 10-1 by everyday normal Canadian kids who love hockey as much as the next guy, but just decided that now was going to be their only opportunity to go completely insane and escape the consequences. To pretend that the thousands of rioters weren't hockey fans is just ignoring the problem, and setting yourself up for a repeat the next time the Canucks make a run, maybe as early as next season. Stop trying to blame everyone else, accept responsibility and make the necessary changes to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's what rational people do when they screw up big-time.

If I trashed my own house because my favourite team lost a hockey game and I tried to tell my wife that a bunch of criminals and anarchists ran in through the back door and burned everything, I'd get one of my wife's patented death stares and would probably wake up in the emergency room hours later in a body cast with divorce papers on the bedside table waiting to be signed when I recovered the use of my hands.

I don't really get the hand-wringing about another Canadian team failing to win the Stanley Cup either. If this was the Olympics or World Juniors, I could understand, but I don't see nationalism having any place in the NHL. This is a club-based league and there's nothing wrong with Canadian fans loving the Bruins or Rangers or Red Wings or whoever south of the border. A lot of fans inherit their love of teams from parents or for any other weird reason you can think of. I fell in love with the Red Wings because the first pack of hockey cards I ever opened had a Steve Yzerman rookie and my dad told me he was from Ottawa. Then I saw a picture of Ron Duguay and that hair of his and I knew the Wings were my kind of team. I didn't care that they were terrible during those years in the early to mid-80's. My old man loved the Hawks and there was no sense that I had to cheer for the Habs or the Leafs just because they were Canadian. Being forced to cheer for some random Canadian club still left in the playoffs is a cruel sort of pressure, especially when that team is full of "divers, whiners and finger biters".  And what if that team was the Toronto Maple Leafs? Do people really expect fans in Ottawa to cheer on the Leafs in the Stanley Cup Final? (Luckily, this scenario will never happen).

Weekend Notes

Hockey violence is apparently “hurting the game” and the NHL’s image, according to everyone with access to a microphone and a word processor, yet the NHL has never been so popular in both Canada and America. Ever. 

The ratings are breaking new records on both sides of the border. The salary cap has gone up every year since it was instituted because revenues keep going up. Everyone involved is getting rich, with the exception of a few southern-based organizations having ownership problems. Both the owners and the players have a CBA that dictates exactly how much money each side makes and the playoff races are the most exciting among all 4 major leagues, not to mention the playoffs themselves. Yet, there is no league in the world which goes through so much needless and boring self-analysis than the NHL. The game is better than it's been for the last 25 years but people can't help focusing on what's wrong with it, rather than what makes it such a great sport.

The fact that the NHL is fast, physical and somewhat dangerous is what makes it great in the first place. The masses clamoring for a "culture change" seem to forget that they already won the biggest battle, and that was to get the league to install Rule 48 banning blindside hits to the head. It's only been in place for less than a full season and already people pretend like it's always been there, and that the NHL has done nothing to curb concussions. Nothing could be further from the truth. That was a landmark rule change and it's impact can not yet be properly assessed.

Any further legislation made in a panic is not the right way to conduct business. But if the pressure becomes unrelenting, change will become inevitable and everyone will have to live with the consequences, even if it means the game itself becomes worse. It's too bad. Suddenly, hockey has turned into an intellectual and moral debate and nothing could be more boring. Have you listened to the Team 1200 lately in Ottawa? The Senators don't even exist anymore. It's 24/7 headshots and how the NHL is a "bush league". We hear interviews with lawyers and doctors. Journalists who have never written a hockey article in their life are suddenly experts on the NHL and have no qualms telling Gary Bettman how to run the league. NHL hockey used to be an escape from politics and other serious issues, a way to unwind and enjoy a Saturday night. Nothing wrong with that. Now it's just a huge drag like everything else. What a shame …..

.....Bettman easily delivered the most cutthroat line of the year when he subtly threatened Air Canada that NHL clubs could, at any time, stop using their charter services in response to the Montreal-based company sending out a ridiculous letter to the commissioner threatening to pull their sponsorship dollars. I’m guessing the executives will now crawl back to their desks with their tail between their legs as most opponents end up doing when going against Bettman. Love him or hate him, he never loses. He crushed the NHLPA so badly that its very existence was in doubt only a few years ago. You think he’s going to blink when a sponsor, who is apparently getting a sweetheart deal on the naming rights for the Maple Leafs rink, sends a reactionary letter trying to tell the league how to conduct their business? I’m sure they had a good laugh about that one in New York. That’s why it’s no surprise Bettman received a five year extension back in November. He's not going anywhere folks.....

..... Oh no. Poor Brian Elliott. The Avalanche got destroyed by the Ducks last night and Elliott let in six goals. His save percentage on the night was .818. Since joining the Avs, Elliott is sporting a bloated 4.40 GAA, an .875 save percentage and an 0-4 record in 5 games (he was yanked in one game which gave him a no-decision). What happened to this kid anyways? Both Cory Clouston and Bryan Murray mentioned that Elliott was under a lot of "pressure" when he was forced to carry the load in Ottawa, but it looks like that pressure has only increased in Denver. If you think about it, how tough would it be to get traded to a team where the only thing anybody knows about you is that you couldn't get the job done for your last team and now you have to go in and save the day for your new team. To make things worse, the goalie you got traded for has turned into the China wall and people are saying the Senators stole Craig Anderson from the Avs. There is a very real possibility the Avs don't offer Elliott a qualifying offer this summer to retain his rights. Where Elliott could go from there would be anybody's guess.....

..... Incredible debut for new Senators goalie Curtis McElhinney (say that 5 times fast) against the Lightning last night to give the Sens four straight road wins. I've wasted a bit of virtual ink saying the Senators need to go after an experienced back-up to Anderson next season, like Johan Hedberg or Mathieu Garon, but maybe McElhinney could make a good case for himself down the stretch. If the Senators could get goaltending like this next season, the playoffs are definitely possible..... Don't look now but Marek Svatos had 5 shots on net last night. He's starting to look better but needs to start getting on the scoresheet. If he could ever get comfortable, this guy could be a steal for Murray..... I know, I know, Brian Lee is playing well. Now let's see him do it from the start of training camp to the end of a season. I'm still skeptical..... Chris Campoli is +5 since joining the Blackhawks and has 2 assists in 5 games..... Jarkko Ruutu has 27 hits in 9 games for the Ducks since the trade but only 8 PIMs. I'm thinking he's enjoying life under Randy Carlyle a lot more than Cory Clouston....

....Speaking of Clouston, interesting piece from the Sun's Don Brennan today where he criticises Clouston for not giving Erik Condra and Erik Karlsson a chance to complete hat-tricks against the Devils and the Panthers this week by keeping them nailed to the bench with the opposition net empty. He even got a league executive saying, “(Clouston) just has blinders on,” said a league executive...“He just doesn’t notice.” It's a good point, but Clouston insulates himself from criticism by winning lately, and he deserves credit for that. You can get away with being "unliked" by your players if you win, but the act gets very old when the losses pile up. The odds caught up to coaches like Mike Keenan and Ken Hitchcock eventually. At the same time, nice coaches don't last long if they don't win either. Craig Ramsay in Atlanta is having a tough go at the moment and may not be back if the Thrashers miss the playoffs. Maybe you need to be somewhere in the middle to have lasting power, like Barry Trotz in Nashville and Lindy Ruff in Buffalo. Then again, neither of those guys have Cup rings. I guess it helps to have good players, no?....Not that he would have been available anyways, but Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma's new contract extension snuffed out the 0.01 percent chance he could have ended up behind the bench in Ottawa next season. Everybody I know who watched HBO's 24/7 series immediately recognized how good of a coach he really is. The Pens have hardly missed a beat after losing both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Probably doesn't hurt that they absolutely stole James Neal and Matt Niskanen from Dallas for Alex Goligoski.....

....I have a guest article up at Local Tourist Ottawa, a great site you should check out if interested in all things Ottawa. The piece is a general history of the Senators and geared towards maybe a more casual fan than may normally check out Black Aces (meaning I don't expect any emails telling me what an a-hole I am from their readers, like I get from time to time with mine!). Thanks for the invite, Jessey.....

....And lastly, how fun is it to watch this group of young Senators night in and night out? And don't tell me these guys are only playing good because there's no pressure. Guys like Bobby Butler and Erik Condra are trying to make this team for next season. There's no bigger pressure than trying to establish yourself in the NHL. The way they are performing is exceptional and should be giving guys like Nick Foligno and Peter Regin a few incentives to come into camp next year ready to fight for their jobs.

Sens Stun Devils 2-1 .... Game Notes

Isn't it strange how things work out. The Devils Brian Rolston (much like his team) was left for dead earlier in the season. He was put on waivers back in December but has clawed his way back and Jacques Lemaire, who coached Rolston for the 90's version of the Devils and also in Minnesota, has put him back among the top six and Rolston has become one of their most important players again. Rolston was once universally considered the NHL's most underrated player but once he started getting paid for it, he actually became overrated. Now he's back to being underrated. One thing he never lost was that cannon of a shot. He can absolutely rifle it. He also tied Jason Spezza for the most shifts among forwards tonight with 27.....

.....Did anyone see Bobby Butler accept that pass from Spezza about two minutes into the second? He collected it behind his back going full speed over the blueline and managed to get a shot on net. Incredible....Then about 3 minutes later Erik Condra outdoes Butler and scores the first goal of the game by doing a spinerama in front of the net and scoring off the rebound by smacking it in out of the air while falling to his knees. Are you kidding me?.....Fittingly, Condra got the game winner late in the third on a beauty feed from Spezza..... Am I wrong or has Chris Phillips gotten his game back ever since the contract was signed? He was the best defenseman on the ice tonight for either team....

…. Just guessing here, but I think Peter Regin will be back in form next season. He had a classic bout of the sophomore jinx, which is more of a mental roadblock than it is a physical one, but try telling that to his surgically repaired shoulder. Regin might also want to consider changing his number from 13 to anything else. Number 12 is free right now…. Had a dream I was hanging out with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger last night. Keith fell asleep and I asked Mick if he wanted to watch a Senators game. He frowned and walked out of the house. What does it all mean?......I always find it funny that fans constantly second guess general managers for picking a certain player in the Entry Draft every June. Like they think the GM should listen to them before they listen to their army of professional scouts who travel thousands of miles and rack up years of experience watching thousands of hockey games and go through endless meetings where every prospects strengths and weaknesses are analyzed to death. But no, listen to the dude who works at KFC and has never watched a junior game in his life. Essentially, isn’t the entire blogosphere a little like that too? Myself included. What did Chris Farley once say? “I can get a good look at a T-bone by sticking my head up a bull’s ass but I’d rather take the butcher’s word for it.”….

…..Over the years, you can’t really say the Senators have been hurt by injuries more than other teams, but for close to a calendar year, this team has been decimated by important players getting seriously hurt. Go back to the end of last season and you have Alex Kovalev, Filip Kuba, Milan Michalek, Pascal Leclaire, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Peter Regin and now Matt Carkner going down with long-term injuries. And you also had Mike Fisher playing at about half-speed through most of this season with an “upper body injury” before he got traded to Nashville. No team could survive that and, obviously, the Senators were no exception. Having a healthy Brian Elliott didn’t help either…..

....The Senators should consider bringing in current Devil Johan Hedberg as a backup to Craig Anderson next season (presuming Anderson signs here). He had a couple of tough years with a bad Thrashers team but he's always been a reliable goalie for 30 games a year and seems to be well liked wherever he plays. He may end up staying in Jersey because he's been strong when Martin Brodeur's been hurt, but he would look good in a Senators uniform. As I've mentioned before, Mathieu Garon of Columbus would also make a good backup. Both are free agents this summer....I'm not saying Craig Anderson's new mask is ugly, but it looks like something Ricky from The Trailer Park Boys would design if he had the chance. But it didn't seem to hurt Anderson's game. He stopped 31 of 32 shots against a Devils team desperate to make the playoffs. Get this guy signed yesterday....Luckily for the Devils, the Sabres lost to the Penguins tonight.

Sens Keep Momentum After Break

Another tough loss for the Senators despite an outstanding performance by rookie Robin Lehner. He was so good that Cory Clouston should be thinking about starting him against the Wings on Wednesday night. As for the Senators offense, it's the same story. This team is just waiting for Jason Spezza to return to have any chance to win a game.

Really, it's been the same game since Spezza was injured, give or take a few goals by the opposition. I'll be cutting and pasting these same sentences into the next game post. Can't wait.

NOTES

Interesting parallel here. Both the Devils and the Senators are having disastrous seasons. The difference? The Devils took action early and removed John Maclean once that coach lost the room and replaced him with a veteran in Jacques Lemaire. It took a while but the Devils are starting to play well and there's a team mission to finish back at the .500 level before the season is done. In short, they have that winning attitude back which bodes well for them next season. The Senators? They decided to stick with the status quo and keep Cory Clouston behind the bench, despite it being obvious that he had "lost the room" (see public comments by Jarkko Ruutu and Alex Kovalev) and completely run out of answers. One team is on the way up, one team is still seeing how far they are going to drop. The Devils took a stand and decided that losing was unacceptable. When will Ottawa do the same? Looks like they will try to solve their problems at the trade deadline, a gambit that is likely to fail because they are just going to turn into a rental shop for other teams. Meanwhile, the losing culture begins to take hold....

…Another sign the Ottawa Senators have become completely irrelevant this season? They only garnered one mention in the now infamous HNIC Player Poll, good, bad or otherwise. The only Senators appearance was by Matt Carkner who was voted the third toughest player by his peers around the league. The good news? Ottawa wasn’t among the top five destinations that players wanted to avoid. Despite their troubles, Ottawa has still been able to lure big name free agents like Sergei Gonchar and Alexei Kovalev (I know, I know) for every Dany Heatley and Joe Corvo who wanted out of town. And in Heatley’s case at least, it seemed like it was a hockey decision (or rather, a Cory Clouston related decision) than it was a problem with the city itself. While you may have to take out a second mortgage to afford buying an OC Transpo bus pass these days (and the prices are going up …again), Ottawa is still a hell of a place to live for the most part……I have to agree with Brian Burke on this one. I didn't like the fact that a player who was picked for the All-Star Game had to be embarrased by the process and made the last pick on national television. Sure, Phil Kessel won a car and some money for a charity, but he's still the butt of jokes and it all seemed somewhat mean spirited. Say what you want about Kessel, but does he, or any other player, need to go through something like that for an All-Star game? Burke has it right. Pick the last 4 or 5 guys from a hat......

…..Count me in as a fan of the new Tampa Bay Lightning jerseys (see them here at Icethetics). This is the direction the Senators should be headed – traditional striping, simplistic lines and an iconic logo. It seems as though there will be a new Senators black third jersey next season as reported by a few people. Just add it to the mountain of jerseys this team has unveiled in its short 19 year history. Here’s another thought: how come the Senators are so hesitant to add the now popular lace collars to their regular jerseys? In fact, why hasn’t every team in the NHL gone this way? It should be required of every club, just like the fight strap. Why? I say, why not? It’s the coolest thing you can put on a jersey, other than a captain’s “C”…… Looks like Ottawa has a lot to live up to next year after Carolina did a great job hosting this seasons All-Star weekend. The new convention centre being built where the old Congress Centre was will be a big help, as would a potential new scoreboard at Scotiabank Place. But really, it’s all about the spirit of the thing, and Ottawa has done a good job in the past with the World Juniors, the Memorial Cup tournament and two recent NHL Entry Drafts. Senators fans should savour the experience, because the All-Star game won’t be back in town anytime soon, maybe not for another 30 years. I wonder if Cory Clouston will be fired by then?

…..As a last word on the All-Star game, I’ve never understood why people get so up in arms about it. People like Nick Kypreos should, in the words of Carey Price, “just relax, chill out”. The All-Star game is for kids and sponsors and is a convenient smorgasbord of marketing for the NHL brand. That’s all. There are thousands of NHL games from October to June. Why does everyone feel the need to make the one exhibition game in January so meaningful and worthy of controversy? If you’re that passionate about an All-Star game and so eager to rip it apart, maybe you’re taking this whole thing way too seriously.….. I also find it humourous that people get so upset by big hits in NHL games but claim the lack of hitting in the All-Star game as another reason it should be dropped......

.... It's been bandied about before by other people here and there (and mostly mocked), but the NHL should seriously look at instituting a rule that makes it a penalty to intentionally go down on the ice to block a shot. Make it an illegal defense. It would serve two purposes: one, it would allow many, many more pucks to the net and create more offense from rebounds, and two, it would cut down on horrific injuries like the one that ended Ian Laperriere's career and almost killed Trent McCleary ten years ago. Players could still block shots standing up but would be given a 2 minute penalty for going down on purpose, even on one knee. With the league starting to revert back to "dead puck era" scoring levels, something must be done to open up the game without going to 4 on 4 full-time or making the nets bigger. Combine this rule with new legislation to radically decrease goalie equipment, (especially the shoulder pads and the ridiculously huge trapper) and you might even see goals scored from above the faceoff dots for a change......

And finally, best of luck to Ray Emery (a Black Aces favourite) who has so far defied the odds and is about ready to make a comeback after a debilitating hip injury that should have ended his career. In fact, 99% of athletes would probably have called it quits. The one other guy who beat it, as this must-read Citizen article points out, is Bo freaking Jackson. This guy was such a name, he could pull Gretzky, Jordan and even Bo Diddley into his cult of personality back in the early 90's. Check it.

Clouston Makes The Right Moves After Day Of Turmoil

Good on Cory Clouston.

On a day when the Alexei Kovalev controversy ballooned into a public snipefest, Clouston took the highroad and decided to end his nonsensical experiment with Kovalev on the fourth line and made some changes that helped the team to a desperately needed win over the equally struggling New Jersey Devils.

Finally, and we mean finally, Clouston put back together the best offensive duo he's had all year, and that's Kovalev with Jason Spezza, a pairing that should never have been split apart in the first place. Surprise, surprise, that line, along with Milan Michalek, has a great game, creates some chances and gets an important goal.

After weeks of trying to force lines that just weren't working, he put Daniel Alfredsson back with Mike Fisher and put Bobby Butler where he belongs - on the fourth line, and suddenly the team had cohesion in the offensive zone and plenty of chances to score.

As frustrated as Clouston is with Kovalev, it made no sense to drop his minutes where you basically ensure he's not in the game. Guys like Kovalev need to play with a skilled centre and they need big minutes. What gave Clouston a change of heart, we may never know, but he even had Kovalev on the ice in the final minute trying to protect a one goal lead. Successful teams give their most skilled players the most minutes and have them on the ice when the game is on the line.

This is the way this team needs to go forward. Even Kovalev's biggest critics must acknowledge that it's almost impossible to move him within the season. Might as well use him while you have him.

Clouston also switched up the defense pairings with positive results and the duo of Erik Karlsson and Chris Phillips looked impressive all night. The coach might be on to something here.

And lastly, it would be ideal to see Clouston stick with Pascal Leclaire for a stretch to see if he can get on a roll. Just like Kovalev, he's not going anywhere this season. He gets paid like a top player so give him the minutes and the responsibility to help pull this team back into some sort of respectable state. Clouston sometimes opts too quickly for guys who were either with him in the AHL or guys who were just recently there, and does so at the expense of solid NHL veterans (see Shean Donovan the last two seasons). You get the sense he wants Brian Elliott to be his guy but there have been some road bumps along the way. Which way will Clouston lean? I don't think anyone can tell us for sure.

Overall, a much needed win for a team that, while still close to the brink, may be able to get some positives going for them with the new lines and defense pairings.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars - Ottawa 3 New Jersey 2

1. Erik Karlsson
2. Chris Phillips
3. Chris Neil

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars Season Scorecard

3 Points 1st Star
2 Points 2nd Star
1 Point 3rd Star

Elliott – 20
Leclaire – 18
Spezza – 13
Karlsson – 12
Kovalev – 12
Fisher – 12
Alfredsson – 9
Gonchar – 7
Michalek – 6
Foligno – 6
Regin – 5
Phillips - 5
Ruutu – 4
Kelly – 3
Campoli – 3
Shannon - 2
Neil - 1

Misery In Kanata

Talk about a season defining loss.

The blows just keep coming for the miserable Senators as they completely squandered two great periods by blowing a 3-2 lead in the third frame to the visiting New York Rangers and have likely sunk as low as they possibly can. And I say that because, sure, they could sink further in the standings, but that could only be a blessing as they would then be in line for a top draft pick.

Right now, they are in the worst position possible, floundering out of the playoff picture but still too good to finish below teams like the Leafs and Islanders, with three and a half months still to suffer through.

There is going to be a lot of scapegoating on Friday when the press and the bloggers and the radio callers get their knives out, but at this point the whole team is struggling so badly it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Going into the game, many were enjoying their favourite pastime - blaming Alex Kovalev. That seemed to help everyone's sanity for a while, like pretending Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter, but then Brian Elliott let in a brutal goal that tied the game for the Rangers, Chris Neil took an unnecessary roughing penalty which resulted in the winning power-play goal and Sergei Gonchar took a tumble at centre ice, allowing Ranger Brandon Dubinsky to steal the puck and ice it in an empty net. The fact that Gonchar even got up and skated back to the bench says at least something about his character. A lesser man might have stayed down in the fetal position until the rink custodian shut the lights off later that night.

Tomorrow night or the game after that, it will be another set of players that feel the wrath of the press and around and around we go.

When the team is playing badly overall, the individual errors are going to stand out, but they're only symptoms, not the root cause. If the team was playing better, they would have more wins and the occasional screw-up could be overlooked. Now if anyone even goes offside, it's like "oh man, you're terrible". The Senators have given themselves no room for error, which makes errors inevitable.

As for the big Kovalev controversy going into the game, putting him on the fourth line was a move by Cory Clouston to show he can assert himself when the ship is sinking around him. Fair enough. He has to do something to save his job. And yet, predictably,  it made no difference and only postpones the inevitable, which is that Kovalev has to play some serious minutes with a proper centre, preferably Jason Spezza, for the team to get full value out of him.

Benching or reducing the minutes of your best players NEVER works in the NHL. It just doesn't. Just this season, look at the Flames playing around with Jarome Iginla's minutes, or the Devils doing the same with Ilya Kovalchuk earlier.

Sure, it makes a certain segment of the fans happy, because their relation to the game nowadays is based on the desire to see these hot shot millionaires get punished, and if a hockey game breaks out, well, that's not really important. But in the end, Kovalev is going to have to be put back on one of the first two lines and this whole process will be about absolutely nothing.

Usually it only signals the last days of a coach and his desperate attempts to fortify the walls that are crumbling around him.

I'm not recommending Clouston be fired, because I actually believe he's a fairly good coach who has done a good job since he got to Ottawa, but it's starting to look like he can't fix this now.

When a team gets this deep into a hole, sometimes you need to reset the system. Throw the switch. Change the fuse.

Friday's game against the Devils could be one worth watching, if only to see how this team tries to pick itself off the floor. If they don't, watch for all hell to break loose.

***

Also, congratulations to Anne who won a Metro Family 4 Pack of tickets to Friday night's game against the Devils after our last ticket contest. She correctly identified Marshall Johnston as the former Sens GM who was also the Director of Player Personnel with the Devils for close to ten years.

Thanks to everyone (and there were a lot of you) who emailed in their answers. Have fun at the game, Anne.

Clouston's Stubbornness Costing Team... Plus Ticket Contest

Another loss, another game where the Senators can't score and the unanswered questions keep piling up.

The Senators needed to beat the Habs on Tuesday night, and they needed a couple of their top guys to get a few goals, not just for the standings, but for their coaching staff and for the psyche of the whole team. Neither happened and now after a weekend which inspired a little hope, the Senators are back where they started.

I feel I may be testing the patience of some of my readers by saying this yet again (for the second week in a row), but what is Cory Clouston doing? Why is he so stubbornly sticking to his Spezza-Alfie and Fisher-Kovalev combos when they can barely even get the puck to the scoring areas, let alone score goals? It's bewildering, really, as if Clouston can't tell shit from shinola all of a sudden.

This has been going on for weeks now and Clouston won't even take a chance late in a game when the team could desperately use a spark. He did at least take Bobby Butler off the top line but it was the power-play which scored the goal, so the change had no real effect.

When the Senators were playing their best this season, Spezza was with Kovalev and Fisher was with Alfie. Kovalev's chemistry with Fisher is so bad right now that the line is essentially a write-off, with Milan Michalek playing at half-speed and Mike Fisher somehow still unable to hit anyone. It's painful to watch and essentially the Senators best two lines are their 3rd and 4th units. That's the death knell for any team.

Seriously, what is Clouston doing?

As hard as the players have worked for him ever since the San Jose Sharks embarrassment, at some point Clouston has to be held responsible for his team's lack of scoring and the apparent fact that they are quickly falling out of the playoff race.

Stubbornness can be a good trait at times for an NHL head coach (at least in the Original Six era), but it can also be the quickest way to the firing line and Clouston is now clearly headed that way, as bizarre as that notion may have seemed at the beginning of this season.

When you don't have a contract beyond this season, you're what they call a "lame duck coach" and when you can't win games or even score goals, it soon becomes a no-brainer for an impatient GM (or an impatient owner).

Clouston went on the radio earlier this week and defended his system, saying his team was still getting scoring chances and that it was just a matter of bad luck. He may have a point, but that's still not going to save his job, or Greg Carvel's or Brad Lauer's.

Bryan Murray has to make some kind of move now. He either needs to make a big trade and land this team a goal scorer, or he has to make a move behind the bench and get down there and coach this team himself. Hiring a new guy outside of the organization in a panic move is not in the cards.

Even if everything goes right from now on, and somehow Filip Kuba remembers how to play the game called "ice hockey", and somebody other than Chris Neil throws what the experts call a "body-check", the Senators will still be a long-shot to make the playoffs because the top eight in the conference tend to lock themselves in by Christmas and it's almost impossible to make up those points down the stretch.

Yet, Bryan Murray and Cory Clouston will likely preach patience in the coming days, and the pundits will simply shift their "must-win" ultimatums to the next set of games, this Thursday and Friday against the Rangers and Devils. At some point, the gig will be up and a lot of money and effort wasted in hoping things will magically get better.

It's a tough situation for the players, because you can tell they are giving everything they have on the ice for the most part, but whether it's the system they have to play, or whether it's just all in their heads, the goals just aren't coming and the losing culture is quickly becoming the new norm in Ottawa.

And in a cruel twist, they've recently faced two opponents with familiar characters from better times. Their former 50 goal man in Dany Heatley, who asked to be traded because Clouston strangely reduced his role upon taking over the team, and tonight in Montreal against Jacques Martin, a coach who was able to take much less skilled Senators clubs and bring them to the playoffs with a system that every player bought into, even Alexandre Daigle.

Those days are long gone....

***

Folks, we've got another ticket contest here at Black Aces, and this one is for the New Jersey Devils game this Friday, December 10. This time we have one of the Metro Family 4 Packs which consists of 4 tix, 4 hot dogs and 4 drinks which start at $99 bucks, tax included. There are four more games this season where you can grab this deal (including the Flames on Jan. 14), but we are giving away one of these packs to one lucky winner who can email me the answer to this trivia question:

Name this former Senators GM who was also the Director of Player Personnel for the New Jersey Devils for close to a decade previous to his tenure in Ottawa.

The fourth person to email me at jeremymilks@hotmail.com with the correct answer wins a Metro Family 4 Pack of tickets. The winner will be notified by email no later than Wednesday night. Good luck.

Sens Streak Comes Crashing Down To Earth

The Senators four game winning streak came to a sudden, brutal end with the Vancouver Canucks exploding in the third period to rack up a 6-2 road win on Remembrance Day in the capital.

In short, the Senators got beaten by Roberto Luongo, who was absolutely outstanding and kept his team in the game during a giveaway filled first period. The home side should have had 2 or 3 goals by the end of the second but went in to the third down 2-1 and quickly fell apart.

This is one the Senators just need to forget about. They played well for two periods in front of a shaky but battling Pascal Leclaire who was making his first appearance in a while and if not for the goalie at the other end, the Sens would have been in command of the lead early on.

Sometimes a goalie beats you and there's not much you can do about it.

Unfortunately for Ottawa, the next goalie they face is Tim Thomas in Boston on Saturday night, a guy who could write a War and Peace sized tome on the topic of Senators domination.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Peter Regin
2. Jason Spezza
3. Alex Kovalev

NOTES

What's wrong with Mike Fisher? He looks like he's nursing an injury because he was somewhat invisible Thursday night, and with Milan Michalek struggling to overcome that nagging knee problem, that line is not really competing like they should. Fisher is obviously best when he's skating over other players and causing total mayhem on the forecheck, but we haven't seen that from him in a little while now. Fish was minus 3 on the night with 1 shot on goal. Obviously, not a great night for him.....

Just saying: Toronto Brian Burke is so headstrong and stubborn that he probably won’t fire coach Ron Wilson, even if the Leafs don’t win a game from now until Christmas. This is a guy that simply doesn’t like to back down in public– even if it gets in the way of success (see the Tomas Kaberle situation). But the thought of Boston getting another top 3 overall pick thanks to the Phil Kessel trade may make Burke desperate enough to eat some crow over Wilson and do the right thing. The Leafs simply can’t give the Bruins the opportunity to rub it in their faces once again or they risk becoming a laughingstock.….

...Speaking of laughingstocks, everyone’s having a great time laughing at the Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk, especially after that botched shootout attempt against the Sabres on Wednesday night. Kovalchuk is certainly not worth the monstrous contract handed out by Lou Lamoriello, but that shouldn’t disguise the fact that he’s still one of the most dynamic players in the NHL and turned down a similar big contract from the Atlanta Thrashers because he wanted to play for a winner. He's certainly not as bad a player or a guy as some people want to make him out to be. It hasn’t turned out well for Kovy and the Devils in the very early going, but it’s not like he’s going to turn into a 15 goal scorer. In time, he’ll be back near the top of the scoring list and the Devils will once again be a good team, if not this year, then next. But it looks like John MacLean won’t be the guy to guide them. It’s the “assistant coach syndrome”, which also struck assistant-turned head coaches John Paddock, Tony Granato, and others (MacLean did spend a year coaching the Devils AHL affiliate before being named head coach but was an assistant for years with the big team and inherited most of the same players). History keeps inflicting this painful lesson on general managers who are trying to do a good thing by promoting from within. More often than not, it doesn’t really work…

...It’s nice to see Peter Schaefer back in an NHL uniform after a disastrous stint with the Boston Bruins a few seasons ago. While he didn't get to play against his old team on Thursday night, to this day, he’s still the best Ottawa Senator I've ever seen with a puck along the boards playing keep-away. Jesse Winchester is pretty good at that particular skill as well, but Schaefer was just unbelievable. Too bad he wasn’t able to translate that possession time into more offense when he was here. Once in a while though, he would score a beauty like this one…..Every time I watch Roberto Luongo play, I'm always struck by how quickly he turns and whines to the refs every time he gets slightly touched in his net. Maybe that's just his competitive side coming out, but this is also the same guy who threatened to retire if the NHL ever made the nets bigger, even though the idea was only proposed as a worst-case scenario because goalies like Luongo were fighting tooth and nail against reductions in equipment size. Just one look at Luongo's shoulder pads tells you that goalies are still allowed to wear oversized gear that makes a mockery of the game. As I've said many, many times before, you could reduce the catching gloves by half the size and still have adequate protection there. The gloves goalies wear are a complete joke and need to be addressed, even if it makes Luongo take his gear and pout all the way home.....As of press time, no Senators fans were attacked by Rick Rypien. Stay tuned for further information....

Strange but true: On my Tuesday post I wrote this in defense of the shootout:

"To me, they should have went with 5 shooters a side instead of 3 right from the get go. Right now, the shootout is over way too quickly and if one team scores right away, the other side is pretty much doomed. At least with 5 shooters, you use more of your players, lessening the complaint that the shootout goes against the team concept in hockey."

On Wednesday, Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated wrote this in defense of the shootout:

"The problem never has been the shootout. The problem is that NHL 2.0 didn't go far enough with them. Only three shooters per side? Big mistake. Often, you hardly find your rhythm as a fan because the shootout is over so quickly. The league should have instituted a five-per-side format, like a major soccer final. If nothing else, a five-round shootout would have been a partial antidote to the argument that individual competitions are determining the outcome of a team game by involving a mere one sixth of the 18 skaters."

Yes, I'm suing.

I recommend reading the whole article because Farber makes some great points about the shootout and why the NHL should be out there celebrating it, not discussing ways to make it occur less often.