A Closer Look At The "Moulson To Sens" Rumours

Jason Spezza needs a winger. This is not breaking news.

If you’ve been watching the Ottawa Senators for the past 3 months, you know it as well as anybody. Coach Paul MacLean has put Spezza on an island, and that’s no place for your team captain and arguably most skilled player to be.

There’s no denying Spezza is having a tough year. Not a terrible year, but he’s not the same guy we’ve seen in the past. The reasons for that are numerous, and a lot of the blame rests with his own play, but he hasn’t exactly been put in the best position to maximize his particular talents. That’s on both MacLean and GM Bryan Murray, although Murray gets an "A" for effort by bringing in Bobby Ryan to play with Spezza, only to have MacLean keep them apart out of what seems like stubbornness at times.

Spezza is a glaring -17, second worst on the team, but that’s not necessarily an indication of a big drop-off in his defensive play. Spezza has always been a risk-taker and a bit iffy on the defensive side, but the difference this year is that his line is not scoring 5-on-5 like it has in the past. If anything, Spezza has improved his commitment to backchecking and playing down low in his own end (as a team captain has to do), but he’s been struck with the double plague of skating in front of bad goaltending early in the season and having a rotisserie of wingers on either side, none of whom are a natural fit.

And you can see it out there almost every night. When Spezza makes something happen, it’s usually because he’s forced the issue on his own, making a brilliant solo play while his wingers just try to go to the net and pull some defenseman along with them. Last night in Washington was a good example. You could tell Spezza was “on”, but he couldn’t really get any offense going 5-on-5. It took a power-play and an awkward looking game of tag with defenseman Patrick Wiercioch (who refused to shoot) for Spezza to just say, “screw this” and power one from the sideboards through Caps goalie Braden Holtby for the insurance goal in the third period.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Spezza is still a 90-point player in this league, but he’s not going to get there playing with 30-point wingers. He needs to play with a sniper to utilize his biggest strength – which is playmaking – but unless MacLean decides to loan either Ryan or Clarke MacArthur to Spezza’s line, this team seems to be wasting the franchise centre’s second-last contract year.

Cue the Matt Moulson rumours.

It makes sense at first glance. Moulson’s a natural goal scorer, a left-handed shooter like Dany Heatley was with a very manageable pro-rated $3.9 million salary (3.1 cap hit) the rest of this season until he becomes a UFA. Basically, it’s a rental player scenario that’s easy on the payroll and doesn’t carry a burden past this season, unless both sides want it to.

The other reason this makes sense is that Bryan Murray will be dealing with his nephew and ex-employee Tim Murray in Buffalo if this deal were to go down, and that’s surely what’s given this rumour some legs. TSN mentioned it, as did the Ottawa Sun, so this isn’t just one of those HF Boards doozies that occasionally seeps into the mainstream, causing seasoned reporters to panic thinking they missed a major lead. It all sounds fairly reasonable, even inevitable.

But so did Mike Sillinger, Peter Bondra, Martin Lapointe, and Mike Comrie. These things don’t always work out like they should.

If you’re wondering about Moulson’s credentials as a goal-scorer, Tim Wharnsby had a piece back in late-December  pointing out that Moulson has scored the 12th most goals in the NHL since the 2009-10 season, putting him just behind the likes of Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Sidney Crosby, Jeff Carter and Bobby Ryan.

Some say that Moulson put up inflated numbers playing shotgun with Tavares, but why is that a criticism? Behind almost every goal-scoring winger is a number one centre. It just shows that Moulson can work with good players and be effective. If he’s coming to Ottawa, he’s coming to play with Spezza. The concerns seem overstated.

But this isn’t a slam-dunk, even though it looked like I was trying to lead you there.

Firstly, Tim Murray is a cagey bastard and knows the Senators prospect pool better than anyone in the league. He’s got a few chips he can play at the deadline, Moulson being one of them along with Ryan Miller and Steve Ott. Murray has to make an impact with his first moves as GM in Buffalo. If he’s going to make a deal with Ottawa, he’s going to go after his previous pet prospects in the Senators system and it’s going to be an attempted raid we haven’t seen the likes of since Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen.

Of course, we don’t know exactly what Buffalo would want out of Ottawa, but you can probably take a pretty good guess. We know Tim Murray loves Mark Stone, because we’ve heard him gush about Stone on local radio for a few years. Moulson would be an upgrade on Stone this year and probably next, but in the long run, that could be a move that backfires badly on Ottawa.

Moulson also isn’t exactly a “physical” player. Both Bryan and Tim Murray like big, strong teams and in that respect, Moulson may not be a fit for either GM. For the chance at a goal-scorer, sometimes you overlook their size or aggressiveness, as in the case of Kyle Turris (who’s proven to be tougher and feistier than his look suggests), but how many of those players can you take on board before it changes the style of your team?

Moulson isn’t small at six feet, but he doesn’t strike me as a Bryan Murray type player. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not sure Bryan would give up a potential power-forward for a rental like Moulson.

Another way you can look at it is Moulson being a salary replacement for Milan Michalek next season.

Ottawa doesn’t want to add a ton of salary but they can’t go backwards either. The cap and floor are going to go up next season (allegedly) and it doesn’t look to me like Michalek will be re-signed, at least not at his current $6 million salary (4.3 cap hit). I like Michalek as a player, but he’s not scoring anymore. It’s hard to justify that money for his reduced role on the third line this season.

Yet the Senators can’t just have rookies fill that spot. Rookies don’t make enough money. To hit the floor, you have to have certain guys making over $3 million, even if they don’t seem completely worth it. That’s just the reality. That’s why Colin Greening got such a sweet deal and that’s why Jared Cowen did as well.

Moulson will definitely be getting a raise on his $3.9 million salary. Someone will give him $4-4.5 in the NHL. Why not the Senators? Maybe they can float above the cap floor and get a real scoring winger with a trade-and-sign deal for Moulson.

Maybe they go in another direction entirely.

You have to remember the Free Agent pool seems to get slimmer every summer. Spezza still has one more year on his contract. The Senators don’t want him trying out new wingers every week for the duration of that. Someone has to be brought in. Do they want to bring Heatley back this summer? That’s outright laughable considering the bad blood between him and Eugene Melnyk. Do you ante up for Thomas Vanek or Mike Cammalleri? Ales Hemsky?

Suddenly Matt Moulson looks a little more reasonable if they can get it done.

Then again, it all depends on Tim Murray being reasonable.

We know he won’t be cheery and charitable. So don’t go ordering that Moulson nameplate to paste over your #26 Ryan Shannon jersey.

All 3 of you.

Black Aces Vintage: Classic Auctions Swag

If you've never had a chance to head over to ClassicAuctions.net, here's just a few samples of the many historical Ottawa Senators memorabilia pieces that have passed through their hands over the years. It's pretty amazing to go through their catalogue of closed lots and see what's out there, not just for Senators items but for anything NHL related. You could waste a day going through this stuff. And I have... today... trying to come down a little from the Senators absolute demolition of the Montreal Canadiens in Round One. Of particular note is that Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa program from 1927. Looks like the Senators staff will be printing off a few new copies sometime next week... See you then.

Black Aces Vintage - Full 1984 Stanley Cup Game 5: Oilers vs. Islanders

The first Stanley Cup I remember staying up to watch in it's entirety - the Oilers putting an end to the Islanders 4-Cup dynasty in 1984. I was 8 years old at the time but I remember clearly the look on Messier's face when he got handed the Conn Smythe Trophy and Gretzky almost falling while putting the Cup over his head.

There's a whole slew of full historical NHL games on YouTube now and here's one of the best - in it's entirety from the original CBC Hockey Night In Canada broadcast - Game 5 of the 1984 Stanley Cup Final. I still get chills watching this today. The great Bob Cole calls the game, as he'll do tonight for Ottawa's first game against Montreal in the 2013 playoffs.

This Only Happens In The Movies

Smarter writers than myself have already run out of things to say about this Ottawa Senators team. After another comeback victory, another injury to a key player, and another two points towards a likely playoff spot that nobody believed they could grasp, this story has so much momentum that words of context can’t really capture it.

And that’s probably because there is no context for it. At least in recent NHL memory. You can relate more to the 2013 Sens by watching a Sam Peckinpah movie than anything else. Last night against the New York Islanders was like a replay of The Wild Bunch.

Down 3-1 going into the 3rd period with energy lacking and Marc Methot, one of the Senators strongest players this season, out with what looked like a fluke knee injury, the Senators looked done. Surely this was one insult too many. Fans were looking at the AHL roster for defenseman and finding nobody. You also have to remember that the news had just leaked out that morning about Milan Michalek getting knee surgery. People were making jokes about Luke Richardson suiting up again but nobody was really laughing.

Incredibly, it seemed to get worse for a fleeting moment, even though the Senators scored right away. Patrick Wiercioch shot the puck from the blueline and it sneaked into the net off a Jakob Silfverberg tip, but Wiercioch was run over and was gasping for air on his knees as a celebration. Thoughts of Andre Benoit being the Senators 3rd best healthy defenseman sent a cold wave of paranoid fear through the minds of Sens fans everywhere.

Luckily Wiercioch is young and bounced back the next shift. If I had been hit like that I’d still be on the ice doing the doggy paddle.

Then this Senators team quietly went back to work and added three more goals, led by the always steady but strangely underrated and underappreciated Sergei Gonchar. People seem amazed at his strong play of late but have somehow forgotten that he’s been one of the best defensemen of his generation and will be a Hall Of Fame candidate once he hangs it all up. He’s never gotten that respect in Ottawa despite playing basically the same solid, smooth game he always has. Of course, he’s not as dynamic as he was during his prime with the Capitals and Penguins, but like Daniel Alfredsson, he’s so smart with the puck that he creates in other ways now.

It’s been amazing to see so many rookies breaking through this season, but it really comes down to the leaders guiding them through and making huge plays with the game on the line. Alfredsson and Gonchar are self-explanatory. Chris Phillips and Chris Neil play the exact same way every night and the oldest vet of them all, coach Paul MacLean, must be a goddamn soothsayer in that locker room. It’s almost scary how his players respond to him. What if this team was completely healthy and played with the same spirit? You’d be talking about the Stanley Cup this year, not next.

But we’re getting carried away here, as we usually do.

There’s no word on Methot as of this writing, but he’s likely to miss some time. Jason Spezza is still out with wild rumours of setbacks in his recovery. Erik Karlsson is already on summer vacation.

The truth is nobody knows how this is going to turn out. We could be talking in a week about how badly this thing finally went off the rails. But somehow it hasn’t yet and the playoffs get closer by the day.

You get the sense that nobody will really care what happens when or if they get there. Just the idea of surviving until that point seems to be enough – more than enough – for everybody right now. That’s the story. That’s the whole plot of this strange movie. Endurance.

Trust me. Watch The Wild Bunch and you’ll see what I mean.

Notes

Would anyone be truly surprised if Gonchar signed a one-year extension? I’m sure he’s looking for a two-year deal but there’s a chance he wants just one more season so he can play in the Olympics. Barring more catastrophic injuries, the Senators will be a Stanley Cup contender next season. Lots of incentive for Gonchar to stay. But will Murray want him? Tough to say. You win Stanley Cups with veterans like Gonchar but Wiercioch has developed so quickly that there may not be room. Ottawa survived losing Filip Kuba. Murray may be thinking along those lines for next season..... Denis Potvin was at his best in Long Island last night calling the game alongside Dean Brown for Sportsnet. As the Senators penalties began to pile up, you could feel Potvin getting agitated with the refs (as he has all season) but it wasn’t until Eric Gryba got called for high-sticking late in the second that Potvin had truly had enough. “No...no...no....no!... no!.... NOOOO!!!” was his immediate response. I have no idea how Dean Brown kept it together after that but I wasn’t able to. .... The refs did have a tough game, especially when they called Matt Kassian for “roughing”. In reality it was a solid, clean hit on Radek Martinek that should only be a penalty in basketball. It stung even worse when Lubomir Visnovsky scored on the ensuing power-play to put the Isles up 3-1. At that point it looked like the Sens just didn’t have anything going for them but we all know what happened in the third period.

.... Speaking of Kassian, it’s absolutely terrifying how big he looks out there on the ice. For his first goal as a Senator he just went to the net and nobody was able to move him. Not a bad tip on the Gonchar shot either. Guys like that don’t even really need hands (except for fighting). Sometimes a body as big as a bus is all you need in certain situations. If Kassian wants to be in a certain spot on the ice, he can go there and nobody can really do anything about it outside of Zdeno Chara.... Phillips played over 27 minutes last night after Methot went down to injury. Clearly, that’s a bit much but I don’t see Phillips struggling when he plays big minutes. There’s a myth out there that Phillips should have limited time to be effective but I don’t really buy it. Over time he might wear out but he’s playing as good as he ever has in a Senators uniform right now.... Woah. Kyle Turris is flying out there right now. He almost scored a goal on a play that would have been on every end of year highlight reel.

Remember When...

The Backhander – Bald Heads...Bad Luck... Big Risks

A Senator who’s definitely growing on me – Patrick Wiercioch. I thought his last two games against the Devils and Islanders were the best I’ve seen him play all season. The guy wanted the puck and made plays out of his own end with some confidence. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’ve sort of flip-flopped on him since his early start where I thought he was weaker than Andre Benoit and Mark Borowiecki. Maybe it’s his size that gives him a little more presence but I like him the most out of those three to have an impact the rest of the way. But then you have to look at Eric Gryba who played almost four more minutes than Wiercioch on Tuesday against the Islanders and had five blocked shots. It’s good news/bad news for the organization because if Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen weren’t hurt, we might not have even seen these guys play a single game so far, but next season this blueline is going to be both skilled and tough – and hopefully healthy....

.... You have to think that GM Bryan Murray wishes he had played the safe hand and made a move for a veteran defenseman at the start of the season when Jared Cowen went down. There were questions about inexperience even then but Murray gambled a little bit without insurance and is now dealing from a position of weakness. If, God forbid, another Senator d-man went down in the next week or two, what the hell is he going to do at that point? Mike Lundin doesn’t look any better than Wiercioch or Benoit and there’s a long grind of games ahead of this banged up team. A minor deal to bring in a guy with over 200 games experience could help this blueline survive the next two months and just possibly hold onto a playoff spot (don’t laugh – it could happen). Nobody’s going to replace Karlsson but if they’re going with a “grind it out” philosophy the rest of the way, they’ll need more bodies back there. Sergei Gonchar is getting hammered every night along the boards (he's a definite target with Karlsson out) and if you lose him, say goodbye to whatever shred of hope this team has left. You can’t do anything about bad luck but enough is enough. Make a deal....

... Whatever happened to Guillaume Latendresse? Nobody even mentions him anymore. People will talk about Ottawa’s injuries and don’t say his name. He’s a ghost right now..... How is it that Colin Greening has 0 penalty minutes so far this season? For a guy his size to have 0 PIM’s makes you understand why the Senators coaching staff need him to get more involved. If you’re doing things right, you’re going to take a few unavoidable penalty minutes along the way. Not surprisingly, after being a healthy scratch a few games ago, Greening looks motivated of late and against the Islanders had 5 hits and a goal. The last time he had as many hits in a game was also the last time he scored a goal – January 27th vs Pittsburgh where he collected 6 hits. In 10 of his 16 games, Greening has been credited with 2 hits or less. This guy didn’t become known as one of the most fanatical workout machines on the team just to be a perimeter player trying not to make mistakes. He needs to string together some good games real soon.... Dave Dziurzynski, who got his first career goal against the Islanders on Tuesday, is wearing #59, not the most glamorous number. The only other Senator to use it was Erich Goldmann, who played in a single NHL game in the 99-00 season and was drafted out of Germany by Ottawa in 1996.... Speaking of German born ex-Senators, good ol’ Christoph Schubert is in the German league playing for the Hamburg Freezers. Schubert was +30 for Ottawa in 06-07. The guy could hit like a train too....

.... The skinhead look has been somewhat rare in the Senators short history, but Andre Benoit and Craig Anderson are doing their part. Hey, Mark Messier, the most famous cueball in NHL history, is my favourite player of all-time so I’m not looking for a cheap joke here. But off the top of my head I can only come up with a handful from Ottawa’s past. Bryan Smolinski and Alex Auld come to mind right away. Actually, that’s all I can remember. I want to say Denny Lambert but I think he might have had hair when he was in Ottawa. Can you think of anyone else?.... On the other side, Daniel Alfredsson is doing a pretty good lion impression lately and Zack Smith and Karlsson can grow it too. But it’s tough to top the early 90’s Senators when they had Mike Peluso, Darcy Loewen and Dave Archibald among others following the dignified lead of Dougie Gilmour, Brett Hull and Jaromir Jagr.... Tough day for Lindy Ruff. Everyone knows this guy is a hell of a coach and the crap he had to endure in Buffalo with players leaving, ownership changing and bad signings would have destroyed a lesser man. Only a coach like Barry Trotz has a comparable record of keeping afloat bad teams over a similar period. Ruff’s greatest moment in Buffalo might have been the summer of 1999 at a team rally after the tough loss to Hull and the Dallas Stars when he concluded his speech with the two words “No Goal”. He was a hero after that. Now he’s the scapegoat. I’m usually not one to cry over coaches getting fired. In fact, I get annoyed when most pundits go immediately to the “it’s the player’s fault, not the coach” line. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. I think Bryan Murray was right to fire all three of John Paddock, Craig Hartsburg and Cory Clouston. But in Ruff’s case it does feel weak. If Jarmo Kekäläinen is looking to start fresh with a new coach next year in Columbus, he’d be crazy not to go after Ruff.

Karlsson's Epic Season Just Got More Epic... Get Serious About "Goon" ... And More Napkin Scribbled Game Notes

Ottawa 4 Washington 2

Erik Karlsson scares me.

Did you see that slap-pass off the boards from deep in his own end, straight onto Milan Michalek's stick in the first period? When Michalek stormed in and scored that highlight reel goal (probably the prettiest of the season for any Senator), I was still squinting in disbelief at my television, trying to process how Karlsson made that play look so easy and natural, like flipping on the light switch and whistling 'Strangers In The Night'.

To me, Karlsson's slap-pass makes David Rundblad's now famous lob-pass earlier in the season look like some kind of amateur play you might see a drunk beer-leaguer make in Cornwall on a Thursday night. A lucky bounce.

Karlsson's pass was no Hail Mary effort. It was fast, precise and sickening to watch for even hardened viewers of the game.

The kid made everything look effortless tonight and if this is just a hint of what he's capable of, how is anyone going to stop him once he hits his prime in five or six years? Right now, he's running on 90% skill and 10% experience. When that experience quota starts to fill up, he's going to be even more lethal. Now before I start growing hair in weird places and morphing into Eugene Melnyk, I'm not making any predictions that Karlsson will be "one of the greatest defensemen of all-time". No need to. He's already one of the best in the game right now and I don't think Ottawa fans even realize what kind of player they have here.

But enough of the hyperbole. The season's too long to tolerate some hack blogger going on and on about some kind of split-second play that seemed to scare him more than it impressed him.

It's like that story I've told before where Wayne Gretzky made some ridiculously unfathomable play in an Oilers practice in the early 80's that made the once bustling rink go quiet in real depression because guys like Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe couldn't believe what they had just seen. It ruined their day.

But there I go again. The Melnyk disease has gotten to me. Names like Gretzky and Messier slip out uncontrollably.

I better get on to another topic before I threaten everyone's sanity and say something really embarrassing.

***

So, how about those Washington Capitals?

Remember the fun old days in Washington? When Bruce Boudreau just opened the bench doors and let his players play the game they way it's supposed to be played? With speed, passion, skill and a few laughs along the way? Sure, the Caps had some playoff disappointments playing that wide open style but that had just as much to do with having a group of young guys than it was their system. Those losses created such a shit storm of criticism that the team seemingly had no choice but to stop the on-ice party and "get serious".

Only problem was the new style didn't fit the personnel. Alex Ovechkin reminds me a lot of the old Jaromir Jagr. He's a guy who needs the latitude to do what he does best or it just doesn't work for him or the team he plays for. Same goes for players like Mike Green and Alex Semin. These guys are born to freewheel but Boudreau was forced to try and tame them or lose his job (he lost it anyways) and now Dale Hunter looks like he's just come in and pulled the reins tighter. He might have to leave in the summer.

The body language on the Caps is depressing. To a man, they know they're capable of running teams out of the rink, or at least used to be, but management wasn't brave enough to stick to what made them great in the first place, and that was the run and gun style that maximizes Ovechkin's game. That's probably an over-simplification of what ails the Caps, but as a general take, I think it's pretty close.

It's strange, because they're only a handful of wins away from overtaking the Panthers for first in the Southeast and third in the East, but back to back tank jobs against Carolina and Ottawa makes you think they're farther away than anyone can imagine.

If you're going to lose (and there are 29 losers every single year), you might as well go out playing the style you do best. The Caps haven't just lost their identity. They actually might be close to the point where they have to tear half the team down. It seems insane, but....

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Erik Karlsson
2. Milan Michalek
3. Craig Anderson

Honourable Mentions: Kyle Turris, Nick Foligno, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil.

NOTES

TSN analyst Mike Johnson was speaking over a video of Alex Ovechkin on his phone walking into the Kanata rink this morning when Johnson hinted that Ovi might have only been pretending to take a call to avoid having to make eye contact with anybody. Wow. Ovi is getting torched every day now. Guy can’t even talk to his girlfriend without someone saying he’s dogging it….. For some reason, this reminds me of ex-Islanders GM Mike Milbury who, upon trading for Alexei Yashin from Ottawa in 2001, came to the defence of his new acquisition by telling the press that "Mother Teresa would have a bad reputation in Ottawa. You can't go down the street and so much as sneeze without something going wrong." For some more classic hockey quotes, check out this string of posts I did a few years back.....  Sportsnet was showing a program called “Marathon Highlights” tonight. I clicked on it and guess what I saw? A bunch of people running down a road. And it was an hour long show. Riveting stuff….. Erik Karlsson had the great TSN play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert hitting some vocal high notes in the first period. Cuthbert and Johnson had just finished marvelling about Karlsson’s stats this season when “the kid” started a give and go in the neutral zone and then led the rush to the net for a close scoring chance. Cuthbert barely had time to catch his breath before Karlsson laced a perfect shot between Tomas Vokoun’s legs for the first goal of the game, which made Cuthbert bark out “The Kid does it again!!” Listening to Cuthbert call a hockey game is to listen to the best there is…. Not to be outdone on the Team 1200 radio broadcast, Dean Brown called the second period Chris Phillips goal by screaming “Number Four, Bobby Orr!!”....

..... A few chaps seem to have a chip on their shoulder about a new hockey movie called “Goon”, presumably because the title and the advertising campaign seems to “glorify” the violent, nasty side of hockey (some of the ads got pulled because of an unrelated sexual innuendo - no surprise there). But what some completely fail to recognize is that comedy has no responsibility to be politically correct or universally sensitive, nor should it ever attempt to be. It’s a movie. It’s not real life. Relax. Some people take the game so seriously they fail to realize that nobody outside of their little insular world could give two shits about what they think is funny or not. The movie might be great or it might be moronic (I have no idea and I don’t really care) but I can guarantee it wasn’t made for people who want to find some kind of deeper meaning or political statement. Neither was Animal House, Slapshot, Happy Gilmour, Dumb and Dumber or Caddyshack. (Even Adam Proteau of The Hockey News, perhaps the most hardline anti-fighting voice out there, realizes the movie is just entertainment and gives it a good review.) ......

.... It wasn't funny seeing Mathieu Perrault score a goal off his face and go down in pain in the third period, but it was pretty funny watching Karlsson look over hopefully at the ref, as if there might be some arcane rule where a goal couldn't go in off someone's grill. No luck Erik.….. With all this talk about Rick Nash and Jeff Carter being on the trading block, wouldn’t it be mind-blowing to see both of them go in the same deal? How about a mega-swap with L.A. that sees Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Bernier and Jack Johnson going the other way? There’s my big contribution to the invented rumour mill…. Strange. According to Cap Geek, the L.A. Kings don’t have a single roster player with a No-Trade clause. Start carving guys….. Douglas Murray of the Sharks “fracturing” his Adams apple has to be the most painful sounding injury of the season….. Let’s all give Sens prospect André Petersson a mulligan for his “Binghamton sucks” comments to a Swedish newspaper. All NHL prospects don’t want to be in the AHL and most of them probably feel they deserve to be plying their trade for a big city NHL team. The fact they are stuck in small cities off the glory trail probably fuels some natural snobbery, especially in young guys like Petersson. They all say the same things to each other in private but Petersson made the mistake of doing it publicly. It’s happened to players before and it will happen again. It doesn’t make him a punk. It makes him young, and after this mini public relations disaster, he’ll be a little older and wiser with his words. Plus, if Erik Karlsson vouches for him, that sort of closes the case, doesn’t it?.....

…. A book I highly recommend you find a way to read is Al Strachan’s “I Am Not Making This Up” which was just published in 2010. It’s purely an anecdotal collection which makes for an easy read on the bus or on the go somewhere and Strachan is one of the last old-school iconoclasts of the hockey journalism gig. The guy seemingly can’t go a page or two without clawing into Bettman and the NHL head office but he has the utmost respect for the actual players, an attribute that seems to be missing in today’s breed of writers who grew up in an era that demonized the players as “greedy” and now feel no need to challenge that theory for the public. Anyhoo, here’s Strach relating one of these stories and it involves the barely English-speaking Valeri Zelepukin of the early 90’s New Jersey Devils and head coach Jacques Lemaire:

“One day, when the Devils were going through a bad stretch, Lemaire gathered the players in the dressing room and started laying down the law… ‘We’ve not been playing well,’ he said, ‘and if we keep on playing like this, you know what’s going to happen, don’t you?”

He looked at the team. There was total silence. Heads were down. Then Zelepukin gingerly raised his hand.

“Coach get fired?”

***

I’m off to Toronto this weekend for a wedding, so there likely won’t be a post until Trade Deadline day on Monday after the weekend games against the Bruins and Islanders. See you then folks. I'll try not to drink too many beers but Hogtown may drive me to unseen levels.

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Sens A Happy Group Heading Into Deadline .... Flatten Isles ... Plus Baffling Game Notes

Ottawa 6 NY Islanders 0

In today's Ottawa Citizen Senators Prediction Panel, I took what I thought was a reasonable gamble and predicted a 4-2 Islanders win.

Oooohhh. Just missed.

Okay, so I'm not The Amazing Kreskin but a few things are becoming clear that even near-sighted mouth breathers like myself can see with stunning clarity.

One, the Ottawa Senators are, indeed, far from collapsing out of playoff contention that the now distant 7-game losing streak might have suggested to those prone to outright panic. They've now racked up 9 out of their last 10 possible points and looked completely convincing in the process. People were nervously looking down to Bingo at Robin Lehner but Craig Anderson now has two shutouts in his past three games and people are starting to talk about Jason Spezza as a Hart Trophy candidate.

Two, this team, when running on the right oil, has shown that it's good enough to scare a few people if it can get into the playoffs healthy. And that statement should not be construed to mean this team is a lock for the playoffs. It's possible another team below them grinds it out to the final date on the schedule and pushes Ottawa out of the top eight by sheer will alone. But it doesn't look like the Senators are going to make it easy for anybody and in fact, they may even start taking a trip up the standings to fight for home-ice advantage if they keep getting hot at the right time. With over twenty games left to play and a whole bunch of teams promising to get better at the trade deadline, movement one way or the other is almost a guarantee.

But now we seem to know the parameters. We've seen Ottawa at their worst this season, when the defenseman can't seem to make a pass out of their zone and their goalie can't seem to make a timely save on pucks that are lobbed from the blueline. And we've seen them at their best, when the third and fourth lines step up and get important goals or when Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson and Daniel Alfredsson decide to take over games.

When the Senators have all these things going at once, they look like world beaters. If they can get in, they'll give their first round opponents a fight they won't believe. They still don't stack up to the pulverizing Bruins or the technically perfect Rangers, but if they can avoid meeting either of those teams in the first round, they'll have a chance to further surprise some people.

But again, daydreaming about April in February is a bit of a fool's game. If so much seems to change in just a week's time, what the hell will we be looking at in over a month?

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Erik Karlsson
2. Jason Spezza
3. Sergei Gonchar

Honourable Mentions: Craig Anderson (I know, a shutout, but that was an easy one), Chris Phillips, Daniel Alfredsson, Brian Lee and Filip Kuba.

NOTES

Seeing Jason Spezza "pop" the water bottle on his beauty goal in the third period reminds you of a better time when those bottles were free to hang out on top of the net without any holder and most top-shelf goals resulted in that camera friendly pop which was a better exclamation point than any red goal-light could hope to be. Sure, those loose bottles obscured overhead camera angles on disputed goals, but who didn't love to see those things go flying into the air when Joe Sakic or Steve Yzerman roofed one from in tight?..... Can't see the Senators trading Filip Kuba or Sergei Gonchar before the deadline. Who's going to play their minutes? If you haven't noticed, after trading David Rundblad the Senators don't have a blue chipper on defense in their system right now. Unless GM Bryan Murray gets a young defenseman in return who can play this season, why does he bother? And why would another team trade a young defenseman already getting minutes for an older player like Kuba or Gonchar? None of it makes sense. Teams don't dismantle on their way to the playoffs. It just doesn't happen. What you can count on however is hockey fans throwing every possible suggestion against the wall to see if it sticks. There's a lot of undercooked spaghetti noodles sliding down that wall right now..... With that said, here's a noodle of my own. I've said it before, and I still think Niklas Hagman of the Ducks is the perfect fit at forward for this Senators team. He'd look good with Kyle Turris and Alfredsson don't you think? Or does my noodle need a little more boiling?...

.....Whenever Senators owner Eugene Melnyk goes on Toronto radio, all sorts of shit hits the fan and today he merely said that Erik Karlsson will end up being one of the greatest defenseman of all-time and that Ottawa will continue to replace older, expensive players with younger, "hungry" ones. Unsurprisingly this was all good fodder for Twitter and the oncoming mania of trade deadline day. So does this mean Kuba and Gonchar are really on the block after all? Always take Melnyk's comments with this in mind: the guy is a big kid who just happens to own a hockey team (think Adam Sandler in Mr. Deeds). He's a "big ideas" man, something that most entrepreneurs are at heart. They like to make big statements while letting other people take care of the technical details. If Bryan Murray goes in front of a microphone and says something similar, then maybe you have a big story, but until then, don't believe the hype.... But then Karlsson goes out and slams in two goals in the first period alone. Okay, believe the hype.....A lot of fans were somewhat worried knowing most teams above and below the Senators in the standings had, in some cases, four games in hand on Ottawa. When you did the math real quick you could see a lot of teams catching up or zipping by the Sens in the standings with those unplayed games. Yet, the old maxim remains true. Games in hand don't mean a thing if you can't win them. The Capitals, Panthers and the Leafs are learning that old lesson well.... There's something surreal yet comforting about listening to "Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys cranked to eleven in the middle of February..... Who could have guessed the Chicago Blackhawks would only be three points better than the Senators after both had played 60 games? Does that say more about Chicago or Ottawa?....

......In the much talked about NHLPA Player Poll, two ex-Senators and one current made the top 5 in the Toughest Player category. Zdeno Chara 17%, Brian McGrattan 7% and Matt Carkner 4%. Carkner is getting those numbers on rep alone because he certainly isn't playing or fighting much this season. For some reason, Carks hasn't been the same since that knee injury and now Senator-For-Life Brian Lee has surpassed him on the depth chart for the first time. To his credit, Lee is turning into the ultimate survivor. He should have been traded twenty times by now but here he is having a bit of a renaissance late in the season. Hey, next time Lee goes into the doghouse, remind me not to bury him.....While we're at it, let's not bury Carkner either. This guy made it to the NHL the hard way and will continue to scrape everything he can out of whatever opportunity he gets. He's just a couple of good games away from re-establishing himself as that dependable muscle in front of the net. The guy is all heart and should stay in the organization next season..... In the same NHLPA poll, an astounding 98% of players favour keeping fighting in the game. How will the anti-fighting crowd try to spin those numbers? You can just imagine Adam Proteau and Ken Campbell at The Hockey News office in Toronto locking themselves in a room with two pots of coffee and a chalkboard, desperately writing theories down and scratching them out, yelling at each other in frustration. "For the love of God, Adam, you wrote a friggin' book about this stuff. Don't tell me you got nothing.Throw me a bone here." Then they both slam the styrofoam coffee cups to the floor and start swinging at each other just asTHN editor Jason Kay breaks down the door to separate the two furious pencil pushers. Campbell gets the instigator and he's not happy about it.....

.....One thing Adam Proteau is 100% right about is the negative effect shot-blocking has on the game. In the Feb . 20 issue of THN, Proteau says "The game has regressed to the point where the main target (the net) cannot be reached unless there's an unpredictable deflection, a bad bounce or a player half-fans on his shot and fools the goalie with hockey's equivalent of a knuckleball." Proteau goes on to mention an idea by ex-Montreal GM Bob Gainey which would make it a penalty to block a shot with both skates off the ice in the defensive zone. That would eliminate the sliding shot-block that has proven so effective (but also extremely dangerous). Players would still be able to block a shot with one skate on the ice and one knee down. It's a win-win situation if you ask me. More shots get through to the net, less defenseman getting creamed in the head by shots. As Proteau quotes Jaromir Jagr in the article, fans want to see "six or seven goals a night". I happen to agree but a lot of people continually spout that now tired line of "I love 1-0 games if there are a lot of scoring chances". I don't buy it. Fans want more goals, more hits, more skating, more fights - all the best things the game can offer..... The question was posed by a fan to Hockey Trivia guru Liam Maguire on Twitter: Are body shots allowed under "The Code" in hockey fights, as we saw Isle Matt Martin delivering to Zack Smith in a second period bout? Liam answered yes and said Dave "Tiger" Williams was "going to the body in fights 35 years ago". I went looking for a little video but couldn't find what I was looking for. Yet, I did find this video of a Williams scrap and quite frankly, it scared the hell out of me. Williams of the Leafs and Behn Wilson of the Flyers are a little upset with each other and not even the linesman can get them to stop. I wonder what Wilson said to Williams when they were face to face there.....

......It's been a painfully slow development for Sens forward Jim O'Brien since he was drafted by the team in the first round of 2007, but it looks like that patience is going to pay off for the Senators. The guy has gone from an almost certain first-round bust to a big, strong skating forward who hounds the puck around the ice and has the wheels to actually get to it. In years past, O'Brien was more passive than anything else but now he looks mean out there, almost like a power forward. He was pretty good on the faceoffs this afternoon as well. He's a guy to watch going down the stretch here. Coach Paul Maclean obviously took a liking to an unheralded guy like Kaspars Daugavins. May the same thing be happening here with O'Brien?

Happy Family Day

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Senators Sweep Alberta... Plus Notes On Filatov, Whiny Goalies and Long Island Misery

Ottawa 5 Edmonton 2

These big Western road trips are tough on the players, but they're tough on the fans back East too. A lot of late nights, a lot of groggy mornings where you walk out the door with shaving cream still on your face.

But for the Ottawa fans who held on past midnight, they're at least getting to see their team rack up some unexpected wins.

Not that Calgary and Edmonton are superior teams (although nearly every pundit predicted they would be), but it's tough to win two games in a row when your body clock is shot and you don't have access to Kettleman's bagels.

Yet the Ottawa Senators just pulled it off (they also beat Toronto before the Alberta trip which makes that 3 straight road wins) and now they can relax for a couple of days before they have to face the Canucks on Sunday.

It was a little tough to see the young Oilers get schooled like that at home, but the Senators certainly know how that feels. They were bulldozed a few times early in the year but all of a sudden that feels like a very long time ago.

If you think these guys are coming together as a team through their Alberta sweep (the first time since 2003), how much closer will they be after a couple nights off with nothing to do in downtown Vancouver? Seems like a good time to throw that annual rookie dinner.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Milan Michalek (His goal turned out the lights on the Oilers)
2. Jason Spezza (All around great game)
3. Colin Greening (Best showing in a while, was a beast physically as well)

Honourable Mentions: Filip Kuba, Kaspars Daugavins, Craig Anderson, Jesse Winchester and Erik Karlsson.

NOTES

As for Nikita Filatov wanting out of Binghamton and possibly going back to Russia, I’m not going to waste your time by cranking up the vitriol. You can read others who do that better than I can. But I will say that Ottawa has seen much better and higher profile players pull the chute on the organization. Filatov barely warrants a ripple in the history of this team. If he wants out, who really cares? You can’t have him in that Bingo dressing room much longer and you certainly can’t have him up with the big club after this. He won’t be respected by the players or the fans. The team took a calculated chance on him and it didn’t work out. No big deal. They only gave up a third rounder in a draft where they already had multiple picks which they used very wisely. The NHL club has too many forwards as it is right now and they don’t have room for some kind of petulant kid who thinks the world owes him something. This would be a bigger story if Filatov was a superstar, or at least a useful player. Right now, he’s neither. He’s just a headache….

.....What was Jesse Winchester looking around for as he crossed the blueline on his breakaway goal in the second period? Did he think there was a penalty, or that he was offside or was he thinking "Geez, this has never happened before. What the hell do I do now?" I bet he thought about dumping the puck into the corner for just a split-second. If there's one thing Winchester seems to love doing it's protecting a puck along the boards........How about Colin Greening just punishing Oilers defenseman Corey Potter behind the net when he knew Potter was already hurting from a previous play. Potter was likely gutting it out because defenseman Andy Sutton had already left the game with a groin injury. But that hit put him out of the game for good. Greening can be a cruel, heartless machine out there when he wants to. And that's a good thing..... I truly feel sorry for Islanders fans. They've been brutalized for close to two decades with everything from bad ownership, terrible hockey teams spawned by horrible general managers making embarrassing trades, a dilapidated arena, legendarily ugly uniform experiments and of course, Alexei Yashin. Now they have to endure another jersey that is already the laughingstock of the league. You wonder why the organization feels the need to do this when their standard "dynasty era" uni's are among the most classic in the league. Judge for yourself. Maybe you'll rush right out and buy one of these bad boys.....

......Is there anything more annoying than a goalie whining (ie. Ryan Miller)? Goalies have had it so good for so long that it's hard to find sympathy when they get a little knock once in a blue moon. How do any of them get hurt with all that bulky equipment on anyways? They've been cheating with impunity since the 1990's. They should keep a low profile and hope they continue to be allowed to do so.......I’m telling you, the reason the Carolina Hurricanes are floundering this year is because they failed to sign Jarkko Ruutu this summer to play with his brother Tuomo. OK, maybe that’s not even close to the reason, but that team is lacking some snarl and personality. Jarkko could have helped in that department…. Everybody in the building knew Kaspars Daugavins was going to shoot that puck, including Nikolai Khabibulin. There was no "looking off" the goalie, no head deke, no fake pass. Daugavins stared Khabby down and just blew the puck by him. It's easy to say Khabby should have had it but I'm not so sure. That was a perfect shot.......If Daugavins is going to stick around, he should ask for a better jersey number. #23 is too blah for a strange character like Daugavins. Maybe Peter Regin is more than ready to give up #13....London, Ontario is having a bad year. First they had a fan throw a banana at a black hockey player that made headlines around North America and now they have a baseball team, the London Rippers, named after a serial killer. What's next? Giving Nickelback the Keys To The City?.....

.....When the Edmonton Oilers finally shut down Northlands Coliseum to move into a new rink sometime in the near future, the final night is going to have a pre-game ceremony for the ages. You can just see the greats walking to centre ice. Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey, Fuhr et al. in Oiler blue. But it will be hard (nee impossible) to top the night they shut down the Montreal Forum in 1996. The ovation they gave Maurice "Rocket" Richard has to rank as one of the greatest moments in all of sports.....

Konopka Still Fighting For A Roster Spot

Right now it's looking 50/50 for new Senator Zenon Konopka to make the top 12 right out of the gate, for a variety of different reasons.

One, he had a slow camp with a minor injury that bothered him in the early going. Two, the Senators already had too many NHL forwards before Mika Zibanejad and Stephane Da Costa showed up and opened some eyes, likely forcing management to keep them around for a longer look. Three, the team is also overbooked at the centre position. Four, they aren't lacking toughness up front with Chris Neil and Zack Smith being regulars (and the league's top heavyweight Matt Carkner on the blueline, although he's also being bothered by injury which has slowed his camp showing).

But I'm betting Konopka will outright work his way onto this team once he gets his chance and shows what he's all about. Training camp isn't where you judge a guy like Konopka's value. He'll be a major spark for this team in the dog days of the season just like he was in Tampa and Long Island where he was very popular. Nobody likes to play against this guy because he's always on, always chirping, always finishing checks, always challenging players bigger than him.

To note: Konopka played all 82 games with the Islanders last year and 74 games with the Lightning the year before. He's an NHL regular, not a guy clinging on to a career.

There's also that comment coach Paul MacLean made when he was first hired that he liked "tough teams" and that he's already talked glowingly about Konopka for his faceoff abilities and highly recommended him to GM Bryan Murray. To me, it sounds like Konopka is one of MacLean's "guys" but that's really just an educated guess. For all I know, Konopka might be eating a lot of popcorn in the pressbox in October.

Somehow, I don't think so.

Konopka has had some memorable run-ins with the Senators in the past and here's a few of them:

Konopka vs. Chris Neil Dec. 2008

Most bizarre moment is when the colour commentator for Tampa says "Konopka likes long fights. Neil doesn't. This is one of the first times I've seen Neil drop his gloves". That's like saying the Germans don't like David Hasselhoff - empirically untrue. Regardless of the broadcast shenanigans, I'm sure Neil and Konopka have already reminisced fondly about this epic battle from a few years ago.



Konopka vs. Chris Phillips Oct. 2009

Zenon gives out a late shot as the buzzer goes and Chris Phillips goes on the attack, but watch Neil just dying to get in there at Konopka. It's really rare to see Phillips this angry as he's usually the picture of calm and stability back there, even when it gets hairy. Not the best fist thrower though. A little noodly.



Konopka vs Neil Oct. 2009

Just a few games later, Neil finally gets at Konopka. This one ends contentiously (how can a fight not be contentious from the start, you might ask?) when Konopka gets upset about a late punch thrown from Neil.



Konopka is going to be a fun player to watch in Ottawa this year. This guy has a presence as an agitator, but one who will do anything for his teammates. In a way, he's the de facto replacement for Jarkko Ruutu (who wasn't in his agitating prime while in Ottawa) but with the added bonus of being a faceoff ace.

Konopka is the forgotten forward right now, but Sens fans will be familiar with his style soon enough.

Yashin Resurfaces Like Godzilla - Various Cities In Panic

Just for the sheer hell of it, and for the sake of some much needed mid-summer conversation, can you imagine if the "one NHL contract offer" that agent Mark Gandler said his client Alexei Yashin has been tendered was from the Ottawa Senators? Strangely, is there a team more in need of a second-line centre than the locals in red and black?

Obviously, this is about as outlandish as the search for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Rupert Murdoch's moral integrity, but stranger things have happened in the NHL.

Signing Yashin would completely fly in the face of the organization's focus on youth and rebuilding, and that is probably the biggest clue that the Senators wouldn't go near their former franchise player, but his skills must remain tempting for some general managers.

Jaromir Jagr is coming back. Nicklas Lidstrom is still playing. We await word on Teemu Selanne. Yashin is now 37 and is years removed from the NHL, but I have no doubt he could play well in this league with a modest contract and lower expectations.

My main curiosity is how Senators fans would welcome him onto the team. Would there be more of those "Nobody Paid Me To Be Here" signs from the fans? Would they cheer for him? Would the NAC send out a donation card and promise to hire his family for real this time?

These are the kinds of stories you can actually mull over for a while in the summer.

What's Alexandre Daigle doing lately?

If this "one NHL offer" is legitimate (and I'm not about to accuse Gandler of lying due to his sterling reputation in the business*), then it may just be a GM trying to:

a) desperately hit the cap floor
b) catch the all-time Hail Mary pass of risky signings
c) or trying to prolong Mike Milbury's psychological torture

If you had to guess the team, who would you take in a money bet?

I'll take the New York Rangers. Yashin could be an upgrade on the departed Vaclav Prospal. Glen Sather is weird enough to try it. My pal said it would be the Capitals.

Dark horse? How about Dallas.

The sure bet? It won't happen at all.

Kelly Traded After 9th Straight Loss At Home ... plus It's Still WINTER

My Grandmother Jean's favourite player is Chris Kelly.

With news that he's been traded to the division rival Boston Bruins for a second round pick in the 2011 Entry Draft, I'm sure she's completely pissed off this morning.

Jean, who follows the Senators more closely than even I do, liked Kelly for all the reasons other fans should have liked him – he's a hard-working, versatile player who played the same way every night, was easily the team's best player in this disastrous season, and was also fairly cheap at just over 2 million a year.

Now he's gone for a second round pick that has no guarantee of making it to the NHL, and if he does in four or five years, would face even stiffer odds at becoming as good a player as Kelly was for this team right now.

Do I like the deal? No.

But at this point, after the shock of the Mike Fisher trade, it all seems so inevitable.

Bryan Murray is dead serious about rebuilding this team, and doing it the slow, old-fashioned way, again with no guarantees it will even work. A lot of these so called "rebuilds" fail miserably and tend to send teams into an interminable cycle of losing. Chicago won the Stanley Cup last year, but they were in a rebuilding mode ever since trading Chris Chelios to Detroit in 1999. That's ten years of hell. The Panthers, the Islanders and the Oilers have all basically been through multiple rebuilds with only the Oilers breaking through with any success, although that was short-lived because they didn't really have the strong foundation to do anything but catch lightning in a bottle.

The Kings are starting to get good, but they too have went through multiple rebuilds with almost no success since they traded Wayne Gretzky to St. Louis in 1996. And even now, with sky high expectations, they might miss the playoffs altogether. How long have the St. Louis Blues been preaching patience to their fans with little or no payoff? Columbus?

So there's that.

But this isn't a condemnation of the Senators trying to rebuild. They really have no choice right now.  The season has been a complete disaster and a lot of careers have been ruined because of it. You can speculate on the careers I'm speaking of.

The strange thing is the Sens are intent on keeping Jason Spezza but are trading away all of his support players. If Murray is serious about burning down the house and starting over, isn't it strange that both Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson are deemed untouchable?

Who are they going to play with next year? Will they be happy on a team destined to finish in the cellar for at least another season, probably two? By dealing two character centres in their prime years, Murray has completely gutted the depth of this team and leaves you wondering who will be left to lace up their skates next season.

Don't get me wrong. I have never supported trading Spezza or Alfredsson. But then I never expected to see Chris Kelly or Mike Fisher moved as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Neil is now sent packing for a draft pick.

Ugh. As in ugly. Seeing Neil in another sweater running over the remaining softies on the Senators would be enough to make a grown man cry (not saying that grown man would be me).

Will fans be persuaded to buy tickets to watch a team that is now all but guaranteed to be horrible next year?  Some say Ottawa fans are smart and will support a complete rebuild. Are these the same fans that didn't sell out the building when the team was a Stanley Cup contender? I'll be at the Friday game when Kelly comes back wearing the Bruins colours. I'd be surprised if the remaining Senators get half the applause that Kelly does when he steps on the ice.

One thing is for sure – this is a sad and bitter time to be a Senators fan.

And how do you like the weather this week Ottawa?

Game Day Notes

The Senators have to like where this is going. The Leafs get a first and a third rounder for Kris Versteeg?

Wow. Great deal for the Leafs and the Flyers get a 24 year old forward who will help them for a while down the road. Good for both sides.

Now, Ottawa doesn't have a 24 year old forward with the pedigree of Versteeg to trade (and if they did, why would they want to trade him?), but it further sets the precedent of having to give away good draft picks for help at the deadline. If Versteeg is worth a first and a third, then Alexei Kovalev could be worth a 3rd rounder. Possibly more with the way he's been playing lately. Chris Phillips could fetch as high as a late first or second rounder if a serious bidding war develops for his services.

These early deals before the deadline not only break the ice, but they put further pressure on teams who haven't jumped in the pool yet and it gives them a blueprint for what it's going to take to ply away rentals.

I'm guessing Ottawa GM Bryan Murray is hearing his phone ring a lot more often this week than last......

......Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on franchise defenseman Chris Phillips. If you thought it was a big loss for the team and the community when Mike Fisher was sent to Nashville, how painful will it be to see Phillips (who is just as involved in charitable events around town) leave the team when he's currently just 81 games shy of becoming the second Senator to play 1000 in the red and black sweater?

It just doesn't seem right that the Sens probable lone veteran defenseman next year will be one of Sergei Gonchar or Filip Kuba, and not Phillips. Ugh. It's entirely possible that this defense core will be worse next season, even though it's hard to believe. Just because fans are excited about all the possible rookie blueliners coming next year, doesn't mean they are going to step in right away and play well. In fact, probably one or two will prove they don't even belong at the NHL level yet. If they do make it, they're going to need veteran guidance, as well as a minute muncher to take the pressure off of their games. If Kuba or the struggling Gonchar are the ones to play over twenty minutes a game next season, it could get ugly. Phillips should be the guy, and he should also be a Senator for life just like Alfie.

As for games played milestones, the next closest guy to Phillips (919 games) still on the team is Chris Neil (635) followed by Jason Spezza (500). Fisher finished with 675 games, just 14 shy of Radek Bonk's 689 tilts.

Creeping up on Bonk's totals seem to be a bad omen. Marian Hossa was shipped to Atlanta with 390 career Sens points, just 9 behind Bonk......

....Zenon Konopka, for all the chaos that usually surrounds him on the ice, is a big time leader off of it for the hapless New York Islanders. In fact, he's probably the best leader on that team since the days of Mike Peca  (with apologies to the classy Doug Weight and the respected Bill Guerin). Not afraid to speak his mind (as Mario Lemieux can attest), and completely fearless on the ice, ex-Ottawa 67 Konopka is an unrestricted free agent this summer currently making 600 grand. He'd be a perfect replacement for Jarkko Ruutu next season and would quickly become a fan favourite.

You have to wonder how closely he'll be watched tonight by Sens management.

Feisty Lehner Not Enough To End Brutal Streak

While it may not have been popular with HNIC commentator Greg Millen who called it a "careless penalty", I absolutely loved that Robin Lehner took an unexpected shot at Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin at the end of the second period, knocking him down to the ice as the two goalies skated by each other on their way to the locker room.

Critics will point to the fact that the winning goal was scored on the ensuing two-man advantage power-play, but the Incredible Shrinking Goalie Brian Elliott was much more complicit in the losing of this game than Lehner was (not to mention a complete lack of coverage in front of the net by the defense tonight).

Yes, the Senators lost again (who's keeping count anymore?) but the unexpected swagger that Lehner showed in this game after he came on in relief of Elliott made you realize how meek this team has been all season by contrast. He made 23 saves, many of them big, including a few with a lightning quick leg pad, but most importantly, he wanted to win more than any other Senator on the ice.

This kid has got a nasty streak. Big time.

He didn't hesitate to get into a scrum in the second period and it even looked as though he and Poulin were going to scrap but the Islanders goalie understandably backed off at the last second. With Rick Dipietro already getting crushed in a fight this week, it was not the time for Poulin to get injured too. And if he would have tangled with Lehner, here's betting he would have been.

Known for his intensity, it looked like Lehner was disappointed that Poulin backed off and he let him know by giving him a surprise shove after the 2nd period horn and got a penalty for it. He almost survived the 2 man disadvantage with some big stops but one got by him and he'll take the statistical loss while Elliott gets an unfair no-decision.

But you have to love the swagger. Swagger is something this team desperately lacks. They used to have a goalie like that in Ray Emery but now the only players who have that edge are Chris Neil and Matt Carkner. The Isles were so unintimidated by this meek group of Sens that Robbie Schremp decided to "bag" Brian Lee with his glove in front of the net and skate away, knowing that nothing was going to happen to him.

What's clear is that the Senators have a goalie. Whether Cory Clouston decides to use him for the balance of the season is another question, but Lehner already looks ten times as big as Elliott, ten times as competitive as Elliott, and someone who can actually make big saves at crucial points in the game despite playing behind the softest defense core in the NHL, and probably in the Senators history.

Clouston already went on the record this week saying that Lehner playing is not the ideal situation, but with the utter collapse of his pet player Elliott this season, Clouston is quickly running out of reasons to keep Lehner out of the net.

Then again, the Senators have long run out of reasons to keep Clouston employed while the team completely falls apart in an embarrassing and potentially damaging fashion.

Stop to think about it rationally for a moment.

This team just lost their 9th game in a row, this time to the New York Islanders. They've won only 1 of their last 16 games.

One game.

And yet the team, maddeningly, remains status quo. It's getting to the point that it looks like they are tanking on purpose now just by their complete inaction.

It's only going to get worse out west on the upcoming road trip.

Even just on humanitarian grounds, how is it that Clouston is still behind the bench?  This season is not only ruining the Senators for the foreseeable future, it's ending the career of Clouston as a professional.

I find it completely unbelievable that either Greg Carvel or Rick Walmsley haven't been given a shot to finish out the season here.