constant mediocrity

What is Bryan Murray doing?

Seeing as how the Senators are in the midst of a 4-day layoff and have now dropped four of their past five, perhaps it's a good time to be asking this question.

Now, I have no problem with signing "character guys" to contracts. We all know it was heartwarming and shit like that to see Matt Carkner sign a major league deal after toiling away in the minors, and what heartless son of a bitch wouldn't feel at least a tinge of happiness at Five for Smiting's report that Peter Regin is being told to buy a house in the city?

There were also reports last week that the GM's office is in talks with Anton Volchenkov to sign him to a long-term extension as well.

These are all good players. But I really don't get the strategy here.

Murray has surprised many in past years by giving big long-term deals to role players like Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly because, gonsarnit, they've just worked so goshdarn hard over the years that they clearly deserved it.

The only problem is that these big long-term deals are eating up a lot of the flexibility that a GM needs under the modern salary cap system. Think of the Ottawa Senators like a donut. Murray started putting it together from the outside, but by the time he got to the middle there was nothing left.

Another problem with this approach is that it's really inflexible. Players get injured or have really fucking godawful seasons (exhibit a: Fisher and Kelly in 2008/2009). Because they're locked in for long-term deals, the team can't do anything about it.

The thing with role guys like these is that they're expendable. There's always more of them coming up through the Binghamton pipline or available through free agency.

Pretty soon, the Senators are going to caught in the purgatory of the hockey world. Constant mediocrity. Instead of taking the time to rebuild and retool around a set of core guys (Fisher and Kelly are not core guys), this team will be permanently hovering around the .500 mark, sometime sneaking into the playoffs but never really competing.

In an era where players reach free agency at a younger age than ever before, wouldn't it make sense to build your core guys and then add the Mike Fishers, Chris Kellys, and Anton Volchenkovs when you actually have a chance to win?

Just a thought as we wait to see what November has in store for a team that is sliding closer and closer to .500 hockey.

karlsson demoted

"The 19-year-old defenceman, who didn't speak to the media, didn't take the news well, said Murray." -The Citizen

I've never been to Binghamton. In fact, before it was named the home of the Senators' minor league affiliate, I didn't even know Binghamton existed.

For whatever reason, players don't seem to want to play in Binghamton. Maybe it's the simple fact that would-be NHL-ers are bummed they won't be able to play in the big leagues. Maybe the water tastes funny. Maybe there aren't any good bars.

Regardless of whether or not any of these things are true, the future anchor of the Sens defence doesn't seem happy. Should that be a concern for the Senators? Who knows. I guess it ultimately depends on Karlsson's character as a hockey player and person.

Clouston made the right decision on this one. The small 19-year-old wasn't ready for life in the NHL. That was compounded by the fact that, with Kuba's return imminent, the Senators now have a loaded back-end, not to mention the fact that an older and more mature Brian Lee is waiting in the wings. He's shown enough potential that he's going to come around one of these days.

He'll also learn a lot more playing hockey in Binghamton than watching the likes of Phillips, Kuba, Volchenkov, Campoli, Picard, and Carkner from the press box.

All I'm saying is that a lot of good and not-so-good players have departed the Sens' rosters under Bryan Murray's watch.

The one that's currently pissed off about riding the bus in the AHL? He's going to be a good one.

thoughts on Dustin Penner

There was a time when Bryan Murray had a trade deal all set up to bring this man to Ottawa.

So far this year, Dustin Penner has scored eight goals and seven assists in the span of 11 games in a resurgent season with the Edmonton Oilers. He would have been playing here, alongside Ladislav Smid and up-and-coming second line centre Andrew Cogliano.

Boy were those heady days. Well all know what's happened since then.

Instead, Dany Heatley used no-trade clause on the contract he fucking signed to veto that deal. He arrived at training camp and basically told Murray he would somehow manage to make himself an even bigger asshole in the Sens dressing room if he wasn't traded to San Jose before the end of the week. Murray, you can understand, incredulously believed him.

Only now are we realizing what could have been.

Michalek is at least producing some goals. Cheechoo, where the fuck has he been?

Meanwhile, the one thing that everybody knows but nobody wants to talk about is that Heatley wanted to go to San Jose all along. There's got to be something wrong with this system where a player can basically veto every trade until he gets to go to the team he wants to go to. What is there to prevent a GM (let's say, for argument's sake, oh I don't know, Doug Wilson) from enticing someone like Heatley that they would be better off playing on the west coast?

Now maybe this is just sour grapes because Cheechoo has basically been a season-long bedshit so far this year and is this close to watching the next game in a suit and tie while Penner tears it up in Edmonton.

But seriously, there's not a single person in this league that would believe that Ottawa got the upper-hand in this colossal cluster-fuck. I mean, how could you? Heatley demanded a trade from Murray and then went public with it, thus putting him in a position of weakness at the bargaining table. Then, when Murray overcame those odds to come up with a deal that would work, he fucking vetoed it.

Obviously, I don't have any "actual" evidence to back me up but, for fuck's sake, the fact that this situation is rife for Ottawa getting hosed should be clear to everyone.

that's more like it

Oh and it turns out we did get something for heatley after all.

finally a hockey player who talks like...a hockey player

Instead of the "one hundred and ten percent"s and the "we just gotta play our game"s that often pepper post-game interviews with hockey players, isn't it refreshing to hear a hockey player actually sound like a real person?

Listening to Matt Carkner speak following his fight with Steve Downie last night, it sounded like it was coming from your buddy sitting next to you.

"Payback for McAmmond," Carkner told the Citizen following his fight with Steve Downie. And then, for good measure, "I hate that little prick."

Isn't that nice? To hear a hockey player cut through the rhetorical bullshit that we usually hear from grown men playing a boy's game? To hear a Senators player attack members of the opposition with little regard for this country's libel laws?

Not to mention the fact that an Ottawa Senator was actually willing to beat the shit out of an opposing player as retribution for someone who doesn't even play for the team anymore?

Forget the 7-1 shitkicking that this team laid at the feet of the NHL's biggest mess east of Phoenix. That was a nice bonus. But even if they don't make the playoffs, more of this will make for the best Senators team we've seen in years.

well that was short-lived

There you go.

Now let's all not talk about Dany Heatley shitting the bed simply because he screwed us all over on a contract he signed.

In hockey as in life, the asshole always wins. Deal with it.

secondary scoring

Remember when this man was head coach of the Senators in 2007?

John Paddock played the shit out of the top line.

If it was humanly possible, Spezza, Heatley, and Alfredsson would have stayed on the entire game and played all six positions. Given the goaltending situation at the time, he probably would have even tried throwing one of them in net.

Little surprise, then, that they were worn out by Remembrance Day.

So can we please just shut the fuck up about the lack of scoring from this team's "stars"?

This kind of production from the third, fourth and even second lines has been unheard of in past years. Now we've got a coach who's rolling four lines and, surprise surprise, getting production out of all four lines.

In fact, Heatley's trade request might not be the worst thing to happen to this team this year.

Now I'm not going to be as delusional as some of the other crazies out there who now say this team is better without him. I'm all for being positive and that, but let's be reasonable about this. You simply can't replace that kind of production.

And even though what we got for him has to this point done sweet fuck all (Cheechoo and Michalek have one assist between them before Monday's game against Pittsburgh), it still means that coach Clouston can't just rely on the one line anymore.

So tonight it's the Stanley Cup champs and, you know, it's kind of nice not knowing who (if anyone) is going to put the puck in the back of the net tonight.

next stop mediocrity

Please Sens fans: lower your expectations.

Reading Scanlan's column this morning shows me just how delusional we all are. Ninety percent of you think this team is playoff-bound. Forty per cent think think we are headed for the red mile once again.

Now I realize this city is hockey-mad (as it should be). But before this season kicks off against the New York Rangers tonight, take a few moments to yourself and put this all in perspective.

This club is returning from a dismally disappointing season with less firepower up front, a talented-but-aging free agent signing, and a goalie who's been injured almost as much as he's played. Let's not get our hopes too high.

As this season begins, Senators fans appear to be more and more like Dany Heatley when he looks in the mirror: in his opinion, God's gift to humanity, while everyone else seems to be suggesting otherwise.

For all of its frustrations, last season was in many ways a relief by the time April rolled around. Instead of being humbled by a prompt four-game sweep at the hands of a lesser time, Senators fans had a full eight months to contemplate the fact that this team was once again not going to win the Stanley Cup. Not as exciting, but a bit easier on the nerves.

We're all just going to be disappointed and angry if we expect too much from a team that for all intents and purposes doesn't have the Stanley Cup final feel about it.

heatley pile-on #1

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/hockeycapital/archive/2009/10/02/heatley-bombs-in-sharks-debut.aspx

In the opening shot of what will likely be a year-long pile-on, James Gordon pans Dany Heatley's regular season debut with the Sharks. Now that the games have started, you can expect plenty more of these from the Ottawa media.

While this is no doubt deserved given how much of a d-bag what Heatley was (is), sportswriters would do well to remember that he plays for a top-notch team that could challenge for the cup if they ever get their shit together in the playoffs. As Sens fans learned in 2007, teams can only lay an egg for so long before they stumble on gold.

Take your cheapshots now and take them often. That these are the highlights of what is looking like yet another dismal season wouldn't surprise me in the least.

In the meantime, maybe we should be asking ourselves why nobody wants to fucking play here in the first place.