Kukla's Korner Hockey
The Reality On The Ottawa Senators
by Paul on 02/29/08 at 10:01 AM ET
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A submission by KK member Jean-Pierre Allard-
While Bryan Murray absolutely made the right decision in dismissing John Paddock, he will soon find out that it doesn’t matter who is behind the bench of the Senators. The reality is that this team has no capable goalie, only one dependable defenseman and far too many dipsy-doodlers upfront who turtle like frightened little boys when they go up against their bigger and meaner opponents.
Some players care only about their individual statistics, others are sadly over-rated, a few are grossly over-paid, many have lost a step or two while the majority very seldom bother putting in a solid 60 minutes a game, a strident sign of weak leadership. Add to that the fact that there are far bigger issues with the Senators than their on-ice struggles and one can easily see how this team can be in such dire straits.
Simply put, the current edition is not nearly as good as the media has led us to believe ever since they came out of the gate with a 15-2 record.
The irony of it all is that Bryan Murray is now in for the biggest challenge of his long career as the new coach of this rudderless crew, having the mandate of fixing the very problems that he is mainly responsible for creating during his short tenure as the team’s GM.
After all, it is he who chose Paddock as his replacement, dished out the long-term contracts last summer to one-dimensional Dany Heatley, over-rated Mike Fisher and mediocre Ray Emery, traded for ineffective Shean Donovan, signed aging Luke Richardson and Randy Robitaille, curiously sat still while Paddock totally mismanaged the goaltending situation and traded for slow Cory Stillman and even slower Mike Commodore.
And then let the trade deadline come and pass without addressing Ottawa’s lack of a genuine number 1 goalie, merely content instead to add Martin Lapointe, a gritty forward who, alas, even Murray acknowledged may have lost a step or two from his better days. Welcome to this year’s edition of Rob Ray, Vaclav Verada and Oleg Saprykin.
Sorry, but at the risk of permanently alienating 500,000 plus Red Army supporters, I can’t help but wonder if the Senators would be a far better team this morning if Murray had shipped that big, lazy pussycat Spezza in a blockbuster move for 3 solid players, a top goalie, a mean SOB of a defenseman and a big and gritty forward. Seriously folks, get all your heads out of your behinds and start seeing the evidence. Namely, that Jacques Martin was right about Spezza being a boy in a men’s league. What is appalling is that this assessment is still very much accurate 5 years after it was rendered.
Then again, trading everyone’s darling would have taken guts.
In the end, Murray took a giant risk by refusing to take risks and part with his 2008 first-round draft pick in exchange for securing a big fish because he curiously thought it more important to put on a show for Ottawa fans at this year’s June draft to be held at Scotiabank Place. So a GM thinks a draft is more important than a chance at winning a Cup and not one sleepy hockey writer calls him on the carpet. Only in sleepy Ottawa, as Joe Corvo would ay. What is it anyways with the Ottawa Senators always having their ‘effen ducks grossly misaligned?
So good luck Mr. Murray. It seems to me that you are the principal architect of your own demise.
But do take note that the time may be soon coming when the Senators’ solid and loyal fan base will get fed up and start tuning out the milk and honey message from the Mighty SOPO on the second floor of The Stash, just like Jason Spezzanator and the rest of the sweet little players in the “country club dressing room” stopped listening to the rants of their “Capitaine Haddock”.
Meanwhile, it’s high time that Eugene stopped being careful with his axe.
He should forget what his favourite band the Eagles said about when “hell freezes over” or that my top group Pink Floyd dreamt that “pigs can fly”, and pay attention instead to what Jann Arden insensitively said about “they shoot dead horses, don’t they”.
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