SENShobo
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Canes Roll Into Ottawa, But Who May Soon Roll Out?
by SENShobo on 01/13/09 at 08:31 AM ET
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From the Ottawa Sun, Senators granted temporary job security,
It’ll be status quo in Senatorsland for a couple of more days at least, GM Bryan Murray Monday this morning.
“I’m going to watch our team over the next two games and then we’ll see if some players have to do something other than play in Ottawa,” Murray said after the team’s practice at Scotiabank Place.
It’s the Canes tonight, who’ve been playing lowly of late, looking for a victim. You know Corvo’s looking for a juicy Ottawa boost. NHL.com even speculates that Leighton might get the start over Ward, with Murray telling the Sun that he’ll decide whether to return Elliot or some other goalie after Elliot makes his second consecutive and third NHL start overall. Gerber might be banging his fists from the press box, wondering how he’s supposed to earn his spot on the team from up there. Be suspicious if you see him standing by the edge with a bag of pucks.
Elliot has worked hard to get up here, according to NHL.com,
Months before Wall Street made most stocks as desirable as broken hockey sticks, Binghamton Senators goalie Brian Elliott invested in something he was certain would only increase in value—himself.
He rented large chunks of ice time in Madison, Wisconsin, where he was a former star for the Badgers. He hired a personal goalie tutor, ex-Wisconsin star Mike Valley, for the first time in his career.
Elliott doesn’t want to reveal his precise financial outlay, but he said it was in the thousands of dollars.
“I think I got a pretty good deal on it. It was a good setup,” Elliott said of the ice rink, which he rented with a handful of other players. “They gave us a dressing room there. You have to invest in yourself if you want to get better.”
Some felt that Stamkos shouldn’t have made the jump to the NHL so quickly, that he would have benefitted from being a part of the leadership for Canada’s World Junior squad this year, which won it’s record-tying fifth straight gold. Will Elliot miss being the Canadian starter at the AHL All-Star game? Currently, Elliot is doing better (granted, in two appearances) than highly touted Steve Mason, sporting a .946 Sv% and a 1.53 GAA, compared to Mason’s .938 and 1.75; it may well end tonight if he can’t hold Carolina to two goals or less.
Did you hear the one about Lecavalier being traded to Montreal?
Did you read about the continued destruction in Phoenix?
Did you catch the Sportsnet grudge match between Watters and Kypreos, as they each wanted to be right about what’s wrong in Ottawa?
Notice how each takes a little bit of attention away from the Sens? Yes, very good. We also need to remember that this ‘massive implosion’ saw the Sens sitting in a playoff position for all of their post-Finals appearance season; Pittsburgh kept far more of it’s promising roster, but is already on the outside (10th, behind Florida and Carolina!) looking in. There aren’t enough forks in that wounded beast just yet.
From the Ottawa Sun, Gerber isn’t the only one being shuffled around (just the only one likely to be shuffled out),
Two-time 50-goal scorer Dany Heatley, who has just two goals in the last 15 games, has been shuttled to the second unit alongside Antoine Vermette and Nick Foligno and with pointmen Alexandre Picard and Christoph Schubert behind them. The first unit has Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and either Mike Fisher or Chris Neil up front, with Brendan Bell and Filip Kuba on the points.
Hartsburg said there was too much perimeter play with the previous configuration (Heatley, Spezza, Alfredsson) and the idea is Fisher and Neil will create some traffic and trash in front of the net.
“First unit, second unit, call it what you want right now,” said Heatley. “We’re just trying to put the puck in the net and score goals on special teams.”
First unit, second unit, but that anything’s changing has to make you realize that Murray’s looking at every man on the ice, likely Melnyk too from Bert’s Bar in Barbados. Well, that’s a given, just this time it’s with an eye to something different. You would have thought that some of the players might have watched a bit of the World Juniors, many of them having played in them as the Senators’ website paraded this instead of reality during the championship. They could have learned a lot about controlling penalty killers from them, rather than continue this ring-around-the-rosy play they’re so fond of.
Yes, you might get shoved, checked, or even abused in front of the net. But you might also score a goal.
From the Ottawa Sun, don’t expect Ottawa’s supply of first rounders to decrease,
Exactly what’s it doing there, we’re not sure, but a large lottery ball tumbler not unlike that which will be used to determine the selecting order at next spring’s NHL draft has sat outside the media room at Scotiabank Place for a few days now.
Had he shuffled a little to his left and through the double doors, Bryan Murray could have been leaning on it while he addressed reporters yesterday.
....
“I can give up our first-round pick and get a decent player, but that’s the wrong thing to do,” said Murray. “It’s okay for me or the coach to do that now, for the franchise it’s not the right thing to do. I’m not going to do it, because of that. My job here is to make sure we’re set up. We’ve had a week of scouting meetings to make sure we draft properly in the future, as we did this past year. I want to leave (the scouts) that opportunity.
The last time I remember someone having a replica around was in that Ocean’s 11 movie. They had some nefarious plans for it. Hmmm….
The first round picks should not be dealt, not in a year featuring some of the best players we’ve watched at the World Juniors, and been waiting for a good long while to rise to the top for the plucking. Last season, the Corvo&Eaves for Commodore&Stillman trade wound up being a cushion to soften the Sens’ landing. This year, they need to hit sharp, jagged, rocky bottom to know exactly what will come of their efforts. Enough coddling. No trade will save this season, so no trade should be made unless it has a much bigger eye for the future, and if GMs are thinking about the future, they’ll surely have to acknowledge the past when thinking of Ottawa players, rather than do as the fans do and focus solely on the lame-duck output of this season. Common sense (if not cutthroat business) demands it.
From the Ottawa Sun, on Corvo’s latest return,
In the two games he has played against his former team (in Carolina) since then, he has two game-winning goals.
Completing the hat trick tonight, Joe?
“I think it’s highly unlikely,” Corvo said after yesterday’s practice at SBP. “You never know how a game plays out, it’d be fun, but I don’t think the odds are in my favour of doing what I’ve done so far against them.”
....
“I’m not really familiar with some of the defencemen they have on this team,” he said. “I know a couple ... I’m sure they could use one. Wade (Redden) and I move the puck pretty well. I think they’re just kinda looking for a guy like Reds or myself. They’re going through a tough situation, tough time of a tough season, and I hope they figure out a way to turn things around.“(Senators GM) Bryan (Murray) made a move, he made a decision. I don’t know if it worked out great for Ottawa, but I don’t really feel vindicated just by scoring a goal or two. When I play Ottawa, I don’t really think that he moved me because I was a bad player, or that I wasn’t helping the team. I think he just made a decision to make his team better.”
No, Corvo, the trade was also made because you requested out. Granted you might not be alone in that desire anymore with the way the media sharks are circling this team right now, but let’s not confuse motives, shall we? It was a season to forget when you left, and the Ottawa Citizen has a good trainwreck retrospective for you, if you like.
But we’re here, in the present, everyone just looking to show they belong, lest they be shipped out to who knows where. Put on a show boys. Even if you don’t win, put on a show. Else this might be your last in a Senators uniform. Grim, sure, but reality spat it out for you. Get some fight and grit, and take your turn to go and spit.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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SENShobo, excellent column. My impression from listening to Murray’s radio interview yesterday is that he has Melnyk’s confidence (it may also be that Eugene realizes that Bryan knows what he’s doing and/or he’s not going to find a quality GM overnight), and that he has a plan.
Sometimes major change has to come for a team to improve. Boston traded Joe Thornton, and yet they are an infinitely better team without him. Chiarelli and Julien know that you need guys who are fully committed to being part of The System. Julien demonstrated that last year when he sat Phil Kessel, who has responded by having his best year. We have seen how the Michael Ryder acquistion has turned out.
It appears Murray is going to do some hard-nosed assessment over the next few weeks, and as he says, will see “if some players need to do something other than play in Ottawa”. A very clear statement that nobody is an untouchable, NTC or no.
Bryan Murray was very candid in the interview. He admitted mistakes have been made in the past, while underlining that the organization is putting together a stockpile of young assets that will return the team to competitive status.
GMs around the league know the value of the most attractive elements on the current roster, and it’s reasonable to assume that serious discussions will start as the playoff race gets tighter, especially in the Western Conference.
Once Murray makes his moves, the players will be able to forget about making the post season and enjoy the role of being spoilers.
With Brian Elliot and, we can expect, a number of young players from Binghamton on board, the Senators may finally start playing exciting, dedicated, in your face hockey.
The Rangers game Saturday was about as embarassing a performance as we’ve seen, and the fans made their discontent known.
Change is good.
Posted by davetherave from Ottawa, Canada on 01/13/09 at 11:55 AM ET