SENShobo
Next entry: ASG - The Official And Unofficial Sources
Previous entry: New Year: Sadly, Same 'New' Sens It Seems
Ottawa’s Direction All But Decided, If Unacknowledged
by SENShobo on 01/05/09 at 08:57 AM ET
Comments (3)
From the Ottawa Citizen, head coach Craig Hartsburg on identity after the Sens’ 4-3 OT loss to the Devils on the heels of a 3-1 disappointment in Toronto,
“If there are some people who seem to think we can score at will, then they are really mistaken. We have to play a real good team game to have success. There’s no other way.
“Then, maybe you need a good player to chip in a goal or find a way to score a goal at an important time. That’s the way it is.
“If there’s a perception out there that this is a different type of team, my belief is that’s not the right perception. That’s the sell part with this team, that we’ve struggled with trying to sell. At certain times, (players) don’t want to believe that that’s what we are.”
A fire hose couldn’t deliver all the evidence of this, and yet every time it’s delivered, the players still seem bone dry of it in the end.
Come season’s end, if things continue on in current fashion, the Sens will be the lowest scoring team in the League, with a nice 6-7 goal cushion.
So what, what happens now? There’s been talk of trades forever, and now even mention that the Sharks’ 1st round pick, acquired from Tampa, is available.
It would be just as naive to think that a single trade can make any positive difference for the team. Scotiabank Place isn’t empty enough that motivation could be to fill it up for more profit for the final stretch of the season, though the Sens need a sign of hope.
Foolish moves won’t help with that.
Last season, the Eaves and Corvo for Stillman and Commodore trade made many scratch their heads, but it has proven to be a smart move in the long run. Sure, Corvo’s been working out well for Carolina, but more than anything he wanted to leave Ottawa, and as little control players have over their working environment, such an attitude is more often than not a surefire barn-burner. Add in the many chemistry issues with the team, and it made sense to see him leave.
Stillman and Commodore both left the team, even as Stillman more than filled in for Eaves on the top lines, and Commodore gave the team a physical if slow presence to offset other less-physically involved bodies on the back end. As much as Eaves was appreciated and welcome in Ottawa, his lone goal and six points would not get him into the top dozen in those categories in Ottawa, and his shooting percentage would rank dead last among scorers, not to mention that he has taken more than his fair share of injuries. The cap room cleared in this move could well have helped to sign the puck-moving defenseman Murray coveted, even as the prices were too high for this team, and often for sanity itself.
This season, no single trade could turn this team around. Yes, purely adding Ovechkin might have a shot, but even the most ludicrously Ottawa-biased trades wouldn’t stand a chance. Every Ottawa player is on pace for a declining performance this season, their trade value a shadow of what it once was, or what it could be later on. Just because the world is dumping its shares as the stock market bottoms out, does not mean that Murray or business-savvy Melnyk should attempt the same. Any Sens fan knows that every player mentioned in trade rumours is in the process of having a bad, uncharacteristic season, and not simply of being bad.
The time for moves is not now. Few moves, if any at the moment, will turn the team around. If anything, they will fail enough that, like Toronto last June, Ottawa will need to make counteracting trades to work their draft pick up into a more beneficial position, not that this draft isn’t a good crop itself.
I suspect, though, especially with tonight’s WJC final, that the deep draft picks aren’t the ones on the minds of Ottawa fans. Flailing oneself out of those picks isn’t going to help.
Right now, the best thing to do might be to communicate with the players to separate the willing from the waiting. See who can respond to even the simplest of reasonable requests in a game. Last night, no Ottawa player took more than 2 shots, and even adding their missed and blocked shots on to their 20 shot total would have them still sitting a single shot behind Jersey’s 35 registered shots. Pick a player or a few each night, and make a simple request of them. Shoot more, always be in on the forecheck, pressure the point men, hit someone every other shift you get, remove players from the crease area.
If the trouble is convincing the Sens what kind of a team they are and are not, and what kind of a team they still need to come together to be, you could do worse than to start with the basic requests, using video review the following day to evaluate players’ responses to coaching requests, especially to help separate the willing from the waiting. Perhaps for those fans looking for a little more anger and frustration from Hartsburg himself, maybe a few more tough practices — or imaginative, brain- and heart-stimulating ones — might be a good dose of medicine.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
Comments
I still don’t think the trade was a net loss. We ‘lost’ a player who gets paid about the same now as Kuba, only Kuba has more powerplay and even strength points than Corvo this season, and Picard ties Corvo on the powerplay as well for points. Looking at his numbers last season, comparing Ottawa to Carolina, he nearly doubled his output, showing just how little he enjoyed being in Ottawa, and a player with that attitude is not someone you want on the team. The Sens ‘gained’ losing that negativity, and gained almost three million for several seasons. We haven’t replaced it this season, but considering his struggles, we may well appreciate the change for seasons to come.
The biggest dollar question mark is Fisher; I expect the production of the other big three to rise within a year to levels matching their contracts. Given more time to work into the newer, less guns-blazing mindset, the team can get by without a Luongo in net, and Elliot was named the AHL goaltender of the month for December.
Petersson has shown good nose for the net in the World Juniors, and Karlsson leads Sweden in scoring, under the pressure of the world stage.
I don’t expect this team to make the playoffs this season, but I don’t expect them to languish like Toronto, Florida, or LA for countless seasons either.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 01/05/09 at 03:21 PM ET
SensHobo, I appreciate your logic.
My point was that Ottawa trades Corvo and Eaves for Stillman and Commodore who then leave as UFAs. I would call that a net loss.
The Meszaros trade for Kuba has a similar flavor. Should Kuba, who may very well walk as a UFA, do so, the Sens have ended up getting Picard and a pick.
As for ‘savings’, whatever Bryan Murray ‘saved’ has been spent on new contracts for Spezza, Alfredsson and Vermette.
Using NHLnumbers.com’s figures, if Murray does not resign his UFAs, Kuba, Gerber, Neil and McAmmond, 7.8 million goes away. Added to current available cap room of 2.6MM would leave 11.4 to work with this coming summer.
That for a goaltender, Top 4 defenseman, and presumably a ‘secondary scoring’ forward (or two).
Is that enough to give the Senators the help they need? We shall see.
Thanks again for your excellent blog.
Posted by davetherave on 01/06/09 at 10:52 AM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Who is SENShobo?
Fully addicted to hockey, Andrew Dodds finds it safe to live in the alleys, considering his allegiance to the Ottawa Senators in the middle of Leaf County. He tries to bring you as many worthwhile Sens stories as he can find, along with his musings on the team and the NHL in general; musings indeed since he is but a humble hockey hobo.
If you have any general comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns about myself or my blog and its content, you can post them publicly here, or drop me an email.
Email:
SENShobo Recommends
The Professionals
If Eugene Melnyk’s cosying up to Pat Quinn over the past few weeks and at the WJC can be considered as evidence, Mr Melnyk may have decided that Bryan Murray is past is his ‘sell by’ date.
The problem is there’s no wiggle room in Ottawa with money locked into untradeable contracts.
The Corvo trade was a net loss as Ottawa ultimately got nothing but Stillman and Commodore as rental players who couldn’t change the Senators’ playoff fate.
Kuba is a UFA this summer so Bryan will have find some way of scraping the dollars together (even with Martin Gerber presumably walking), and the Senators will need a number one goaltender.
That means there is no money to go after secondary scoring.
Mike Eastwood of Team 1200 suggested that Ottawa needs to replace the current ‘role players’ with personnel that ‘gets’ the new system. But how much talent there is in Binghamton is a good question.
Fans are all excited about Erik Karlsson and Andre Petersson but these kids may or may not be ready to take a beating on what is becoming a bottom feeder among the NHL’s declining teams.
If people think Tampa’s in bad shape, or Atlanta is a mess, a good case can be made that Ottawa is in worse shape.
Posted by davetherave on 01/05/09 at 02:01 PM ET