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Sens Win Tonight, Or Someone Will Get Voted Off The Island
by SENShobo on 11/15/08 at 12:15 PM ET
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Why will the Senators win tonight? Because Thursday they lost to the League’s worst team, Friday St. Louis beat Chicago to put the Isles back in last place, and if the Sens lose back-to-back to the worst team, you won’t see this particular Senators’ team as-is for long.
From the Ottawa Sun, on the growing impatience,
Murray indicated he’s not going to wait forever to make changes.
“I’ve thought a lot about it and I’ve talked with a lot of GMs over the last little while and the last few days, actually,” said Murray. “You can do that, but are you going to regret it a little ways down the road because you’re giving up a player that is a very good player in this league for maybe the sake of shaking the team up? That’s a fine line right now, but very definitely we just can’t go on doing what we’re doing.”
From Pierre LeBrun’s ESPN blog, on the puzzling state of the Sens,
With a core group headlined by Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher and Chris Phillips, it’s hard to believe the Sens can look this bad right now. We didn’t think they’d be Cup contenders this season, but playoff team? Yes.
Right now they’re not looking like a playoff team. Not even close.
“I certainly think we’re a better team than that,” Murray said. “The lack of scoring is the shocking part for me. If we were losing games 5-4, maybe I’d understand, but we’ve gone games here where it’s 2-1 late in the third period. That’s the part that I’m a little surprised about. The lineup of guys that we have scoring goals should allow us to do that.”
From the Ottawa Citizen,
Disappointed and frustrated by his team’s play, Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray took the unusual step of addressing his players before Friday’s practice.
“The big message is obviously concern from Bryan,” he said. “That’s the message we’re sending to all the players. We have to be better. In a nutshell that’s the message and we hope it’s taken the right way.”
Chris Phillips said the players weren’t surprised to see Murray in the dressing room. “We weren’t expecting it or waiting for it,” he said. “But when we saw him, we weren’t shocked.”
From the Ottawa Senators’ website, on the supposedly simple solution to the Sens’ problems,
Captain Daniel Alfredsson believes the solution to the Senators’ current woes isn’t complex.
“When you get into a funk and you’re not playing well, you’ve got to go back to basics and put your work boots on and just put the effort in there,” he said. “If you do that a couple of times in a row, then you build confidence and that’s where we are right now.
“We’re a little bit cautious. At times, we’re almost afraid to lose. With this group, especially, we’ve got a lot of speed and we’ve got to be more aggressive, more assertive, I guess. That’s what we talked about before practice and with the coaches as well. We can’t wait for things to happen, we’ve got to make them happen.”
Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe it. The Sens know they can be better. The team is a few players removed from the Stanley Cup Finals, but there’s plenty still here. Alfie, Heatley, and Spezza have combined for one goal above a goal-per-game pace, while chewing through a third of the team’s cap space. Phillips and Volchenkov were the key to shutting down our opponents en route to facing Anaheim, but are a combined -8 this season. Last season, Vermette scored 24-29—53 outside of the top-6, and Fisher 23-24—47 without Alfie at his side; this season, they’re on pace for 21-26—47. COMBINED. I’m proud of Donovan’s hard work, but even he has to be wondering why only the big three have scored as many goals as he has, and why only they and Kuba have outproduced him.
The only puzzle more confusing in the League is Marty Turco’s bargain bin numbers, but he’s just one player; this is a whole team muddling in mediocrity. I’ll say it again, if they don’t win tonight on the Island, someone will get voted off the Island. The only reason it’s taken this long to have Murray seriously considering a move is because he, like all Sens fans, knows all too well that this team has the pieces to compete at another level. If the pieces and chemistry don’t fit, eventually you look for different pieces to bridge the gaps in the puzzle. I won’t speculate on that too much, but since I want you to have all information you can, TSN trotted out a few suitors yesterday, if you want to have a look.
From the Ottawa Sun, on why the CASH line isn’t the right on the money answer to the Sens’ troubles,
“There’s always that thought, but I’m not sure that’s the answer,” said Hartsburg. “We’ve done a little bit of homework on that and without getting into all kinds of numbers, I think the success of the team is not as good as everybody thinks it is with those three guys playing together.
“We’re trying to build something, and certainly, we still believe the best thing for this team is getting more depth in the lineup as far as scoring. Again, I think some nights it would be really good for us. Other nights, they were together and didn’t have any more magic than anybody else. It’s about the team. Those guys have to contribute whether they’re together or not.
....
“The power play’s where they should be together and they are. That’s where they should do their damage as a threesome.”
Indeed, in the games where Sens fans most relished the CASH line’s performance, it was on the powerplay that they found their goals for the most part, hardly worth putting all your eggs in one basket if they’re only going to drop out when pushed to such advantage. I will disagree with Garrioch though, and suggest that it will not be Winchester and Foligno as the youngsters filling out the top two lines. Of course, Auld will be starting once again, undoubtedly leaving Gerber wondering if he’ll get a game anytime in the next couple weeks.
From Sportsnet.ca, on the status of Ryan Shannon,
Senators forward Ryan Shannon is out indefinitely with a concussion after taking an elbow to the head from Islanders forward Thomas Pock on Thursday night. According to Ottawa head coach Craig Hartsburg, the injury is “very significant.”
The club recalled forward Ilya Zubov from Binghamton of the AHL on Friday. He will join the team in Long Island on Saturday.
Pock was handed a five-game suspension for his hit. Zubov, 8-10—18 with 2PPG and +6 in 13GP, leads the Binghamton Senators from the top line. Just as Shannon was placed in a scoring role that made sense for him, I cannot believe that Zubov will be called up to grind it out on the fourth line. Worst case, he spends a few shifts on the third line to form a speedy trio with Kelly and Vermette, but I can’t see his tremendous play in Binghamton going unnoticed by Hartsburg.
Update - 2:00PM
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the lines for tonight will be Heatley-Spezza-Winchester, Zubov-Fisher-Alfie, Vermette-Kelly-Neil, Foligno-McAmmond-Donovan.
I realize that I haven’t said much about tonight’s game against the Islanders, but that’s hardly the big concern in Ottawa; I’ll leave a more detailed approach to NHL.com. Skate fast for every loose puck, take away the Isles’ time and space, greet Joey MacDonald on his doorstep every chance you get. That’s the basics of what will keep Murray and the rumour mongers at bay. Unless you get access to MSG Plus 2 or its feed, you won’t be watching this one, but how much of a sadist are you? Here’s hoping the Sens find their inner sadists tonight.
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