SENShobo
Unreal Dreams? Time For Realistic Planning
by SENShobo on 02/23/09 at 09:03 AM ET
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20-4-0. That’s the record the Senators would need to make the playoffs, and if the cutoff was the 94 points of last year, they would still be on the outside looking in.
You were all guilty of it, against Vancouver and Montreal, thinking of the comeback win in Minnesota and that a 4-0 hole was just the next step in that challenge. All guilty because even I could feel that faint sense of hope, curiosity at what the new boys could do.
Back to the drawing board, the players’ and the team’s potential still needs to be determined for the future.
From the Ottawa Sun,
most NHL general managers would put Luongo and Kiprusoff at the top of the list of goaltenders they would want to have, trusting them to make critical saves at key moments, the type of stops that can either maintain a team’s momentum or steal it from the opposition.
That brings us to Ottawa Senators rookie goaltender Brian Elliott, who is learning the hard way just how difficult it is to be a go-to NHL goaltender, especially when you’re playing behind a team prone to slow starts and terrible defensive breakdowns.
....
It’s not fair to point the finger directly at Elliott for the dreadful beginnings to games.He, after all, could do nothing about the atrocious Filip Kuba pass that led to the Canucks’ opening goal Thursday. Elliott also had nothing to do with the inexcusable miscommunication between Antoine Vermette and Chris Phillips that led to the Canadiens’ second goal Saturday, by Alex Kovalev.
Still, Clouston says Saturday’s game might have turned the other way if Elliott had stopped Kovalev.
He is still young, of course. You got the sense of that in one of his earlier games where both Montreal shooters manhandled him to close the shootout after just two rounds. He could certainly use the pressure that’s sure to be found down in Binghamton, the team battling to stay in the playoff picture, but according to Sharp on the Sens, March 11th will be the critical date by which the Binghamton Senators have to have in place their 22 man roster of AHL (and NHL) players who are eligible to finish the season and head into the postseason, barring injuries or suspensions.
Of course it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Elliott getting a rest-of-the-season look rather than some intense training by fire down in the AHL playoffs, even as fire’s been burning all around him of late.
This is where the question of the future emerge. What direction will the Sens go in? If Clouston’s done at the end of the season, then there’s no guarantee that any evaluation of any player is accurate, given that the system will once again change. July 1st, should Murray decide to pursue a goaltender yet again, someone perhaps like the as-yet unsigned Nicklas Backstrom, knowing the system and the players’ ability to work within it will be critical to those and all other personnel decisions. A switch for Backstrom (which is not to say he’s coming) from Minnesota’s defensive system under Lemaire to what could remain Clouston’s more aggressive style might not be the right fit between goalie, skills and dollars.
If Murray can’t be sure of what team he’s trying to build, or how the pieces he has fit into that picture, how can he make truly successful trades or off season personnel decisions?
From the Ottawa Sun,
It was certainly curious to see a 24-year-old defenceman with skill and promise traded by a team that is perpetually rebuilding.
....
Campoli, who had two assists in his Senators debut Saturday, had become increasingly disillusioned under Isles coach Scott Gordon.The signing of offensive defenceman Mark Streit in the off-season hurt Campoli’s opportunities, taking away front-line time on the power play. With Gordon also favouring forward Doug Weight on the point (until he was injured recently), Campoli found his role further diminished.
....
The result was Campoli asking for a trade. Both he and Snow agreed that would probably be best.
....
Gordon told Newsday he was disappointed Campoli didn’t thrive in his system, which encourages defencemen to get offensive.“I liked Chris as a player. I think he does fit in,” said Gordon. “I just had a conversation with Mark Streit about, ‘Have you played for a team that gives you the green light to go all the time as an offensive defenceman as much as you’re allowed to here?’ He said, ‘No.’ It’s the same thing for Chris.”
Campoli might have read the writing when Weight went down and Gordon turned to rookie forward Kyle Okposo to man the point on the power play alongside Streit.
Forget for a minute all the doublespeak going on in that situation. Campoli still hasn’t hit the peak Murray’s undoubtedly hopeful to see from him, and the pair of assists he recorded in his Ottawa debut in Montreal probably tugged at the corners of a few mouths.
His arrival left the Senators with Bell, Picard, and Schubert all as healthy scratches. Still only half as bad a hit as Gerber’s contract sitting in the AHL (where I hear he’s still having highs and lows), but fully too many players who do not play. Still a few days left before the roster rules go the opposite direction of the AHL’s, allowing as many players as desired to be listed, and even I’m not sure what to expect.
Has Murray seen enough from all the blueliners to determine who stays and who goes, leading to potential trades? Or might they all be held back from other teams and from contributing to a fan-craved strong Binghamton postseason, left in Ottawa for a few more games of auditioning? The only surefire way to see them leave, though, would be to send them down; they’ll all need to clear waivers, and with as few sellers as there are this season, any freebies will be taken advantage of.
With all that doublespeak between Campoli and the Isles, doesn’t it smell a bit like something else? Would it really be that much of a surprise if Campoli just didn’t want to be a part of an Islanders team? Surely that’s a huge leap to make, but when his ice time and situations are treated as poorly as it would seem, and the team looks all too content with a ten-point separation from the 29th place Thrashers and still unable to replace the relic that is the Nassau Coliseum, might it just be that the Isles weren’t the right fit? Maybe they will still land Tavares, and surely it’d take more than Campoli’s situations to alienate a star like him from the team, but how long must a team love languishing before we see another Lindros-like forced trade of a superstar?
Curiosity gets my imagination fired up, and a season like this fires up that curiosity. Only eight more months…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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