Gameday: vs. Buffalo Sabres January 10th, 2008

After a long layoff that most of the players used to get over the flu, the Sens return to action tonight against the Buffalo Sabres.   The Sens are normally quite slow at getting going after a long period of time away from home and we have to hope that they’re not looking ahead to Saturday’s big matchup against the Detroit Red Wings.

A few changes will be made to tonight’s lineup.  With Joe Corvo’s return from a 2 game absence, he will be reunited with his new partner Wade Redden.  This also means that Andrei Meszaros who was matched up with Chris Phillips on the top shut-down pairing will slide to the number 5 spot alongside veteran Luke Richardson.

A few game notes for tonight:

- Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher have a 7 game point scoring streak

- Martin Gerber will make his 2nd start in a row

Is Mats Sundin really on the Murray’s radar?

I read a lot of stuff on hockey.  Every morning, I read many daily newspapers both local and National to get my hockey fixen.  Quite frequently, I also visit the various Canadian online hockey websites in the hopes that they actually found something worthwhile to write about my beloved team.

However, I also tend to read up a lot (probably too much) on various hockey rumour sites.  Since I’d guess 99% of the rumours never pan out, I take everything I read with a grain of salt.  However, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun normally writes on every Sunday the rumblings that he hears while covering the Senators.  Since most local writes and other media people trust that Garrioch isn’t simply making up rumours out of nothing, I tend to read what he has to say a lot more attentively.

Then there’s Bob McKenzie of TSN.  I’ve grown up watching McKenzie on TSN and whomever tries to tell me that Dreger has better sources on the hockey world, would get some serious resistance from me.  Therefore, whatever he writes, I always consider to be factual and can reasonably expect that he’s not out to mislead any of his readers or watchers.

So he says that some of the trades on the table for Mats Sundin (should he become available at the deadline) include “big” names with lots of upside potential like:

Andrei Meszaros
Antoine Vermette
Patrick Eaves

it not only comes as a shock to me but it also raises both my eyebrows at the same time.  There is absolutely no doubt that Mats Sundin would secure the Ottawa Senators as the undisputed Number 1 contender from the East but it seriously mean that the Sens are ready to take their first honest shot at winning today instead of tomorrow.

As pointed out by another writer, the days of acquiring the likes of Mike Morrisson, Oleg Saprykin and/or Mike Comrie at the trade deadline are no more.  Let’s not forget that Murray is the same GM that let Teemu Selanee and Paul Kariya walk away only to sign Sergei Fedorov as a UFA.  While many would argue that this was the wrong move to make, Murray has never been shy about making a huge splash during the off-season or during the season.

Would I do the trade mentioned above if the rumour is really true?  My short answer is: “In a heart beat I would.”

Why?  Because all those players are RFA’s at the end of the year.  Which after last year’s off-season none of those should be considered as off-limits to any of the other 29 teams.  Antoine Vermette could very well be next year’s Mike Ribeiro and let’s face it, he’ll never play a prominent role in Ottawa when Mike Fisher and Jason Spezza are signed long-term.

Patrick Eaves has not grown as quickly after his 20-goal rookie season and will constantly be struggling to find time on the top 2 lines in Ottawa.  And Meszaros on the blue has shown promise but I believe his role should be a lot more offensive in nature.  However as much as he has shown glimpses of improvement over the past few months, his departure actually adds size and grit to the Sens’ back-end because that would allow Christoph Schubert to slide back full-time as a Defenseman.  We’ve already got a $2.5 million 5th Defenseman on the blue line, we don’t need another.

Murray’s first trade deadline as the Sens’ GM will be an interesting one for sure.

Bash at the ‘Bank

The Ottawa Sun and other local media outlets are reporting that Sens’ tough guy Brian McGrattan and renegade goalie Ray Emery ended practice with a small tilt that was almost immediately broken up by their teamates. It’s just another blip (or bruise) in Ray’s soap opera year of negative events.

It’s widely speculated that Emery is not happy with his role as backup goalie and apparently he’s doing everything he can to get himself traded to a team in the need for a #1.  However he’s doing the exact opposite.  As the magnitude increases and at a greater interval, teams will become less inclined to swing a trade for him.  Teams always refer to chemistry in the dressing room at playoff time.  The last thing a GM wants to do is bring in a player that could potentially wreck all the chemistry the team has built over the year(s).

No word on who won the fight but as a whole, events like this one only hurt the team.

Gameday: at Buffalo Sabres January 4th, 2008

The Ottawa Senators will once again try to snap out of a 2-game losing streak and earn their first victory of 2008.  Coach John Paddock has decided to keep his starting goalie decision to himself. The Sens have always played Buffalo tough and this game should be no exception.  Buffalo will be looking to avenge a 5-3 loss to Ottawa on Boxing Day.  The season series currently stands at 2-1 in favour of Ottawa.

After being a scratch for the last game, Randy Robitaille who was out with the flu, is expected to be back in the lineup.  The Senators have also sent down rookie Nick Foligno to Binghampton and elected to keep Cody Bass on the fourth line.  This is a good move for the future of the organization because Foligno shouldn’t be expected to play a 4th line role next year.  He needs time to develop and he wont get that chance if he’s only playing 5-7 minutes a game in the NHL.

The Senators are still looking for more production in Antoine Vermette who only has 2 goals in his past 8 games.  Vermette could very well play himself out of the lineup and into a trade should his production not improve.  He currently makes $1 million and is most likely due for a big pay raise.  Unfortunately in a salary cap world, GM Brian Murray may have to use Antoine Vermette and another prospect as leverage at the trade deadline to complete a deal.  If the decision comes down to keeping Vermette or Chris Kelly most would agree that Kelly would be the guy to stay.

The defensive corps will see a fair amount of changes tonight as well.  With the return of Anton Volchenkov and Foligno’s return to the AHL, Cristoph Schubert  is most likely to be moved back to forward.  Volchenkov is expected to return to his first pairing position with Chris Phillips.  Wade Redden will contiue to play with Joe Corvo, who is a surprising +18 even after combining for a -4 in both games against Washington.  The biggest surprise has to be Andrei Meszaros’ continued drop in the depth charts who will now suit up alongside of Luke Richardson.  Meszaros has never quite regained his rookie year form and appears to crumble a little bit under the pressure of increased responsibility.  Perhaps playing with a veteran leaderlike Richardson will have a calming effect on Mezzy.

The Sens expected lineup for tonight:

Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson
Robitaille-Fisher-Neil
Vermette-Kelly-Donovan
Schubert-McAmmond-Bass

Phillips-Volchenkov
Redden-Corvo
Richardson-Meszaros

I’ll go ahead and predict Emery in nets tonight because of his previous success against Buffalo.

Emery
Gerber

Can CuJo really end the controversy?

Lost in the middle of Christmas, gameday blow-ups by the backup, gameday no-shows by the starter, New Year’s and more unexplainable and definitely unpredictable losses to the lowly Washington Capitals, the Senators have yet to resolve their brewing goaltending contreversy.

The front-man of the Sens’ dynamic (in my sense than 1) goaltending duo, Martin Gerber, hasn’t been quite as atroscious as his stats say in the past 2 games. In the past 4 periods, he’s allowed more goals than he did in his previous 4 starts. It’s been widely documented that Martin Gerber does not like to be pushed. He likes having a clear role as the #1 goaltender and in the past has severely faltered when pushed by Cam Ward (in Carolina) and Ray Emery with Ottawa.

Gerber’s quiet demeanour is at times, his worst enemy. Just like most stay-at-home defenseman, Martin Gerber is at his best when nobody is talking about him. He makes routine saves seem effortless and is the poster boy for making positional saves instead of the flashy ones. Nobody spoke a word of Gerber’s 6-1 record because everyone was too busy talking about the other guy.

With all of Ray’s extra-curricular activities, on-ice antics and questionable head-gear which most Ottawa-fans combine simply as ‘Ray being Ray’. Ray Emery has unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, recharged the goaltending duo. For the past few weeks, everyone has been talking about Ray. John Paddock called him out in the papers saying that he is frustrating because he’s so damned good when he wants to play. The Media has called him out because of his temper tantrum and subsequent explanation to his teamates.

If the rumours hold true and GM Murray is really trying to shop last year’s Stanley Cup Finalist goalie, could we expect anything different if a 40-year old goalie trying to play his way back into the NHL is brought in as a replacement? Aside from raising the Senators’ average goalie age by nearly 8 years, what changes would bringing in Curtis Joseph really bring to the Senators’ situation?

In my opinion, Ray Emery will be the next Curtis Joseph. Always good enough to get to the show but never quite good enough to win it all. Just like CuJo, Rayzer will probably win more games than lose but that will probably be more attributed to his surrounding cast as opposed to the quality of his play.

The one huge advantage of trading Ray and signing CuJo is in the numbers. Assuming Curtis Joseph would accept a $1 million pro-rated salary, his signing would represent nearly $1.1 million in savings this year and $6.4 million over the next 2 years. That would undoubtedly give GM Murray enough room under the cap to trade for a top-6 forward or the coveted defensive defenseman.

Time will tell but unlike former GM, John Muckler, I think we can all expect a very active trade deadline in the Nation’s Capital.