An open letter to John Paddock

Dear Mr. Paddock,

Please accept this letter as a sincere attempt to shed some light on your completely unfair and unwarranted situation.

Forwards unsatisfied with their defensive roles on the team became decisively lackluster in their own end as if to rebel against your system. Others, feeling confined by your systems continued their renegade style of play causing turn-overs by the dozen. Defensemen crumbling under the pressures of playing in a Canadian city played timid and hesitant. Others, playing under the pretense of wanting the chance to win Hockey’s Holy Grail, appeared uninspired night after night. The goalies.  Oh the goalies!! One, who was unwilling to put forth the extra time in practice to help to perfect all the little details required to win. The Other, unwilling or unable to take the reigns extended to him by you on multiple occasions.

Sure your players claim that they “feel bad”, “never expected this outcome” and “respected [you]“. But this is all fluff to redirect the Media away from the root of the problem. Your players lost their edge, lost pride in their uniform and lost the desire to win for each other. In the cruel and unforgiving World of Canadian Hockey, you have paid the ultimate price for their ineptitude, their incompetence and their lack of will.

Please remember that the Senators Faithful will remember the many positives from your tenure as Head Coach of the most offensively productive team of this season. You lead your players to a record-tying start to the season. You were nominated the Head Coach of the Eastern Conference All-stars based on your team’s mid-season record.  Your team lead the Eastern Conference since the beginning of the season. This is how we will remember your tenure in Ottawa.  It is for these reasons that we thank you.

Sincerely,

The Sens Army

Martin Lapointe (and co.) will help!

Shame on you Ottawa Sun and Chris Stevenson for defacing the newest Ottawa Senator, Martin Lapointe before he even stepped on the ice with the Team! Of course, we’ve all seen that any player is available for the right price or else players like Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier would have never been trading throughout their careers. So Bryan Murray could have literally offered the farm and traded for 2 rentals players in Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis but didn’t. I thanked him in my previous post for this.

Last year, everyone was kicking and screaming that we needed more grit! Everyone was so upset that we didn’t make a better pitch for Florida’s Gary Roberts. John Muckler’s critics were silent until Round 4 last year when once again the Roberts’ supporters came out of the woodwork and preeched that he would have been the difference maker in the series. That’s BS! If a 40-year old, wonky back, Toronto-media glorified Gary Roberts is the missing piece of your Stanley Cup puzzle… you probably would have won It anyways!

Fast forward almost 9 months. Everyone is still screaming out that we need more grit. We need to play more “North and South”. We need character leadership to settle down the dressing room.

Well guess what folks! We have the same ‘Freakin’ Saprykin’ team and the same problems to boot! But instead of adding 40 year old Gary Roberts (now 41 with a broken leg) that won 1 Stanley 3 decades ago as a rookie; Bryan Murray brought in a 34 year-old Martin Lapointe with 2 Stanley Cups. Plus Lapointe actually had an impact in winning the Cups recording almost 1 goal every 2nd game! And this is on top of ridding us of our weakest defenseman, an often injured forward and adding 2 players with 3 Stanley Cups! And flipping Shean Donovan for Mrs. (not a typo) 5 goals in 50 playoff games Peter Schaefer. (I’ve used and that many times to emphasize my point… there’s A LOT of ands!)

In summary, all in the past 2 weeks, we’ve bulked up our defensive corps, we’ve swapped a bum shoulder for a gritty 8-time 20-goal scorer and we’ve added a hard-nosed third liner for a 6th round pick!
We didn’t need to make a splash at the deadline but we’ve added grit, experience and role players that we were significantly missing last year. All things that people have been screaming to acquire for the past 4 seasons!

There are still 6 weeks left to fix this and I’m sure the players and the coaches will right the ship before the playoffs.

Ottawa’s Epic Fail Trade Deadline!

First I’ll start off by saying, “Thank you Bryan Murray” for not out bidding the Pittsburgh Penguins for 2 rental players.

In terms of Ottawa’s players, the asking price was probably in the range of:

- 2 out of these 4 players: Chris Kelly, Antoine Vermette, Andrei Meszaros, Christoph Schubert
AND Nick Foligno
AND our 1st Rounder in next year’s draft that we’re hosting in Ottawa

It doesn’t make sense for 2 unrestricted free-agents that are very likely to be wearing a different uniform next season.

However that still doesn’t get GM Murray off the hook.  Three players have reportedly asked to be traded this season:  Vermette, Martin Gerber and Ray Emery and none of them were moved at the deadline.  The goalies were probably the tougher sell of the 3 players but you’d be hard press to convince me that a partner couldn’t have been found for Antoine Vermette.

In Martin Lapointe, the Sens addressed a few needs.  He brings another 2 Stanley Cups to the Sens without substracting from our current lineup, nor taking away from our prospects in Binghamton.  He adds grit to our lineup and a solid veteran presence.  It remains to be seen if he can keep pace with his linemates should he make his way on the 2nd or 3rd line.  The possibilities are endless with a versatile player like Lapointe:

Lapointe-Fisher-Alfredsson
Lapointe-McAmmond-Robitaille/Donovan
Lapointe-Fisher-Stillman

However, most people would agree that Ottawa’s core is strong enough to make a long-run in the playoffs.  So we needed depth players.  We needed Marc-André Bergeron’s from the Islanders, we needed Brad Stuart from the Kings and both of these guys were acquired for nothing!

I’m dissapointed and I haven’t been this relunctant to watch tonight’s game in a long time!

What I would do if I was GM Murray

With the deadline about 4 days away and the Ottawa Senators amid another losing streak some big time changes are expected by Tuesday at 3 PM. Chris Neil’s injury to his knee has all the signs of a long-term injury which leaves a definite gap in the overall toughness of the forwards.

Sure Mike Fisher and Christoph Schubert can provide a strong forecheck and finish off their hits, when Neil plays the game that brought him to the NHL he is without a doubt one of the most effective agitators in the game. He’s also got a mean streak in him that I just don’t see in Fisher or Schubert.

Most likely players on the Sens’ roster to be used as trade bait:Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Nick Foligno, Andrei Meszaros

Long shots:

Ray Emery, Martin Gerber

Minor Leaguers and prospects possibly available:

Jeff Glass, Igor Mirnov, Rushlan Bashkirov, Alexander Nikulin, Ilya Zubov, Brian Lee, Josh Hennessy

I tend to read most, if not all, of the major NHL news and information sites. The positions and player types that are most often connected to the Ottawa Senators are:

1. A veteran winger with Stanley Cup experience
2. A veteran goalie with Stanley Cup experience that can fill in if one of the 2 current goalies cannot handle the load
3. A puck moving defenceman
4. A shutdown defenceman

I’d really expect Bryan Murray to package 2 players mentioned above for either a top-rated rental player that is willing to re-sign with the Senators in the off-season or 2 role players. Some of the combinations of players that may be available and would definitely help the Sens for an extended playoff push:

1. Trade for 2 veterans on the St. Louis who are quickly dropping out of the playoff picture. Probably wouldn’t take much too take these guys off the Blues’ roster

from St. Louis: Bryce Salvador D ($1.4 million/year UFA)

from Ottawa: Andrei Meszaros D ($.984 million/year RFA) or Tomas Kudelka D (minor league prospect)

Possible combinations:

Phillips-Volchenkov
Redden/Salvador-Commodore
Salvador/Redden-Richardson

2. Make the same 2 for 2 trade with Atlanta. This could be tricky because Atlanta wants to push for the playoffs this year and Ottawa doesn’t want to give up more players off their roster:

from Atlanta: Pascal Dupuis LW ($.880 /year UFA) and Garnet Exelby ($1.392/year UFA in 2010-11)

from Ottawa: One of,

1. Antoine Vermette ($1.0/year)

or

2. Ilja Zubov (entry level) or Alexander Nikulin (entry level) and a pick in 2009

Possible combinations:

Dupuis-Kelly-Stillman
Dupuis-Fisher-Alfredsson

Phillips-Volchenkov
Redden-Exelby/Commodore
Exelby/Commodore-Richardson

3.  Trade with the provincial rivals.  Nearly impossible to do because of the strong rivalry that has definitely diminished over the past few years:

from Toronto: Chad Kilger LW ($.900 / year signed until 2009-10)

from Ottawa: 3rd or 4th round in 2009 or 4th round in 2008

Possible line combinations:

Kilger-McAmmond-Donovan
Kilger-Robitaille-Schubert

I think the Sens have most of the major pieces in place to make another splash this year. As much as I’d love GM Murray to land a big fish at the deadline, a few role players here and there could potentially be a huge boost to the Sens’ chances.

Where’s the Identity?

I think the major problem with this team is that it’s completely lacking a Team Identity.

Two and three years ago, we were an offensive juggernaut and won a lot of games by outscoring opponents

Last year, we battled through injuries, a slow start and turned the season around with a strong team commitment to defence

This year everything is a mess. Nobody knows if this team is really as good as their 16-3 start or as bad as their multiple 5 game losing streaks. It really surprised me to see that the Senators are actually leading the league in Goals/game but are a ridiculously pathetic 23rd in the league in Goal Against/game.

I think a major proponent to the Team’s defensive shortfall is that no one has been given clear understanding of their roles. Two sets of players can reasonably expect themselves to play the same role game after game. They are the Big Line along with Phillipes and Volchenkov.

All the role players like Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Randy Robitaille, Dean McAmmond and Cory Stillman have absolutely no idea if they’ll be called upon for secondary scoring or for checking roles or even if they’ll see more than 5 minutes a game on the 4th line. Their roles are confusing and ever changing and they’re playing like a confused team.

Even on defense, Commodore has already played with Phillips on the penalty kill, Richardson and Redden on regular shift and that’s only in the past 4 games! The Power-play units see Alfredsson and Redden, Meszaros and Schubert and Stillman has seen some time on the point as well.

This is all ON-TOP of the goaltending situation… is Paddock running a 1A and 1B combination? Is it win and you’re in? Is it lose and the coach choose?

How can the players build any rapport with their linemates or even know their role on the Team when it changes multiple times a game and is never the same from one game to another. Right now I have a hard time identifying with the Team because frankly, there is none!