Why I stick to using generic titles for these posts I really don’t know–I should set up a Patreon for the development of better blog titles. Anyway, after a weekend of mainlining Daredevil (when do I get my Punisher series?), I thought I’d take a quick look at developments in Sensland now that the organisation is in garbage time with the playoffs completely out of the picture (congrats to Bryan Murray and the organisation–their off-season and in-season decisions have really paid off).
The Sens are 2-1 over the past week, meaning the odds of a top-ten pick in the upcoming draft got a little worse. The Habs, Canucks, and Jets have had the good sense to tank, but we know Murray’s Sens will fight for every last point so that the non-rebuild can continue.
Did we really sign Scott Gomez? I keep thinking it’s some sort of Internet meme.
It’s so dull and quiet in Sens land that Nichols has to waste his time pretending to care about what John Muckler thinks, Callum Fraser leads his thoughts with the trivial news that Francis Perron signed an ELC (who would have thunk it?), WTYKY pulled puckpossessed out of retirement for drawings, etc. I understand the desperation–there’s that shared sense of hopelessness that a clueless senior citizen is screwing things up and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
As a masochist, I want to bring up a post by Kevin Lee from late December:
At their core, the Ottawa Senators are a really good team. They have one of the best top six in the league when healthy, arguable the best goalie in Sens history in Craig Anderson, and two time (soon to be three) Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson. There’s also a mix of talent in the bottom six.
I have a feeling Kevin wouldn’t phrase things quite like this if he were writing the post today (and really, Craig Anderson?). Injuries aside, even healthy this team isn’t much better than its current 34-31-8 record. But let’s keep going down the Lee rabbit hole, shall we?
In the meantime, if the Sens aren’t going to be able to manage a trade to acquire a defenceman, what option do they have? There’s an easy one in Fredrik Claesson. … He has done everything that management has asked of him, but has yet to be rewarded for it. It’s about time the team sees what they have in him. It’s certainly plausible that he could turn out to be better than Borowiecki or Cowen.
And then we saw him play in the NHL!! Oh gawd–a player with even more puck limitations than Borowiecki.
Let us end on a note from Kevin that I heartily agree with:
This season has also highlighted how from management down to coaching, the franchise views skilled players. It started in the offseason as the franchise signed veterans Zack Stortini (who would be named captain) and Mark Fraser as the mentors for the Binghamton Senators. Are those really the type of players you want your younger players modelling their game after?
No they aren’t Kevin, no they aren’t.
As you’d expect, Binghamton is surging now that the games mean nothing (3-0 since my last post)–presumably saving the moribund coaching staff and ensuring yet another awful 2016-17 for BSens fans.
Even Evansville (which, just like Binghamton, sits at the bottom of their division) is winning (2-1). I think I neglected to mention that the Evansville franchise is moving to Owensboro next season (an SPL team will come to the city), making it unlikely that Ottawa will keep their affiliation with them (if there’s been an official announcement on what the Sens will do I missed it).
BLOGGER RANKINGS
Time for some fun. Let’s see re-visit Alexa and see how it ranks Sensland:
1.The Silver Seven 791,096
2. Senschirp 1,208,578
3. 6th Sens 3,857,833
4. WTYKY 8,950,700
5. SenShot 15,711,968
6. Eye on the Sens 15,866,054
7. SensNation no rating (apparently posting nothing for a month hurts)
Should we draw conclusions from this? No. Will we? Of course. The Silver Seven needs to step it up–not going to the dirty areas–pretty soft, probably European. Senschrip is spending to much time in the box–needs to control that aggression. The 6th Sens are what I like–good Canadian boy and everything like that. WTYKY–can’t even pronounce it–probably Russian–why are they in the league when a good guy like Zack Stortini is playing in the minors? SenShot has been on the shelf–can’t help the team if you don’t even play! Eh, what’s that about Cold-FX?
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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