-For those of you who may have thought the proliferation of hockey blogs and analysis outside traditional media might pressure journalists to change their approach or improve their repertoire, you’d be wrong…at least in the case of Don Brennan.  Yesterday he offered yet another confused column making the following baseless assertions:
1. Jakob Silfverberg will play on Ottawa’s top-line
2. The Sens aren’t at the cap floor and this will cause trouble
3. The Sens aren’t tough enough because they let Matt Carkner walk
Two of these points are simply false while the other is purely speculative.  Take Silfverberg, no one is suggesting he is going to play on the top line (he may not play in the top-six).  I’m truly at a loss as to how Brennan came to that conclusion.  Secondly, the cap floor fears are simply wrong (five seconds with Capgeek illustrates the point), although here at least Brennan says that the concern is “outside the Senators’ offices“.  The third point is a chestnut Brennan has been writing for months (the team is not tough enough!), which remains an absurd theory; he dynamites his own argument about Carkner by noting that the “Senators were too worried about the condition of [Carkner‘s] damaged knee.”  That’s a pretty good reason to be concerned!  Carkner is an older player who couldn’t skate has two bad knees–it’s a mercy the Sens didn’t bring him back.  Nichols goes further into the inanity of the column (particularly points #1 and #3), but the facts aren’t going to interfere with Brennan continuing to write this crap.  I don’t derive any joy from unpacking Brennan’s nonsense and I don’t think he’s an idiot, I just think he’s lazy.

–Mika Zibanejad and Mikael Wikstrand are playing for Sweden in their WJC summer camp (for those wondering, Fredrik Claesson is too old to attend).

-Speaking of prospects, Brian-Huddle offers his opinion on the Sens top-10:
1. Mika Zibanejad (comparing him to Ryan Kesler)
2. Cody Ceci (comparing him to Brent Seabrook)
3. Robin Lehner (comparing him to Henrik Lundqvist)
4. Shane Prince (comparing him to Zack Parise-lite)
5. Mark Stone (comparing him to Scott Hartnell)
6. Jakob Silfverberg (comparing him to Patrik Hornqvist)
7. Stefan Noesen (comparing him to Corry Perry-lite)
8. Matt Puempel (comparing him to Alex Semin)
9. Jarrod Maidens (comparing him to David Backes)
10. Stephane Da Costa (comparing him to no one)

He gives Patrick Wiercioch an honourable mention.  With all due respect to Huddle, his comparisons are over the top and in some cases I wonder if he’s seen the players mentioned (for example, Silfverberg is not a Tomas Holmstrom-clone like Hornqvist; Stone is not particularly physical and is more of a playmaker than Hartnell; etc).

-Here’s my updated profile of Peter Regin.

–Lyle Richardson tries to figure out why Tim Thomas came off the rails this year.  He admits that it’s all speculation at this point, but makes some interesting points:

If anyone had told me a year ago Tim Thomas would alienate a portion of the Boston Bruins fan base with far-right political and social opinions, upset his Bruins teammates and front office by refusing to attend a White House ceremony honoring their Stanley Cup championship, then decide to take a year off (effectively ending his tenure with the team), I would’ve told that person to quit abusing solvents. Last summer, Thomas was a hero in Boston, winning playoff MVP honors in the Bruins march to their first Cup championship in nearly forty years, and won his second Vezina Trophy in three years as the league’s best goaltender. At 37, Tim Thomas was the toast of the National Hockey League. Today, at 38, his  views have made him the target of scorn and the butt of jokes, while his reasons for his year-long sabbatical (family, friends and faith) have been questioned by cynical critics. He’s also left a Bruins fan base understandably puzzled over his views, the sudden move of his family from the Boston-area last season to Colorado, and apparent desire to ring down the curtain on his career in Boston. I neither condone or condemn Thomas’ views, but I question his sensitivity toward criticism of his public statements. Just as he has the right to state his views, he should expect his detractors would employ the same right to criticize them. Thomas is currently unwilling to explain why he’s taken to Facebook this year to make his far-right views known, leaving only guesswork on my part (and those of his fans and critics) as to why he’s doing so now. Thomas could’ve voiced his views earlier to a sympathetic right wing media source well before this year. One would assume, given Thomas shares their [the Tea Party’s] beliefs, he might’ve spoken out then [2009]. Or in 2010. Or last summer, when his playoff heroics would’ve made him a hot media commodity.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

August 4, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

–Daniel Alfredsson talked about returning to the team:

I’m not saying this is my last year. If I can still play and contribute, I’ll continue. I had issues with my back for a few years, and now that I finally feel healthy again, I want to see how good I can be. You see players at 40 and 40-plus like (Jaromir) Jagr and (Teemu) Selanne, and maybe it’s a new trend that’s starting, that if you look after yourself and take care of yourself, you can play. Who knows what the limit is? That’s an intriguing part for me, how far I can push myself. How good can I still be? I feel like I can get better, especially looking back at the health issues I’ve had, feeling that I’ve corrected that. I should be able to push myself and be better, especially physically, than I was last year. I’m good with the way the contract is. I’ll just play out the last year of the contract and go from there. I think I’ve had the intention of playing (next season) from the beginning, but I had to go through the process to really know for sure. With my back problems … I haven’t really been able to work out as I would have liked for the last, probably, four years. With the surgery last summer, having to do a lot of rehab and I didn’t get the proper training in, I didn’t know where I stood physically and mentally. It took some time, but the training has been going well. I’ve really enjoyed it, so I’m really happy that I feel this way in the process of getting ready for another camp. I could probably have made my mind up a little quicker if I felt the team needed to know for whatever reason, but I also feel this is a good time. The training the last two weeks has gone into another phase, more heavy lifting, and that’s gone well. I probably could have waited for another month, but this feels right. Once that day comes, I’ll look forward to the challenges. But when you feel as healthy as I do … if you retire too early, you’ll kind of look back and say ‘Maybe I should have played another year or two. My kids have (had) me playing the whole time. They’ve been bugging me and I think they would have been really disappointed if I didn’t play. And my wife and I, we feel that our family situation will be easier this season coming up than it was last year, with a newborn baby (William Erik) and sleepless nights. We have more of a routine now. She’s kind of been hoping, too, that physically I would feel fine and play another year and postpone everything that comes with retirement and starting a new chapter in our lives. We’ve got pretty good control of what to do when I’m playing and how to handle me being away and whatnot, so she’s been extremely supportive, too. That’s makes me feel a little less guilty, I guess, about playing another year because I know how much time it takes away from family.

–Stu Hackel offers an outsiders view of Alfredssson deciding to play another season.

–Nichols transcribes Eugene Melnyk’s chat with The Team 1200 yesterday and while I encourage you to read the entire article what interested me was this:

I gave up with this theory [big moves] about going over the top. I really did. We blew our brains out spending to the cap and what we proved last year is that we don’t have to do that. I mean, all that does is cover up our mistakes. Really, at the end of the day, if you invest into scouting, into development of these players, you’re going to get what you’re going to get. And you can’t buy that. You can’t buy heart. You can’t buy the fans. You can’t buy the dressing room. And my attitude, look, we were going to bid on a couple of these (free agents). We were prepared to. We had presentations done. We were all ready to go. We put our July 1st holidays on hold and I called Bryan two days before and I said, ‘Bryan, did you see these contracts and numbers that these people are throwing around?’ and he said ‘Yep. That is what we’re going to have to pay.’ And I said, ‘Do you want to blow your weekend with your grandkids and kids on July 1st and waste our time because we’re not going to spend that kind of money?’ And he says, ‘No, let’s enjoy our barbeques and let somebody else blow their brains out.’ And they did it. I don’t wish them bad luck, but I don’t think that (spending frivolously) is the solution.

Whether you wish Melnyk was willing to bid on big free agents or not I’m happy the team has given up on the futile practice.  The best free agents do not want to come to Ottawa, so rather than overpaying broken down older players like Alexei Kovalev I’m happy to see the organisation focus on developing talent and then paying those players big salaries when the time comes.

–Travis Yost compares how Cory Clouston and Paul MacLean differed in which players they started in the offensive zone (the most amusing for me was Ryan Shannon‘s 61.5% under Clouston).

-Here’s my look at Binghamton‘s roster changes and their potential lineup for the upcoming season.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

August 2, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

The Binghamton Senators finished 30th in the AHL with a 29-40-7 record for 65 points, which represents a 27-point (and 13 win) drop over last year’s Calder Cup winning season (when they were 12th in the league).  The team was 23rd in scoring (their 201 goals was 54 less than last year), and 27th in goals against (their 243 goals 22 worse than last year).  The team featured 11 rookies, 7 of whom were regulars in the lineup.  Twelve players from the Calder Cup team remained (thirteen if you count Daugavins’ brief tenure with the team).  Tim Murray admitted the unexpected retirement of Lee Sweatt hurt the team a great deal (comparing him to Andre Benoit), and admitted the other veterans he signed (Parrish and Conboy) weren’t able to replace those lost from the previous season (Ryan Keller and David Hale are the most likely parallels, although Murray also mentioned Ryan Potulny who was acquired by trade mid-season).  It was a disappointing season for the team, although it did feature some was positive development for individual players.  Here’s my full review of the season.  Sixteen players will no longer be with the team when it begins next season, removing 76 goals from the lineup (37% of last season’s total).

Departed Forwards (9): Corey Locke (38-10-31-41) to TPS in the SM-Liiga; Rob Klinkhammer (35-12-23-35) to the Portland Pirates; Mark Parrish (51-15-15-30) UFA; Jack Downing (47-9-8-17) tryout with Binghamton; Jim O’Brien (27-7-7-14) NHL; Nikita Filatov (15-7-5-12) to Salavat Ufa in the KHL; Mike Bartlett (58-3-4-7) to HC Innsbruck in Austria; Kaspars Daugavins (7-2-4-6) NHL; Francis Lessard (43-1-1-2) UFA.  O’Brien and Daugavins were both re-signed to one-way deals with Ottawa.

Departed Blueliners (5): Craig Schira (73-4-9-13) to Frisk Asker in Norway; Tim Conboy (53-2-9-11) to Ingolstadt in the DEL; Dan Henningson (32-2-8-10) UFA; Josh Godfrey (38-2-6-8) Las Vegas (ECHL); Bobby Raymond (38-0-4-4) retained by Florida (ECHL).

Departed Goaltenders (2): Mike McKenna (14-18-5, 2.98, .918) to Peoria; Brian Stewart (no AHL games) to Bakersfield (ECHL).

Departed Coaches (1): Kurt Kleinendorst

Many of the players above were part-time in one way or another.  In essence Binghamton lost a top-four defenseman (Conboy), a bottom-pairing blueliner (Schira), a quality back-up goaltender (McKenna), roughly three top-six forwards (Locke, Parrish, and Klinkhammer/O’Brien), an enforcer (Lessard), and a couple of depth forwards (Bartlett and Downing).  The team also lost its head coach in Kleinendorst who was very popular with his players.

Forward Additions (7): Hugh Jessiman (AHL 67-27-17-44), Mika Zibanejad (SEL 26-5-8-13), Mark Stone (WHL 66-41-82-123), Shane Prince (OHL 57-43-47-90), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (QMJHL 46-32-33-65), Darren Kramer (WHL 71-21-19-40),  Jakub Culek (QMJHL 55-13-27-40).  Pageau and Prince can be returned to their junior teams.

Blueline Additions (5): Andre Benoit (KHL 53-5-12-17), Tyler Eckford (AHL 75-10-15-25), Chris Wideman (NCAA 41-4-20-24), Ben Blood (NCAA 42-3-18-21), Fredrik Claesson (SEL 47-1-6-7).

Goaltending Additions (2): Nathan Lawson (AHL 19-17-4 2.57 .914), , Marc Cheverie (ECHL 10-4-8 2.71 .910)

Coaching Additions (1): Luke Richardson

There are a lot of forwards slated for Binghamton (I am making the assumption Jakob Silfverberg plays in Ottawa) and while some will likely spend time in Elmira (ECHL) I have to imagine that either a CHL-eligible player will be returned to junior or else there will be some player movement.  I’m assuming that Zibanejad will be in Binghamton and if so he’s one of three potential top-six forward additions (along with Jessiman and possibly Stone); Kramer is expected to fill the enforcer role while the other players will slot in the bottom of the lineup.  The blueline has been completely overhauled with Benoit as the #1 defenseman and Eckford filling out a top-four slot; the other blueliners will fight for bottom-pairing slots with time in Elmira not out of the question.  Lawson is a quality back-up.  Luke Richardson has his first head coaching job and it will be an interesting challenge for the former NHLer.

Returning Forwards (10): Mike Hoffman (76-21-28-49), Andre Petersson (60-23-21-44), Pat Cannone (76-19-24-43), Stephane Da Costa (46-13-23-36), David Dziurzynski (72-11-17-28), Derek Grant (60-8-15-23), Corey Cowick (53-5-6-11), Wacey Hamilton (74-5-6-11), Louie Caporusso (ECHL 29-16-16-32), Cole Schneider (NCAA 38-23-22-45)

Returning Blueliners (3): Mark Borowiecki (73-5-17-22), Eric Gryba (73-5-15-20), Patrick Wiercioch (57-4-16-20)

Returning Goaltenders (1):  Robin Lehner (13-21-2, 3.26, .907)

Among the returning forwards three will definitely be in the top-six (Hoffman, Petersson, and Da Costa), while Cannone could slide down.  Dziurzynski and Grant round out the top-nine while the remaining forwards will compete to play on the fourth line.  There’s a good chance Borowiecki will stick with the Sens, while I think there’s no chance of Lehner beating out Bishop and staying in the NHL–not because he’s incapable, but because I don’t think the organisation will risk putting Bishop on waivers.  Either all three of the defensemen can be slotted into top-four roles or if (as expected) Borowiecki is absent than just Gryba and Wiercioch get those slots.  Lehner will be the unquestioned starter.

Training camp will have an impact on positioning, so predicting a lineup is haphazard at best.  Here’s what I think as things stand now (and using my assumptions about Borowiecki being on the NHL roster):
1. Top-six forwards: Mike Hoffman, Andre Petersson, Stephane Da Costa, Hugh Jessiman, Mika Zibanejad, and Pat Cannone
2. Top-four blueliners: Andre Benoit, Eric Gryba, Tyler Eckford, and Patrick Wiercioch
3. Bottom-six forwards: David Dziurzynski, Mark Stone, Derek Grant, Wacey Hamilton, Darren Kramer, Cole Schneider
4. The goaltending situation: Lehner starts, Lawson backs-up

I’m assuming Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Shane Prince will be returned to junior.  This leaves three forwards on the outside looking in (Corey Cowick, Louie Caporusso, and Jakub Culek) and I really wonder if the Sens will want that many prospects playing in Elmira or simply practising with the team.  Given their ages, Cowick and Caporusso are the players most likely to be moved if that’s the direction the Sens want to go.  Mark Stone could crack the top-six, but he may wind up as a top-nine forward to start his pro career.

Ben Blood will play regularly as the 5-6 blueliner, while Chris Wideman and Fredrik Claesson will battle it out for the rest of the ice time.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

August 1, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 5 Comments