-Ottawa faces Washington (12-10-2) tonight and Craig Anderson will get the start. Here are the projected lineups.
–Kevin Westgarth received a two-game suspension for his elbow on Mark Borowiecki.
-The Michael Del Zotto rumours have died as fans learned the Sens were only offering Eric Gryba, Colin Greening, and Erik Condra as bait. I sound like a broken record, but this is the problem all the trade speculation of late has: no one wants what Ottawa is willing to give up (The Raaymaker has thrown Martin Erat into the mix for his own Raayish reasons).
–Varada offers a lot of sensible advice to fans who are disappointed with the team and a couple of things stand out:
There will be plenty of people who don’t watch a whole lot of Senators hockey but who are expected to produce thousands and thousands of words about the league. They will survey the standings, look at the lineup, and make a pronouncement about the state and direction of the franchise that is largely disconnected from reality. None will use trend analysis, or even drill down to individual players.
Good god Varada, save yourself the torment if you really are reading thousands of words like that! Pick and choose buddy!
most of the players are on affordable deals, or their shortcomings are more than made up for in other areas
This is worth remembering (albeit I’m not onboard with Varada’s desire to keep Chris Phillips). Moving on, I also don’t think there’s a way for a budget team like Ottawa to attract good free agents without performing well.
-Travis Yost reminded me that Jesse Spector looked at the value of first-rounders traded before their ELC’s expired towards the end of last year. I think Jesse is a bit hasty making calls on some of the most recent players, and he doesn’t differentiate between players picked early in the round and those selected later, but it’s interesting food for thought (the gist is that the players moved rarely turn out).
-TSN lost out on NHL national coverage, leaving fans saddled to the farce that is Sportsnet next year and beyond. Unless Rogers decides to dump the dead weight that their current group consists of, it’s going to be a painful 12-years for fans.
-Nichols (link above) discusses a number of things (the impact of the deal on the Sens among others), but one thing I’ll specifically echo is his (well, Elliotte Friedman’s) mentioning that Erik Karlsson‘s stride has not yet recovered and that it likely won’t be completely back until next season.
–Travis provides the counter to Mark Parisi notion a few days ago that money isn’t connected to winning in the NHL.
-Binghamton plays Syracuse (9-6-2) tonight and here’s Jeff Ulmer‘s preview.
-I don’t listen to TSN 1200 much, but it was amusing to hear Ian Mendes try to get an explanation out of his co-host (name escapes me) for why Alexander Ovechkin shouldn’t be a Hall of Fame inductee when his career is over. Whatever you think about the player, his numbers alone are enough to make him a lock (as Ian pointed out over and over).
-I probably stand alone in being unimpressed by the Sens heritage jersey. I’ve been lukewarm about Ottawa’s jersey’s in general although I do like the red one.
-Former NHL players are suing the league for its inaction on concussions. Expect the legal action to grind along for quite some time.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 