The Nichols‘ stenography service was plugged in and he offers us opinions on the words Pierre Dorion gives us. I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment:
I don’t want to say that a step back would be devastating to the team’s overall picture, but it would affirm the opinions of those who believe that the Senators had outlier success last year and are due for regression this season.
I would be one of those who have that opinion, although I believe Dorion is genuinely deluded thinking his team that can challenge for the Cup. In reference to Craig Anderson Nichols says:
When he plays fewer games, his numbers thrive. Whether there’s any sound reason for it is open for discussion.
I don’t think we need to parse the reason, but simply accept that this is how it is for him. Nichols could have spent more time mentioning how thin the talent on the Sens blueline is–after Karlsson there’s no true #2 (or even #3) defenseman–it’s a collection of marginal players who at best are #4’s on a more well-rounded team.
That’s a pretty passive statement regarding MacArthur’s ability to play this season. If I had to guess, it sounds like the organization already knows one way or another whether MacArthur will play this season.
And Nichols wins the prize as MacArthur did not pass his medical. As for where various high end prospects will play it will depend on their performance in camp and exhibition games–the org has been unwilling or unable to show patience when it comes them in the past (eg Ceci, Lazar, etc), and while I’d like them down in Belleville I’m dubious that will be the case. As for the old Bryan Murray canard of adding another forward: how are the Sens going to pay for one? With the internal budget it’s just not going to happen.
I wrote about Ottawa’s decision to remove 1,500 seats from the arena and Scott Stinson lays the blame at the feet of the CFL–while you can make that argument I don’t think it’s a good one (for instance, the downward trend in season tickets starts well before the arrival of the Redblacks).
James Gordon writes a human interest piece on Belleville goaltender Danny Taylor for those interested. Speaking of the BSens, Randy Lee signed another player to an AHL contract, inking 26-year old winger Daniel Ciampini, who has been a productive ECHL player (76-26-40-66) since he finished his college career.
Callum writes a gushing piece on the Sens prospects which ends with this:
A 29th place finish is absolutely not in the cards for Belleville in the AHL this season. The likes of Jason Akeson and Phil Varone will not be leading the B Sens in scoring with a measly 51 points. And when the injury bug hits in the big leagues, as it always does, Ottawa will have a far superior group to choose from.
He’s conflating his belief that a better prospect pool means better times in Belleville. As I mentioned in my early look at their roster months ago, even with Chabot and White in the lineup scoring is going to be a problem. While the team should be better than the last two anemic seasons, it’s blueline is still paper thin (especially if Chabot is in the NHL) and there’s no established scorer (Akeson was 18th in the league in points-per-game).
I posted my thoughts on the rookie tournament (unfortunately only one of the two games was broadcast). Speaking of the tournament, Pius Suter isn’t the only Swiss prospect at an NHL training camp while having an active NLA contract–Vincent Praplan is in the same situation with San Jose (he’s one of the European free agents I identified months ago).
Justin Crandall, Wichita’s big free agent signing, has jumped ship to play in Denmark. Without him the team will be dependent on Edmonton (and Ottawa) to provide offense. In the wake of his departure they signed Taylor Makin, but the low-scoring pugilist with a WHL/University background is no replacement for Candall’s scoring.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 