–Kaspars Daugavins‘ arbitration hearing has been set for July 24th.  Ken Warren writes “If the Senators don’t like the ruling, they can simply walk away from the decision, allowing Daugavins to become an unrestricted free agent. If, on the other hand, Daugavins is awarded another two-way deal, paying him different salaries based on whether he plays in the NHL or the AHL, he could opt to play in the KHL with a team in Riga, Latvia, his home country.”  Warren’s impression that the Sens can walk away is contrary to what Nichols wrote yesterday.

–Bryan Murray says he’s going to look for a Chris Neil clone via trade…I wish him the best of luck with that.  Tough players who can also play the game effectively are extremely rare and virtually never available and I don’t see him moving an asset for a one-dimensional heavyweight.  It’s also not clear to me if Murray meant he’d make such a move any time soon, as what does “We have to address that vacancy somehow and we will do that, but (Neil) has still got to play that role for us, hopefully with the assistance of other players” really mean in terms of urgency?  One wonders if the comment was meant to make the Don Brennan’s of the world shut-up about toughness for awhile.

-Speaking of toughness, Ellen Etchingham has a great article about Cam Janssen and similar players that we hear so much about:

Notice how there is no mention whatsoever of helping the team, of protecting stars, of making space for scoring? Nope. It’s all the self-aggrandizing rhetoric of threat. When Janssen talks about his role on the ice, it consists entirely of this: fighting whoever is willing to fight him and head-hunting whoever has the puck. The only person he’s interested in protecting is himself, from people saying mean things to him. Since all the rules restricting fighting came into play, the only way real way erstwhile ‘policemen’ can make themselves useful is by trying to use intimidation tactics, and not the intimidation that comes from fighting, but the intimidation that comes from concussing. So let’s just drop all the crap about ‘protecting stars’ and ‘making space.’ Maybe that’s how it was in the eighties, but that ain’t how it is now.

This is a great point and what does it say about Janssen‘s value that the best he can do in the NHL are back-to-back a two-way deals?

Cam Janssen doesn’t exist to make hockey safer for good players. He exists to make it more dangerous for them. He exists to skate around uselessly until he sees someone get the puck and have to put themselves in a momentarily vulnerable position to make a play and then hurt them. And he’s proud of it. Goons get all the fucking honorifics in hockey. So brave! So tough! So selfless! Bullshit. Where is the fucking honor in that? Where is the courage? What is so selfless and noble about sneaking up behind skill and destroying it? In fact, you know what? If anything, that sounds a bit like cowardice to me, because it’s doing a kind of harm to others that you never have to face yourself. Cam Janssen doesn’t have to worry about somebody leveling him while he’s carrying the puck because in the NHL Cam Janssen couldn’t carry the puck if they let him do it in a fucking Easter basket. Oh sure, he’ll attack people face to face, when he can see punches coming and can hit back. He’ll fight people fairly. But the kind of unfair, non-consensual violence he’s talking about inflicting on others is the sort he doesn’t have to face himself, because he is a terrible hockey player who barely has the puck long enough to be vulnerable with it. He’s not a policeman. He’s a scavenger. If Janssen’s shit actually worked the way he described, the Devils would be playing him fifteen minutes a night on the top line so he could terrify opposing forwards into coughing the puck up for Kovalchuk. Instead, they don’t dress him for half the regular season and not even one playoff game, and when they do let him play, they give him only five of the very softest minutes against the easiest opposition.  Cam Janssen plays the tenderest, juiciest minutes in the game and he still gets roundly crushed in more or less every available metric, including fights lost.  You know what that means? It means Cam Janssen can’t scare anyone out of anything. Maybe opponents are intimidated in some way. Maybe they know exactly what he means to do to them and feel fear. But, evidently, they swallow their fear and make the play anyway, even knowing that he may come in late and high and knock them out.  But usually he doesn’t.  Most of the time, his puck-carrying opponents succeed in their goal and he fails in his, and the only people who are really intimidated are the Devils’ coaching staff, who are patently scared to have Janssen on the ice in any game or situation that actually matters.

This is a fantastic deconstruction of what “tough guys” really are.  They fight staged, irrelevant fights with other players who are just like them (Konopka) and their only success in limited ice time is to blow up a better player.  It’s a predatory role in which they mostly fail.  There’s certainly no metric that illustrates having more tough guys on the roster equals success.

People will tell you that loving tough hockey means loving enforcers. No. Guys like Janssen, Parros, they’re a very recent invention, a product of the last 30 years or so. For most of hockey history, there was no space on rosters for anyone who couldn’t play, and the famous old-time tough guys could carry the puck and throw a hit both. If anything, hockey was tougher when players, star or checker, fought their own battles, rather than downloading the entire team’s violence onto one or two marginal players. Hockey was violent before the designated goon and it will still be violent after. The Boston Bruins, widely considered one of the best and toughest teams of recent years, have not one roster player who registers an average of less than nine minutes of ES time per game, not one who requires the kind of sheltering Janssen does, and not one who gets killed nearly so badly on the shot clock. Call Shawn Thornton a thug if you want, but he can play in the postseason. People will tell you that hockey has always been violence and gore, and that’s true, but it is also true that it’s changed a lot and is changing still. There are things that used to be acceptable- stick violence, bench-clearing brawls- and are now anathema to nearly everyone. Head-hunting is next on the list. Maybe it was cool in the 90s, maybe everyone loved it back then. But we know things now that we didn’t know then, and among the things we’ve learned is this: if we let it, head-hunting will destroy this game. It will cripple our stars and our grinders alike, it will ruin lives and ruin the image of the game. This story doesn’t just end in bloodshed, it ends in dementia and lawsuits. It doesn’t matter if hockey used to be that way for a hundred years. It can’t be that way anymore.

Unfortunately for Etchingham (and everyone else who enjoys the actual game of hockey) the GMs who run the league are older and carry a lot of notions derived from the 70s and 80s when it comes to how they fill out their lineup.  They are also well aware of the inept discipline in the NHL and realise that the once or twice a season their tough guy knocks out another player he’s 1) unlikely to be punished, 2) even if he is, the punishment doesn’t hurt the team.  Change at the NHL level won’t come until there’s a new generation of management and the current generation of hockey writers cheerleading these kinds of players disappear.

July 13, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 4 Comments

-The Chris Neil signing is now official

–Don Brennan echoes himself and Bruce Garrioch (from last week) by writing another article about how the Sens aren’t tough enough.  Unlike in the other columns Brennan actually includes a theory behind why they need to be tougher, “Many feel that Ottawa was able to stage so many third-period comebacks last season partly because opponents knew that if they ran up the score, they’d take a beating from Neil, Konopka or Carkner.”  This is, of course, nonsense, but let me unpack it: both Neil and Carkner were part of the 2010-11 team that didn’t come back on anybody, so unless Konopka by himself was causing comebacks in the games he played, the idea simply doesn’t wash.  There’s really no sense to the sentiment at all, as Carkner barely played last season, Konopka was scratched during the stretch run.  It’s also not an argument based on facts–it’s a “feeling” based on the addition of one player (Konopka).  This argument about toughness has been dynamited over and over again, but oddly has some kind of currency in the blogosphere.  [Travis Yost also points out flaws in the argument.]

–Nichols points out that Bruce Garrioch’s (and others) expectation that the Sens can walk away from Kaspars Daugavins after arbitration are wrong.  What they can do is either buy him out or trade him (the latter is more likely).

-Here’s my profile of Tyler Eckford.

July 12, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 5 Comments

Tyler Eckford (DL, 6’1, DOB 1985, 7-217/04, Capgeek: 600k/175k)
2009-10 AHL Lowell 61-8-23-31 +11 26pim (ppg 0.51)
2009-10 NHL New Jersey 3-0-1-1 Even 4pim (ppg 0.33)
2010-11 AHL Lowell 37-2-10-12 -8 12pim (ppg 0.32)
2010-11 NHL New Jersey 4-0-0-0 -1 0pim (ppg 0.00)
2011-12 AHL Portland 75-10-15-25 -13 37pim (ppg 0.33)

An offensively-minded blueliner whose career year was three seasons ago, Ottawa signed him to a two-year, two-way deal.  Eckford played for Portland last year (Phoenix’s affiliate), his first season away from the Devils organisation.  Portland was one of the more offensively productive teams last year (they were 10th in AHL scoring) and Eckford finished second in defensive scoring and ninth in overall points .  He also had the worst plus/minus on the team among those players who played the bulk of the season (no one played more games for the Pirates than he did).  Hockey’s Future has an embarrassingly positive (and dated) assessment of him, “His added strength on his skates made him more powerful, yet allowed him to maintain his speed and mobility. It has also allowed him to be more effective in his one-on-one play in addition to being more physically aggressive. Eckford, a converted forward-to-defenseman, possesses great puck skills. His superb ability to distribute the puck smartly and effectively has made him a mainstay on the Nanooks power play. Eckford has great on-ice vision and awareness. He has little trouble finding and getting passes to open teammates. He can make some really nice tape-to-tape passes and sets up his teammates remarkably well. He loves to join the play and this season also saw some marked improvement in his transition game.”  Once considered a legitimate NHL prospect (see the link), those lofty goals are now discarded.  His addition will help insulate Patrick Wiercioch and add offensive depth on the blueline and I expect him to play in the top-four.  The only odd thing in Eckford‘s history is that he missed a chunk of the 2010-11 for unexplained family reasons, but clearly whatever those were had no discernible impact on him last season.

July 12, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

-According to multiple reports Ottawa has re-signed Chris Neil to a three-year deal that should see him finish his career with the Sens.  If the salary reported is accurate it’s a good deal for the Sens, although given Neil‘s rough and tumble style I wonder if he’ll play through it all.

–Capgeek provides the numbers for Tyler Eckford: 600k/175k.

-I meant to comment on Nichols article about the Sens for the upcoming season, but I forgot in the excitement of the Tyler Eckford signing.  With that out of the way, Nichols has a lot to say that I’ll do my best to summarize the massive amount of text:

For all the praise that we can bestow upon management for finding good value on the free agent market, it’s not like the organization didn’t try to pursue some expensive, big name talent.  According to reports out of Columbus, Bryan Murray got deeper into Rick Nash trade negotiations than any other team. It is entirely possible however that their level of interest in Nash was partially driven by optics. The same optics that Tim Murray acknowledged in a radio interview – explaining that management has to kick the tires on these sorts of players because they do have to answer to ownership and a demanding fan base. The Senators are willing to move young assets in a package to land a quality talent whose best seasons lie ahead of him and will likely align themselves with the young talent that the organization has done an excellent job of stockpiling. It’s somewhat staggering to see the number of people who have emphasized the need to find another top six forward who can help the organization take that progressive next step towards contention. Over the past few weeks, bloggers and the traditional media types have been spit-balling ideas and concocting unlikely scenarios that could net the organization productive wingers. Nevertheless, even without adding one of these players, the optimism surrounding next year’s Senators team is unmistakable. And it’s for that reason that it pains me to bring up a filthy word like regression during the offseason -that time of year when the standings reset and every NHL fan base should be filled with renewed optimism and hope for how the next season could unfold. With 192 man games lost due to injury during the 2011/12 season, the Senators were tied with the Los Angeles Kings for the fifth lowest total in the league. In looking at the injuries that Ottawa accumulated, they were fortunate enough to have their best players go through the season relatively unscathed. With the career years that Michalek and Karlsson enjoyed while veterans like Kuba, Spezza and Alfredsson flourished, Ottawa was fortunate that their best players were able to stay healthy and productive. One of the most common arguments that I have heard fans allude to when describing why Ottawa can be better next season pertains to Craig Anderson. From October through December, the Senators’ number one goalie sported some ugly [numbers]. From January through April however, Anderson’s [numbers improved]. Interestingly however, his record during these two splits is almost identical – a 17-12-3 record from October-December versus a 16-10-3 record from January through April. In other words, despite Anderson’s poor individual performance, the team still won a similar proportion of the games in which he played because he was bailed out one of the league’s highest scoring offences.

Nichols goes on to say he’s more concerned about the Sens blueline than its forward group, fearing that age will mean a drop in the performance/production of Gonchar and Phillips, that there’s no guarantee Methot will be able to handle top minutes, that Erik Karlsson can repeat his numbers, or that Jared Cowen is ready for the next step.  He’s also concerned that Ottawa’s prospects aren’t yet ready to make up for lost production, but does believe the players lost to free agency and via trade should cut down on the number of penalties the Sens take.

So what do I think?  I largely agree with Nichols.  In many ways things did go the Sens way this past season.  There were minor bumps in the road–Filatov went back to the KHL, Zibanejad and Da Costa weren’t ready for prime time, Binghamton had an abysmal year–but all the NHL veterans rebounded and the Turris trade made a huge impact on the team’s success.  Coming into the 2012-13 season the Sens have the opposite problem as the year before–they have a shortage of puck-moving blueliners which may hurt Paul MacLean’s system.  Conversely, they have an abundance of forward prospects while remaining thin on definitive top-six forwards and have solidified their goaltending.  It’s easy to imagine the Sens slipping back into the pack, if any key player (Karlsson and Spezza in particular) has injury problems or an off year.  Regardless, I think they will remain an entertaining team to watch.

–Darryl Dobbs takes a fantasy look at the Sens and offers the following:

Mika Zibanejad will be a top-six forward in the future, but he also has the skill set to hold his own on a checking line. That should be enough for him to get a long look in camp as the possible third-line center. He made the team last year, but the Sens got off to a slow start and felt it was best for him to put in another year in Sweden. Between Zibanejad and Peter Regin, the third-line center battle in training camp will be interesting. Jakob Silfverberg won every award possible in the Swedish League last season. He captured player of the year as voted by the league and a similar award as voted by his peers. He finished second in league scoring and later led his team (Brynas) to the championship, earning playoff MVP honors. Then he joined the Sens and was tossed right onto their NHL playoff roster for the last two games (pointless in 18:21 of ice time). He’s as ready to slide into a second-line role as an unproven player can be and I recommend drafting him in all keeper league formats. Although Mark Stone acquitted himself well during his one playoff game with Ottawa, in which he notched an assist, he is best off playing a full American League season. Assuming Daniel Alfredsson returns, I really like Ottawa’s top six, though they could run into trouble if Latendresse spends the majority of the season on the IR. I like how the Sens’ goaltenders are set up from No. 1 to No. 3 and any team with Erik Karlsson on the blueline has offensive spunk. The pipeline has above-average promise in terms of fantasy appeal. Fantasy Grade: B (last year was a D+).

I’m not so sure Zibanejad will automatically makes the club, although the possible departure of Kaspars Daugavins would help his cause.

July 11, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa signed defenseman Tyler Eckford to a two-way deal.  Eckford was a 7th round pick by the Devils in 2004 and spent last year with the Portland Pirates (75-10-15-25).  The 26-year old left-hand shot has spent the last four years in the AHL, earning 7 NHL games through that time, although there’s virtually no chance he’ll suit up for the Sens.

–Scott Cullen looks at Ottawa’s free agent signings:
Mike Lundin “A player that flies under the radar, [he] was out of the lineup for much of last season due to a back injury then, later in the year, a sports hernia, but he’s been quietly effective when he does play. Lundin played only 17 games for the Wild last season and was asked to play tough minutes. He’s played more than 20 minutes per game in each of the last three seasons so, presuming he’s healthy, Lundin should step into a regular role on the Ottawa blueline.”
There’s nothing new here, but it confirms what has already been said about Lundin.
Guillaume Latendresse “is a big forward with soft hands who has flashed offensive ability in his career, but has spent most of the last two seasons on the sidelines battling a groin injury then a concussion that limited him to a total of 27 games over the last two seasons. When he wasn’t hurt last season, Latendresse played a career-high 15:11 per game and scored five goals in 16 games. If he can manage to stay healthy, Latendresse could provide secondary offence for the Senators, offsetting at least some of what the Senators lost when they traded Nick Foligno to Columbus. Considering how much time Latendresse has missed over the last two seasons, it’s optimistic to assume that he won’t run into any injury problems, but it’s a low-risk contract for the Senators. If Latendresse is a 20-goal scorer, then he’ll be a bargain. If not, it’s the cost of a make-good contract.”
I agree with Cullen that it’s a reasonable gamble that may or may not pay off.  Latendresse is essentially a place-holder while the Sens forward prospects develop.

–Amelia L looks at the investment by NHL teams into scouting post-lockout, although she admits “Admittedly, this is not an exhaustive study, more of a cursory first look at scouting in the NHL. The scouting numbers for each team are based on current website information and this information is not always complete or readily available.”  This lack of information isn’t as bad as it used to be (I know from trying to do something similar several years ago), but she’s forced to leave out Tampa Bay and Edmonton because of it.  It also means that (unfortunately) the information that is available cannot be assumed to be definitive, only indicative.  She finds that NHL clubs employ an average of 15 scouts (14.8 to be precise), with the following from highest to lowest:
Toronto 23
New Jersey 20
Vancouver 20
Winnipeg 18
St. Louis 18
Dallas 18
Chicago 17
Philadelphia 17
Washington 17
New York Rangers 16
Los Angeles 16
Buffalo 16
Anaheim 15
Pittsburgh 14
Phoenix 14
Montreal 14
Minnesota 14
Detroit 14
Boston 13
Ottawa 13
San Jose 12
Nashville 12
Florida 12
Colorado 12
Calgary 11
Columbus 10
Carolina 9
New York Islanders 9
Edmonton n/a
Tampa Bay n/a

Detroit and Toronto have the most European scouts of any team (5), with Nashville next (4); Anaheim, Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, New Jersey, the Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, St. Louis, and Vancouver have no European scouts listed (14 teams), although it’s clear from the large “miscellaneous” category of scouts that both Calgary (8) and Anaheim (13) must have some in Europe.  There’s no direct relationship that can be drawn from this snapshot wherein the number of scouts equals the quality of a team’s prospect pool, but that being said, having a gutted scouting department can’t help.

-Here’s my profile of Andre Benoit.

–Peter Raaymakers compares the opposition to the new Phoenix Coyote deal to the opposition to the redevelopment of Lansdown Park here in Ottawa.  I don’t see anything other than the most superficial similarities–in both cases tax payers are carrying the freight for private enterprise (like the Skydome in Toronto).  Fundamentally, Ottawa has to do something to Lansdowne because the structures are old and dangerous, so it wasn’t a question of revamping it or not, but rather how.  Phoenix has a financial white elephant in the Coyotes and unlike Raaymakers I don’t think it’s a done deal that they will stay (for the sake of Phoenix tax payers I hope they don’t).

July 10, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Andre Benoit (DL, 5’11, DOB 1984, undrafted, capgeek: 650k/300k)
2009-10 AHL Hamilton 78-6-30-36 +18 63pim (ppg 0.46)
2010-11 AHL Binghamton 73-11-44-55 +2 53pim (ppg 0.75)
2010-11 NHL Ottawa 8-0-1-1 -1 6pim (ppg 0.12)
2011-12 KHL Spartak Moscow 53-5-12-17 -1 34pim (ppg 0.32)

The undersized undrafted star for the Kitchener Rangers enjoyed a career year two seasons ago while winning a Calder Cup with Binghamton (the second Cup of his career).  Last year he decided to earn big money in the KHL and signed with Spartak Moscow and finished third in scoring among Spartak’s blueliners and was eighth overall.  His team was one of the worst in the KHL (19th out of 23), and while he enjoyed the experience he wanted to return to North America so that his daughter could attend an English school.  The Sens did not want to lose him last year and are ecstatic to have him back.  Benoit is one of those “local products” the Murray’s love so much (hailing from St. Albert), but it’s not merely a feel-good story because he will make a big impact on Binghamton’s punchless blueline.  As a long-time pro there’s not much assessment needed for what he’ll bring to Binghamton and if he stays healthy for an entire season he’ll add a lot of offence to the team.  Here’s Benoit talking about his first NHL game (as a Senator in 2011).

July 10, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

–Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus provides his organisational rankings for NHL prospects.  You’ll recall his unorthodox theories regarding the lesser value of defensemen and goaltenders (here; his methodology was not reflected in this year’s draft).  He also tells us about his cut-off point for a prospect, “The Calder Trophy uses a 25-games-played cutoff to determine eligibility and that’s partly what I’ve chosen to use. However, to make sure prospects who played a good number of NHL games in previous seasons and were sent down in the next season were not disqualified, I am using 25 GP in the 2011-12 season. I also think the Calder Trophy’s cutoff of six games in any two seasons was too strict, so I’ve decided to use 50 games. Also for dealing with Russian transfers, I’ve decided if a player is signed in the KHL past their age-22 season they become ineligible for the purpose of these rankings as a prospect until they sign in North America. I use 22 as it’s the age most prospects drafted out of the CHL have their entry level contracts end. Also per the Calder requirements, an age cutoff of 26 or younger as of September 15th is used so a player like Roman Cervenka is eligible. The second change has been to my ranking philosophy. Last year, I predominantly favored whichever team had the most “top prospects”. While am I still valuing that very heavily, I put more emphasis than last year on teams who have systems that have significant talent throughout. That doesn’t mean the teams that have a lot of bottom-six type prospects, but just talented players who may not be top-tier prospects.”  The list:
1. Florida
2. New York Islanders
3. Detroit
4. Minnesota
5. Ottawa
6. Chicago
7. Tampa Bay
8. Anaheim
9. Edmonton
10. Montreal
11. New York Rangers
12. Pittsburgh
13. Dallas
14. Washington
15. Toronto
16. Boston
17. Columbus
18. Buffalo
19. St. Louis
20. Calgary
21. Los Angeles
22. Nashville
23. Winnipeg
24. Vancouver
25. Carolina
26. Colorado
27. New Jersey
28. Phoenix
29. San Jose
30. Philadelphia

His specific comments about the Sens: “Ottawa has a ton of good players throughout its ranks and its depth can rival the Panthers and Islanders. They lack the top-end prospects outside of Mika Zibanejad to get into that same tier with the four systems I have ranked in front of them, but they have quite a few very good ones.”

-A good illustration of why size in the NHL is not indicative of anything is made by Jonathan Willis who lists team’s by size and where they finished (for example, Edmonton had the league’s biggest blueline; the Cup winners were middle of the path at 13th, while Ottawa was 16th).

–Brad Kurtzberg posted his list of the 25-worst free agent signings.  Alexei Kovalev is the only Sen to make the list (#16).  Glen Sather is the GM with the most members on this list with five (including three in the top-ten).

-I’ve always been fascinated by European leagues and how they compare to the NHL, so I took a look at the success of post-lockout players signed out of Europe (either as free agents or older prospects), with a particular emphasis on their production.

July 9, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Things are getting desperate for Don Brennan as he tries to perform a Jedi mind trick on his limited readership to convince them that he wants the Sens to try and sign Alexander Semin (Varada, via the link below, likes the idea).  Brennan doesn’t like Russian players and there’s no basis for the speculation (all that’s happening is that Semin‘s agent is trying to drum up limited interest by listing Semin‘s demands to play more).  Brennan also throws out the exploded chestnut that the Sens need to hit the cap floor and therefore must spend (I don’t know how many times I and others have to explain that this is wrong, although in fairness to Brennan the idea came to him via blogger speculation, so it’s only indirect ineptitude).

–Varada says a number of things in his sign-off to free agency, but the part I enjoyed most was “Ottawa looked at their forward depth (and for our purposes here, I’m using “depth” to mean a very good number one center, a goal scorer with bionic knees, a 40 year old who might not come back, a reclamation project, and a bunch of rookies), and then at their back end, and decided to switch one out for the other.”  He’s referring to the Foligno–Methot trade, but it’s his description of the Sens’ forwards that amuses me.

–Jared Crozier is still worried that the Sens aren’t tough enough and that their divisional rivals might take their lunch money now that Carkner et al have departed.  He writes “Toronto added size in James Van Riemsdyk, Montreal brought in the leagues leader in fights Brandon Prust as well as Colby Armstrong, Buffalo toughened up through trade acquiring Steve Ott and Free Agency with John Scott and the Boston Bruins are well, the Boston Bruins, who hit the ice every game with beating their opponents up in mind.”  Let’s deconstruct this: if size is what Crozier is concerned with, Marc Methot is also big (so was Filip Kuba for that matter and so am I–maybe I should make a few phone calls), so what’s his point with Van Riemsdyk?  The addition of Prust means the Habs have gone from one fighter to two (Armstrong isn’t much of a fighter), which makes them marginally tougher (but could they have been less physical?).  John Scott played 35 games last year and was only in five fights (all against other regular pugilists), so I guess he’ll get to fight Carkner on the Island along with the usual suspects (when he’s in the lineup), to which I say so what?  Steve Ott is a significant addition, but the Sabres remain a very small team upfront (they traded Paul Gaustad remember).  I just don’t see the big swing in physicality that he does through these personnel changes.

Additionally, Crozier makes the claim that “While Bryan Murray and the Senators decided on going down a different path then the fist fuelled season which led them to the playoffs.”  The suggestion here is that fighting is what propelled the Sens into the playoffs.  That assertion isn’t justified (nor could it be), but just limiting the idea to the players who left (Konopka and Carkner), how does that work when both players combined for a season’s worth of games played?  And what does that say about Crozier’s opinion of the current Sens players who fight?  Chris Neil, Zack Smith, Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Marc Methot, Mark Borowiecki (if he’s on the team), and a number of guys in the minors.  I just don’t see the point he’s trying to make.  The Sens aren’t going to be run out of a rink because Konopka isn’t parked in the pressbox.

–Adrian Dater answers some questions from readers and makes a couple of comments worth repeating: he reminds us that Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold was complaining about not making money three months before signing Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to their big, long term contracts; he also talks about GM hypocrisy when it comes to players exercising their rights, “GM David Poile went into an extended pout with the media after Suter picked  Minnesota, divulging what were supposed to remain private details of their negotiations. (Isn’t it delicious how NHL GMs can cut players loose any time they want (see: Richards, Mike, in Philadelphia last year), but when a player chooses to employ some hardball on them, well…..that’s just an outrage isn’t it?”

-This is very off-topic, but Andrey Osadchenko has an excellent interview with Nail Yakupov.

July 7, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

–Kaspars Daugavins has filed for arbitration and Peter Raaymakers and Nichols have already weighed in.  Both explore the CBA guidelines to the process and it’s clear that Daugavins will not be awarded so much that the Sens can walk away.  They will have to accept his contract one way or another, so the question is will they retain him if he’s given a one-way deal?  My expectation is that they will not.  Daugavins is an undersized fourth-liner who clearly isn’t part of the big picture in Ottawa, so he’ll likely be dealt if the Sens can find any takers (perhaps Bruce Garrioch will attach him to his Bobby Ryan rumours, but see below).  One thing I want to comment on from Raaymakers blog is that he says Zenon Konopka pushed Daugavins from the playoff lineup–I’d also add Mark Stone and Jacob Silfverberg.  No one moved down the lineup faster than Daugavins.

-With the death of the Rick Nash rumours Bruce Garrioch has moved on to Bobby Ryan rumours.  With no word (unofficial or otherwise) of the club talking to Anaheim about making a trade, he says sources claim they would be one of a number of teams interested.  Garrioch suggests the Ducks would want a second-line center as part of the return for Ryan (which Mark Parisi points out comes from Darren Dreger) which he believes could be Mika Zibanejad.  That idea is so absurd I can’t think of a clever way of describing how ridiculous it is.  He also suggests Robin Lehner as part of the deal (he feels the need to include Lehner in every trade rumour), even though the Ducks have no need for a goaltender; he also says the Ducks are looking for a young blueliner to replace Justin Schultz (which may or may not be true).  Finally he throws in that the Sens are below the cap floor (which isn’t a real concern, as I explained Wednesday and now Allen Panzeri has made the same point), but the Ducks are even further from the floor than Ottawa and losing Ryan for prospects would make their situation worse.  So what does this amount too?  Absolutely nothing.  Ryan won’t be a Senator.

-Nick Foligno signed with Columbus (3.05 for three years), earning far more than I would have been comfortable paying him.

July 6, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 3 Comments

–Nichols serves up a transcript of Tim Murray’s appearance on The Team 1200 and he had a lot to say, so I’ll break it down by topic:

–Marc Methot, “We’re really happy with the deal. Marc’s been around a long time; played in the OHL. Lots of history with him – not personally … just lots of viewings. You would assume that he would be very happy. No disrespect to where he came from but extremely happy to leave there and come to us for a multitude of reasons, including the one that it is his hometown. (It’s) kind of the same way as Parise went back to (Minnesota). I think it’s a plus. We gave up a good, young player to get him and we were quite willing to do that with our needs and with what we looked at going forward – with what’s in the organization and what’s not in the organization. These trades are made for today but they’re also made for years down the road. He’s excited and we’re excited and everybody hopes it works out obviously. He’s a big body. He skates well. He’s better defensively than he his offensively and obviously with Erik, we want him jumping all of the time. We want him going all the time. We want him taking chances most of the time. Maybe not all the time…but most of the time. We want him to just play his game that just won him the Norris Trophy. If you get a big body like that that can skate and recover and really, and hopefully it’s not often, but has to back Erik up… I like guys that can skate and can defend with their feet and long stick and reach and I think that’s what he is. I’m sure he’s going to get the chance to show that he can play with Erik and then it’s up to him. You can probably say the same thing about Jared Cowen; it’s just that he’s a younger player that’s all and maybe he’s not quite ready for that. Or maybe he is. Training camp will show a lot obviously.”  So there’s no guarantee he’ll play with Karlsson regularly, which is no surprise.  I think in an ideal world Methot is in the 3-4 hole on the blueline, not a 2 (just due to his lack of offensive production), but on the Sens blueline he’ll play elevated minutes.  Murray also makes it clear the Sens had no hesitation in trading Foligno, which indicates their evaluation of his contributions is much lower than some of the fan base’s.

–Guillaume Latendresse, “With the concussions, we talk about concussions all the time like we’re all experts and we don’t really know (anything). I personally don’t know everything that Minnesota did with him when he was concussed. You bring him in and you get your doctors to look at him. We have got one of the best in Mark Aubry (sp?) when it comes to concussion problems. Guillaume comes in and he’s excited to come to us and he gets cleared by (the doctors). The contract is a good contract. He’s not the perfect player and we know that. We got him at $1.2 (million) or whatever it is with a $2.0 million cap hit, so there is some incentive there for him to make more money by scoring goals. He’s not far off from scoring 24 or 25 goals a couple of years ago. He has missed a lot of time, you’re right… but that could be a blessing if the head is completely healed. The wear and tear on the body over the last couple of years where the guys are going 100 mph and killing each other (on the ice), he’s kind of missed that a little bit – which is not what he wanted. We hope he’s healthy and we think he’s healthy and we’ve been told he’s healthy but you can never tell what the next hit will do obviously. We think it was a good bet by us to try and get some talent into the lineup that wasn’t part of the silly season. It was the same time of year but wasn’t quite the same kind of contract. We think he’s [Latendresse] a top-six forward. He’s a big body. He’s going to go to the net. He’s going to score goals and get points in different ways than Nick Foligno does. It’s going to be more of a north-south game. It’s going to be take the puck to the net. It’s going to be finishing checks. Now how often he’s going to do that and how consistent he is, we’ll find out. But that’s the type of player he was in Montreal. He played well against Ottawa. In my time here, we did need some size. He’s a little bit different and I have to say because Paul (MacLean)’s been preaching skating and you have to skate, so the one thing that we said to him was, ‘Get working out and being in shape and ready to skate.’ Because he’s not the prettiest skater and he’s not the greatest skater, so we’re going to try to make it fit. He’s a little different kind of player than guys that we’ve been trying to bring into the system. But you’re always going to have players just for different reasons – Mark Stone, who we like a ton, is not a great skater but we think he fits. We can talk about wanting to skate 200’ and skating being very important to the way that Paul coaches the game, but you’re still, I believe, other players, different types of players, can thrive within that system.”  The take away here is how carefully Murray is setting up expectations for him.  The Sens know he’s not a perfect player and are hoping he’ll work hard and produce.  The backhanded comment about Foligno is an interesting one and clearly the Sens wanted Nick to play a more north-south game.

-Losing Matt Carkner, “Well, I think at the end of the day, we might have went two years. We didn’t offer that until he started talking to other teams obviously. Hey, we all like Matt and just to get it out of the way, I don’t begrudge Matt whatsoever. He has worked extremely hard (and spent) a lot of years in the minors. … His chances of winning there are probably are a little less than if he had chosen to go a different route. And that’s fine. He has worked hard. He finally got a pretty big paycheck here and he’s looked after his family here for the foreseeable future for sure… if he’s smart with his money – which I know Matt is. There’s never going to be a bad word said about him. Now do we wish that he stayed with us for a little less money and a little less term? Of course. We’re selfish. We like guys like that but certainly, there are different reasons that scared us off from that.”  I think Nichols is exactly right in that the final comment is about Carkner‘s knees.  I’m thankful the Sens didn’t offer two years and that the Islanders threw crazy money and term at him.  A great guy, but I don’t think there’s much gas left in the tank.

-In regards to media hysteria about team toughness, “I like our team’s toughness and you just named them all (Neil, Borowiecki, Greening, Smith) and I like the different aspects of toughness that those guys bring. Is there a Matt Carkner in that group? No, he’s the nuclear deterrent and that’s what he is. We don’t have that now, so it’s going to have to be more of a team-toughness type of scenario. Maybe Zack is going to have to do a little bit more. Maybe Colin is going to have to do a little bit more. We know that if Borowiecki is on the team, he’s going to be ultra-competitive and really, really hard to play against. And that’s what team toughness comes down to: being hard to play against. If John Scott takes a run at Erik and Matt (Carkner)’s not in the lineup that night or if he’s only playing half the games for us or whatever, I’m not sure that there’s much that you can do about it. In those scenarios, I think you have to let the league take care of that type of thing but I think, just so far as being hard to play against and team toughness, those five or so guys that you named, and I think other guys can step up just a little bit – not fighting fifteen times or whatever but just being hard to play against, it will make us a tougher team.”  The need for a top heavyweight remains one of the most overrated aspects in hockey.  For all the ink spilled about the Ranger series this year people seem to forget that Brian Boyle isn’t a heavyweight–he’s simply big and agitating.  Guys like John Scott and Steve MacIntyre can’t play the game, so any time they dress they are hurting their team on the ice if they aren’t attacking someone.  Incidentally, it’s interesting Eric Gryba wasn’t included in the toughness comments since he can fight, but rarely dropped the gloves this past season in Binghamton (I wonder if that’s part of the reason Borowiecki moved ahead of him on the depth chart).

-On who impressed him at the development camp, “For sure and I’m going to forget names or not mention somebody and they’re going to get an excerpt of this and they’re going to get real mad or whatever. I’m used to that now because I do like to bring up names… but I mean, Borowiecki winning the ‘hardest worker’ again. It’s almost automatic with him. He will never be the most popular guy when he’s a NHL player for us but even on some practice days, he’s not going to be very popular with his own teammates because that’s how he practices. When you go and do a one-on-one drill with him, he is going to put you on your ass; whether you like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re the star of the team or not. He’s going to bring that aspect of just never stopping; never taking his foot off that pedal. We know what he is from a skill standpoint but his intangibles, his heart and his courage are off the chart, so we’re looking forward to him obviously. Robin (Lehner) came in (to camp) in a lot better shape with a lot better attitude. He spoke about it. It was very good. It’s easy to talk about (it) so we’ll see how it keeps going here… but real good signs. Some of the younger guys like (Michael) Sdao and Ben Blood and guys like that, they’re big bodies. You’re never quite sure when the mask is on in college versus when the mask comes off. Again, it’s not fighting, when you drill somebody in college, you’re just skating away and looking for the next guy to drill. Well, at our level and in the AHL level, they’re not skating away; they’re coming back for you, so there has to be a little courage there that we’ll find out about. But they’re big guys and they’re strong guys, so we’re excited about some of the bigger guys for sure. And the smaller guys obviously, there is high skill levels with some of these guys. They are top end junior kids, Noesen for one guy, showed a huge maturity in just in his outlook on how to be a pro and how to work out. I mean, I could go on and on but there were a lot of positives from guys that don’t have big expectations but there were a lot of improvements and positives from guys that have been talked about a lot.”  The thing that strikes me is his reference to Sdao, whom fans attending this year’s camp have criticised, but clearly they aren’t seeing what the organisation is.  Sdao was the most feared fighter in the USHL when he was drafted and that intimidation will be expected in Binghamton after he graduates.  He seems to have more offensive upside than Blood who is purely a physically punishing defensive defenseman.

–Bruce Garrioch leaps into the Don Brennan sky-is-falling boat as he bemoans the loss of pressbox regulars Matt Carkner and Zenon Konopka.  Of the players The Ottawa Sun loves seemingly only Chris Phillips remains, but fortunately they can drown their sorrows with some of the Big Rig’s brew.  I don’t share the same level of dislike for Garrioch that most Sens bloggers do, but Bruce should be professional enough to separate his emotional ties to players and look at the big picture.  Konopka‘s loss has no impact on the team whatsoever–almost all his fights were staged and his faceoff approach has just been made illegal.  Carkner did stand up for his teammates, but whatever advantage that’s supposed to make had no discernible impact the year before and the deal he signed with the Islanders wasn’t one anyone should have matched.

–Jesse Winchester and his 11 goals in 233 games await an offer from an NHL team.  I expect him to sign late with either an AHL deal or in Europe.  I think he’d look good in Binghamton, but there’s probably no room for him there given how many forwards are signed.

–Tom Urtz Jr. offers his list of the top-50 prospects following the draft.  On the Sens sides of things he has Mark Stone at #49, Robin Lehner is #19, and Mika Zibanejad is #6.  Urtz doesn’t explain how he created his list, so take it with a grain of salt.

July 5, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 3 Comments