Ottawa Senators

The Senators are in need of a true, proven reliable scoring left winger.

At the moment, the best hope rests in the young hands of either Peter Regin, Nick Foligno, or Milan Michalek.

All of these players have the skill to be top six wingers, but none are proven, or yet reliable.  Worse, the best of the three, Milan, is really a right winger, but due to a lack of depth on the other side of centre, is being forced to play out of position.

How much better would he be playing in his natural position?  We’ll never know unless the Sens get someone to fill his role on the left.

This issue runs in stark contrast to the depth on RW.

Alfredsson, Michalek, Kovalev, Shannon, Butler.

So who might be available at this point?

Well, it’s a good news bad news scenario.  There are likely proven offensive wingers out there, but every one of them have issues.

Simon Gagne

Oh Simon, what skill, speed, energy, fragility.  Gags is a 225 lb power forward in a 185 lb body.  Six games into the season a neck injury had Gagne watching as TBL played lights out without him.  His recent return has not been overly impactful (6gp/3 pts) and rumour has it Yzerman would consider moving the remainder of his one-yeaer salary in return for some depth experience.

Possible trade: Simon Gagne for Jarkko Ruutu

Marty Havlat 

We all know what Havlat brings.  Energy, enthusiasm, scoring prowess and a chance to gain some LTIR cap relief.  With Mach9 on the roster, you can spend to the cap, knowing LTIR is surely to free up some call-up room.

The biggest issue in landing Havlat would be the high expectation in return.  Either they will happily divest themselves of Marty’s long-term deal, or they will expect a Kovalchuk type return.

Possible trade: Havlat for Kovalev, 2011 2nd.

Alex Frolov 

Frolov is Kovalev light.  He oozes skill, but plays with an edge…an edge of apathy.  The big benefit is he currently rides a one-year deal, so if he doesn’t make an impact, he can be cut loose at year-end.  The big question is, what would Sather accept in return (not want, every GM wants the world)?  If he cost the Sens a late pick, say a third, it may worth pursuing.

Possible trade: Frolov for 2011 Third.

Jiri Hudler 

Another undersized scoring winger failing to score.  Unfortunately for Jiri, his team is kicking ass without him, and he has been a healthy scratch.  Add to this his recent flight to the KHL and Jiri may well be obtainable.

Possible trade: Jiri Hudler for Ryan Shannon, 2011 third.

Nikita Filatov 

Okay, this one is far from proven.  Another Russian, another brewing output vs. skill gap. Filatov is Erik Karlsson, on the left wing, but with a propensity for exhibiting a selfish attitude both on and off the ice. 

He’s had public spats with coaches in the NHL and WJC, he’s left the NHL for the KHL, and he’s now in the minors after failing to earn a regular role on Columbus.  Is Columbus ready to part ways with their problem child, and if so, do they expect the world in return?

Possible trade: Nikita Filatov for Jim O’Brien and 2011 second.

Even after a dominating win over the lackluster Leafs, Murray is still scouring the league looking for potential top-six help, and a way out from under first-round bust Brian Lee's two year deal, a deal he himself signed.

With ESPN's Pierre Lebrun now speaking openly about Murray offering Lee around the league, and the Sens cap concerns growing all the more pressing with every passing game, somethings gotta give.

The problem is, nobody’s willing to give anything for Lee. In fact, most teams expect to get something in return for taking him and his salary off of the Sens roster and books.

The performance of off-season depth acquisition David Hale has made Lee's presence all the more unneeded but the Sens are loathe to waive him and receive nothing in return for a first round pick, even if it was made by a previous regime.

Chatter has it the NYI have offered to take Lee, if a second rounder is tucked into his pocket.

Murray would sooner waive him, and that’s where it is soon headed if something can’t be done by the end of the week.

Foligno has apparently drawn some interest from around the league, but no doubt his being O-fer this season means teams hope to get him for next to nothing.

Rumour has it there has been some reach out from the Oil around a Cogs for Foligno swap, but really, what would the Sens gain in another smallish player?

I suspect Murray would sooner wait out Foligno’s slump than deal from a position of weakness.

The talk around Camps to Columbus just won’t go away, but so far Howson is unwilling to accept Lee as part of the package for Hejda and Murray can’t add so much salary without throwing in Lee's two year, one-way deal.

GN

With 21 games in the books, the Sens have not been having the kind of season required to see post season play.

Yes, the road losses were understandable, but the standings remain what they are, and continuing to lose, no matter the cause, will result in a failure of a season.

Make no mistake, missing the post season is failure.

So the question is; Is this team good enough to make the post season, or are the first 21, tragedy or no tragedy, a solid indication of what is to come over the remaining 61 games?

Judging by the absolute lack of crispness to the Sens of late, and early in the season, only a fool would bet against the momentum, and right now, with the exception of a good 8 game streak, the Sens are decidedly a non play-off team.

With 61 games still to play, there remains plenty of time for a good team to turn it around, but if you’re not a good team, it quickly becomes 61 games of futility.

Tonight’s performance against the LAK wasn’t even close to solid enough to make one believe the Sens have what it takes to turn this around sooner rather then later.

It kills me to say it, but right now the Sens are playing with their season on the line, and it ain’t lookin’ good.  The tentative play has to stop, and the team needs to start playing with confidence and aggression before they will be anything more than what they are now, a .500 team.

Go ahead boys, prove me wrong, I’ll gladly suffer the indignity of over-reacting vs. suffering the indignity of watching another 61 games of poor play.

The Senators are facing perhaps the biggest challenge they will face all season: How to move forward after the tragic death of Daron Richardson.

Only a week ago, the team was on a roll, having climbed out of the league basement after winning seven of their last nine games.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Hours after hearing of the suicide of assistant coach Luke Richardson's 14-year-old daughter, the teams initial reaction was to win one for her dad in an intense and perfectly played 2-0 win over the divisional rival Bruins last Saturday night.

The next two games however would see the Senators outscored 12-2, losing first to the Flyers in a 5-1 game and then to the Hurricanes on Wednesday in an empty 7-1 defeat that clearly demonstrated that the players hearts and minds were elsewhere.

And who can blame them?

Instead of heading straight to Raleigh after their game in Philadelphia, the Senators chose to fly back to Ottawa to support the Richardsons and attend the highly emotional memorial service held at Scotiabank Place that saw thousands of family, friends and fans attend.  Catching a chartered flight that afternoon, the Senators landed in Raleigh just two hours before the game was to start.

"It's trying to support Luke and (wife) Stephanie and the family as much as we can and being able to be there," said captain Daniel Alfredsson, a long-time supporter of the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health.  "We felt it's the right thing to do and something we wanted to do, obviously. We play hockey for a living. It's our job, but this is more important."

"It's very tough," coach Cory Clouston added. "Not much time goes by that it doesn't enter your mind. You can try and guard against that, but sometimes ... They're not robots. They care about Luke and his family."

Center Mike Fisher, a deeply religious man, confirms that the team has been deeply affected by the tragedy.  "Guys are shaken up. There are guys with kids and it makes you think about how precious life is and your own situation or whatever you're going through doesn't seem so big anymore."

After their loss that evening to the Hurricanes, center Jason Spezza summed up the team's mental state: "We wanted to play really well due to the circumstances, but we didn't.  It's a terrible end to a terrible day."

Where does the team go from here?  

Can they find a way to pull together to deal with the grief and mourning?

Clouston briefly considered cancelling Thursday's practice in St. Louis to give the players a chance to grieve and regroup.  But in the end he realized that it could take some time for feelings to fade and that perhaps being on the ice together would create a sense of normalcy that the team needed.

“We just have to move forward,” said Clouston.  "Today we dealt with what we have today. Tomorrow, we’ll deal with what we have tomorrow."

After a long and difficult six days, the Senators now face the taunting task of getting their heads and hearts back on the game.

Spezza has no illusions that it will be easy: "As professional athletes, you try and separate yourself once you get into the game, but you learn that there's a lot more to life than just hockey."

“You just try to move on,” said Alfredsson. “It’s a process, but I’m sure it will stick with us for a long time, especially the guys with families. It will always be there."

Christopher Smith runs senspedia.com, an Ottawa Senators fan site.

If the hockey gods are willing, Ottawa Senators' veteran winger Alexei Kovalev should reach another career landmark on Wednesday in Carolina.

After notching an assist against the Flyers on Monday night, Kovalev sits only one point shy of joining Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny as the only Russians to score 1,000 regular season points in the NHL.

One of the most skilled hockey players in the world and also one of the most puzzling, Kovalev has come a long way since his modest days of skating on icy soccer fields in the city of Togliatti, located 1000 km southeast of Moscow in the former USSR.

As a child of four, he took his first strides in his sister's figure skates, setting in motion perhaps his form known for its speed, agility and finesse.

After overcoming heart problems at the age of eight which made playing hockey impossible, Kovalev excelled, often playing with children three years his senior.  At the age of 14, the dedication paid off when the young Alexei was invited by Dynamo Moscow to take part in a program reserved for the best hockey players in the country. 

He packed his bags and travelled to Moscow alone, developing independence at an early age as he shared a run-down hotel with fellow teammates.

Kovalev would make Russian history for the first time on June 22, 1991 when he was chosen 15th overall in the NHL Draft by the New York Rangers, becoming the first Russian player to be picked in the first round.

Only eight months later, Kovalev was making history again, this time as part of the Unified hockey team at the 1992 Winter Olympics Games in Albertville.  With the Soviet  Union crumbling and with many states breaking away from Russia, A Unified Team of Russia and the newly formed countries banded together to win the gold medal against a strong Canadian team in a tight final game.

Adding to his list of accomplishments, Kovalev also won the World Junior Championship in 1992, and was also the first Russian, along with Alexander Karpovtsev, Sergei Nemchinov, and Sergei Zubov to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup when the Rangers won in 1994.  

In 2007, he played his 1,000th career game, making him the fourth Russian to accomplish this endeavour.

Two years later, Kovalev was also the first Russian player to be a captain of an All-Star team and went on to become the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 game.

After spending time now with the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Ottawa, Kovalev has amassed 417 goals and 582 assists in 1,246 games and is only one point away from being the third Russian to tally 1,000 NHL career point.

"It's a great achievement, that's all I can say," Kovalev announced recently.  "You know, you look back and you get to the NHL at 19 years old and now you're over 1,000 games and getting to 1,000 points. I mean, it's a long journey and a big achievement. I'm definitely proud of myself."

All Senators fans eyes will be on Kovalev Wednesday night to hopefully witness this enigmatic player reach yet another landmark in his long and accomplished hockey career.

Celebration of Life Service

Alexei Kovalev and the rest of the Ottawa Senators will be attending the Celebration of Life service Wednesday morning at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa for Daron Richardson, the 14-year-old daughter of assistant coach Luke Richardson, who died tragically on the weekend.

The Senators had to obtain permission from the NHL to travel to Carolina on the day of the game against the Hurricanes.

Christopher Smith runs senspedia.com, an Ottawa Senators wiki fan site.

Just as the team's offense begins to explode, another sniper is welcomed back to the fold.

Winger Milan Michalek will play tonight after missing the last four games with tendinitis in his left knee.  When he was last on the ice, the Senators were still struggling to climb out of the league basement, having won only four of their first 10 games and managing a measly 2.6 goals per game.

A little more than a week later and Ottawa has won five of their last six games and has found the back of the net 19 times in their last five games, rising in the standings to a tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

What a difference a week makes.

The enigmatic Alexei Kovalev has contributed to the teams offensive surge with five goals in his last six games, and considering that he is only three points shy of recording his 1,000th career point, it would be a surprise if he slowed down now.

Also contributing to the offensive surge is Jason Spezza, who, despite missing five games with a nagging groin injury, has an impressive nine points in eight games, four of which were recorded in Thursday night's win over the Islanders.

And to no ones surprise, captain Daniel Alfredsson is leading the outburst with 13 points and six goals.

"We're definitely going in the right direction," Alfredsson said. "We've improved in a lot of areas and you can tell, too, that we're more poised with the puck. We're not just thinking in terms of 'okay, let's not get scored on' and giving the puck away all the time. That's something that comes with confidence."

Even with a red-hot offense, there is still room for improvement.

Goals have been hard to come by for Nick Foligno, Peter Regin and Chris Neil, all of whom are still looking for their first goal of the season.

Foligno has had ample opportunity on a line with Alfredsson and Mike Fisher in Michalek's absence, but will now have his playing time reduced, playing on the fourth line with Ryan Shannon and Jesse Winchester.

Skating with Kovalev and Spezza, Regin has managed to contribute to Ottawa's offensive success with seven assists in the season so far.  Yet Regin seems unhappy with his contributions.

"When you don't get points, you don't get the confidence," said Regin.  "Now I've had four kind of cheap assists in the last two games and then everybody thinks I'm playing great.  Sometimes it's a tough business, but I think it's going in the right direction."

Michalek had four goals in 10 games this season before leaving to nurse his knee.  Rejoining this team on their upswing should only add to their offensive punch.

Christopher Smith runs senspedia.com, an Ottawa Senators wiki site.

Ottawa's goalie controversy seems to be solved. For now.

Brian Elliott has played ten games and has a respectable six wins. In his last two wins against the Leafs and Islanders, he has stolen the game at times and has posted a 1.50 GAA and a .953 save percentage. Both times he was named one of the stars of the game.

Even with Pascal Leclaire back from his groin injury, no one on the team seems to be in any hurry to remove him from between the posts.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it," said coach Cory Clouston. "Brian has played well. He has given our guys an opportunity to get our feet back underneath us when we have struggled at times. He has been there for us. And, he’s been a real big part of how we’ve started to turn things around."

With Leclaire warming the bench for the last two games, Elliott seems even more confident and comfortable, challenging the shooters and taking smart risks that have paid off.

“Every time you get in there, you just want to be a little more confident," said Elliott.  "That goes for everybody on the team.  When that happens, guys see it and feel it in themselves and kind of get on a roll. That’s what we’re trying to do."

The funny thing is though, that even before Leclaire's injury there seemed to be no hint of a goalie controversy.

Sure, in the preseason fans and the media were looking at the Senators offence and defence and saying that it wasn't perfect yet could do the job, but it was the goaltending that had everyone questioning the team.

Elliott was remembered as the goalie who faltered in the playoffs and had to step aside, and Leclaire's reputation for constant injury had every one wondering how long he could last.

Yet when the season started, it was the lack of shots on net and poor defensive play that led to Ottawa's losses, not Leclaire in net. For the first three games of the season, Leclaire could be said to be the best Senators player on the ice.

So if Leclaire held the team together to start the season, and Elliott has been giving the team confidence since stepping in, then maybe perhaps we need to realize that Ottawa may not have a goalie controversy at all.

Perhaps we have two solid goaltenders and our habit of killing our goaltenders too soon and too often has made us blind to the fact that we don't need a superstar starter when we have two respectable goalies capable of holding the team together and stepping in when we need them.

The season is still young so there is plenty of time for me to be proved wrong, but until then I will stand by my opening sentence.

Ottawa's goalie controversy seems to be solved. For now.

Christopher Smith runs senspedia.com, an Ottawa Senators wiki site.

When does being .500 become an achievement?

When you start the season 1-4-1. 

Nobody expected the Senators to dominate the Eastern Conference, but losing ugly, night after night, was not supposed to be in the cards for a team that finished fifth the previous season and added only one new player in the offseason.

The play tested the patience of fans and management alike, with both believing there was more to be had out of the roster but growing impatient with the lack of improvement.

But, as good as going 5-2-0 feels, it has to recognized that this team has yet to beat a team of substance.

At the same time, the games the Sens won during this stretch are the games they're supposed to win.  It is by beating the weaker teams that the Sens hope to make the postseason—not by owning the East.

The Sens will get their chance to face some very good teams over the next stretch of games, with four of their next five coming against currently hot or highly touted clubs.

How Ottawa does against these clubs will speak volumes about their prospects going forward.

Is Ottawa a middle of the pack team, that might, with some luck, claw their way into the postseason, or are they a legitimate postseason contender rounding into form?

If the Sens earn six or more points out of the next five games, I'll wager the later.  Less than six points and the book will remain out on this team...at best.

It was a great win.

It was a great win against another weak team.

It was a great win against another weak team—that almost turned into another loss.

As repetitive as that was, so was the Sens' poor play with the lead.

I have harped on this from the start of the season, and like a dog with a bone I'm not going to let it go.

If you play one way and it results in domination and goals for, why would you play differently?

I simply do not get it.

Now, if the Sens played a run-and-gun game, got up then shut it down, then at least it would make sense—if it had to be an either or proposition.

But that's not the case.

The fact is, the Sens gained the lead by making smart plays on the defensive end and working hard in the offensive zone, resulting in offensive opportunities and drawing power plays.

Not run-and-gun, just a good puck-possession/pressure game

Then, instead of keeping up the solid two-way play, the Sens decided once again to try to protect a lead for more than half of the game by playing pure defense.

This doesn't work if you don't have a "shut down" pairing, let alone team.  The Sens are not Boston; if anything they're more like Detroit—a team that must play one system for 60 minutes, come what may.

As Torts says, "Safe Is Death," and this team has to stop trying to "play safe" with the lead.

Plain and simple, the Ottawa Senators need more scoring from Foligno and Regin.

Eleven games into the season and the Ottawa Senators are ranked 20th in the league for goals scored with a stingy 26 lamp lighters.  

Add to this that half of those goals have come from the trio of Daniel Alfredsson, Milan Michalek and Mike Fisher and that Foligno and Regin are both waiting for their first goals of the season, and Ottawa's scoring woes seems intimately connected to their lack of secondary scoring.

It wasn't suppose to be this way.

The 23-year-old Foligno is coming off an outstanding preseason performance, where he tallied four goals and two assists in only six games, and 24-year-old Regin raised hopes in last year's playoffs when he collected three goals and one assist in only six games.

Coming into this season, these two guys were supposed to be the young guns the offensively challenged Ottawa team needs them to be.

"We need other guys to start scoring," coach Cory Clouston said.  "They have to help out. There’s definitely room for improvement.”

The pressure is even more intense now that Michalek is out of action for at least a week due to tendinitis in his left knee and that the lines have been juggled to give both Foligno and Regin even more playing time.

Foligno has been moved up to play alongside Alfredsson and Fisher on the first line, and Regin is now playing with Kovalev and Spezza.  The two young guns should be combining for 30 minutes or more of ice time each game.

Senators GM Bryan Murray called Foligno in for a helpful chat after the team's 4-0 loss to Boston on Saturday night.

“All I told him was, ‘Don’t waste the opportunity of playing with good people,’” Murray said. “That’s all. ‘Take advantage of it.’”

"It’s just a matter of we need him to step up a little more.  He has to get some points."

Some are reading into these comments thinking it is "do or die" time for the Foligno, but more likely it was just a reminder and a nudge that he has an opportunity here on the top line and that the team needs him to make the most of that opportunity.

“I want to be able to score for this team," Foligno said.  "I believe in myself, still. I’m not to the point where confidence is at an all-time low. I’ve got to make sure I’m putting myself into those areas that are allowing me to score goals. I want to help."

“It’s just a matter of bearing down, and I think it’s going to be a matter of sooner rather than later.”

Let's hope he is right because the Senators can't wait much longer for their secondary scoring to get rolling and still be considered a possible playoff team.

Christopher Smith runs senspedia.com, an Ottawa Senators wiki site.