Another win for the Ottawa Senators and again some confused reactions among the fans in this city.
Fairly convincing effort against the Panthers including a two goal effort from Colin Greening. The Sens now have a chance to close out the Leafs phantom playoff hopes on Saturday night on home ice.
Here is how the standings look after tonight's win. Will announce a winner in the photoshop contest later on tonight or early tomorrow.
| NY Islanders | 78 | 30 | 36 | 12 | 72 | ||||||||||
| Ottawa | 78 | 30 | 38 | 10 | 70 | ||||||||||
| Florida | 78 | 29 | 37 | 12 | 70 | ||||||||||
| Colorado | 75 | 28 | 39 | 8 | 64 | ||||||||||
| Edmonton | 76 | 23 | 42 | 11 | 57 |
Sens Win in Florida
Moving down in the draft isn't an issue either. Who says Strome or Huberdeau wont be stars? If you look back at past drafts, players drafted 4-5 are great hockey players:
'09 Kane, B. Schenn
'08 Peitrangelo, L. Schenn
'07 Hickey, Alzner (maybe a miss)
'06 Nick Backstrom, Kessel
'05 Pouliot, Price
The list goes on. players drafted at this position will succeed.
Murray is great at drafting so we will get great picks this year (we have a crapload!) Look where we drafted Karlsson (15) and Cowen (9). Look how good they are going to be for us. Relax. Everything will be fine.
Yup, laceration to his leg.
how is this false hope??
This team will be just as good if not better next season if Anderson keeps it up.
people drafted later in the round end up being better than many selected before them pretty frequently. one example is last year. Jeff skinner was drafted 7th and look at how much promise he has.
Winning is good.
You really believe we're going to be THAT much better if we draft 3rd instead of 5th?
Based on recent play, it won't even matter if the player we draft makes the team next season.
Get your heads straight, and cheer for wins
Go Sens
The Leafs are done regardless. Ottawa must lose. It'll be nice to actually go up against a team that has something to play for. Hopefully when they watch a team with something on the line run all over our rookies they'll finally wake up and realize winning meaningless games means jack shit. So many sends fans right now sound like the clueless little Leaf fans who think their charge for 9th every season is a sign of better days to come. Idiots. Every last one of them.
Thank you Captain Obvious?
Is the draft pick so vitally important that we are willing to throw away our potential future stars that are coming up through the system? I really do want to try and understand the position you are taking.
Long time lurker first time poster but in reply to this. What future stars sir? we have future role players but can you honestly say they will be stars? this is the first time we will be able to get what is even close to the resemblance of a star player since Spezza and if the team is going to make us sit through the awful season we had to sit through I would love for a star player to be given to us in penance.
This is a unique draft year where the #1 has flipped at least 4 times already and there is not a clear cut #1. Teams selecting ahead of us will draft according to their needs, as will we. You never know who will be available 4th, 5th or 6th. What I do know is that they will have the potential of being an impact player for us down the road...that's exciting!
I think it is unwise to under-estimate what confidence will do for players like Condra, Greening and Butler. If you look at their numbers since being called up, they are equal or greatest than a lot of other teams top 6 players right now. I think you also have to consider that any of the top 6 picks in this years draft have the potential to be star players. We'll get one of them!
Dany Heatley is on pace for 25 goals this season. Not very good for a 7.5M cap hit.
Sometimes I use Heatley's name as a swearword...
I'm enjoying these wins now because I'm not watching ANY playoff hockey this year.
Marek svatos!! With 35g and 87 points maybe he is the key to our success. Haha
lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Anyway go sens go and keep winnng. They are gonna get an excellent player or two at the draft no matter how many games they win now.
Don't blame the Senators for winning, they are simply a better team than Florida and so they won. BFD.
I still refuse to cheer against this team. They're going to end up with one of RNH, Landeskog, Couturier, Huberdeau or Strome, and I'm happy with that going forward.
T.Murray even said that they thought they would be able to get the guy they would take at 2nd with the 4th pick anyway, which might mean that Landeskog isn't even the guy they want.
Now, if they can just pound that last coffin nail into the Leafs season on Saturday, I'll be satisfied until the draft.
I will however be thrilled with a win against the laughs.
don't much care about the standings for that game.
I hope we get the pick we need even if it is not first pick.
I am glad we are trying to win, the team trying to lose is bad karma and a heart killer.
I don't care if we lose but trying is important, I would not want anyone on the team next year that could float along not play 100% because it is not important today, we had that with Kovalev, I want my players to show up every night regardless of whats on the line.
The team wanting to win goes to their core.
I want a top draft pick like anyone but not at the expense of throwing games or not giving 100%
Go sens
Kick some leaf butt
This is fact.
I think TCharger, TyrantWee, and Sensarmy should go form a topic in the forum where they can cry about winning and howl about moving down in the draft. Who's with me?
The thing I think is most promising is the age of our 'young' guys. Prospects we have are all in the 20 to 24 year old range. This means they are much closer to competing for real roles with the club. When the season starts next year:
Da Costa 22
Runblad 21
Cowen 20
Karlsson 21
Gryba 22
Lehner 20
Butler 23
Condra 24
Foligno 23
Greening 25
Regin 25
Smith 23
Lee 24
Wiercioch 21
To me this means the rebuild is accelerated by the group being closer to NHL ready age. All those Murray detractors puzzle me. Especially when they showed his history of success with college players. This list was long and fairly distinguished, including Ottawa's own Dan Boyle.
Seriously, I have a stress ball for you.
You take this blog way too seriously. If these comments make you so upset, why do you keep coming back???
little off the topic but i just went on hockeybuzz and yost is now the edmonton blogger and the sens blogger is cloutier(switch eroo). was that the reason for the hold up and can we expect travis to start blogging the sens here now?
That list is horrendous!!! lol
You do realize that at that age, most players are already established in the NHL, well the good ones atleast. What you listed there is a pretty sad list of FWD's.
people always talk about how free agents don't want to sign in Ottawa. I think that's complete bullshit... the players that are here love it and there are tons of talented players that would welcome the opportunity to play in Ottawa. I've yet to hear one player state otherwise.
I expect Alfredsson to get off the schneid and for Karlsson to be dressed for this. You HAVE to beat the Leafs, no matter what the standings are.
Players have a choice in where they wanna play, im pretty sure Ottawa isnt on the top of the list.
Oh and Corvo said he didnt like Ottawa, same for Commodore.
im glad commodore didnt like it here, or else they probably would of resigned the clown
Note the word "potential" before "future stars" in my original post. Again, I am trying to understand why people have taken the view that we need to tank the season over being excited about the development of our players.
They have the possibility of having three, THREE 30 goal scorers!!
Kulemin 29
Kessel 29
Grabovski 28
McArthur 21
We will be lucky if we get one 20+ goal scorer. I think fans are letting the hate blind them in this upcoming game. The Leafs are playing exciting hockey, they stood toe to toe with the big bad Bruins and beat them to stay alive.
Im pretty sure they will beat us soundly!
Saw that. News to me actually.
Da Costa 22
Butler 23
Condra 24
Foligno 23
Greening 25
Regin 25
Smith 23
I think most people will agree that our defensive prospects are likely as good as any team in the league currently but I don't see a forward on that list with elite talent,
its great that some of our later rounders seem to be late bloomers and they'll contribute at the nhl level but if we are counting on the list you provided to return to an elite team were very dilussional...
To the Tyrants' point... most stars are lighting it up in the nhl by that age and I'd really question the ceiling of our forward prospects. WE NEED A COUPLE OF BLUE CHIP FORWARD PROSPECTS...
stamkos -21
Toews -23
Kopitar -24
Giroux -23
Kane -22
Crosby -23
Ryan -24
Eriksson -25
Tavaras -20
So you got dupped?
has nothing to do with ottawa specifically he just wants to treat his career like a normal job and leave everything at the office.
he wouldn't like ottawa, toronto, calgary, vancouver, montreal, detroit etc.
screw him -piss poor example...
GO SENS GO!!!
Thanks to everyone that entered!
i thought he looked pretty solid last night on both sides of the puck and i think he has tremedous upside. I guess that's the difficulty of a logjam on the backend.
Ottawa has signed enough 'name' players in their history that I would challenge anyone to say that they have no pull as a destination, not to mention all the players who have taken hometown discounts to stay at some point.
Hell, the last two years running we've managed a splashy signing in the summer (Kovie, Gonchar) and to nab heavily sought college FAs in the spring (Butler, Da Costa). We've been hearing a lot from players lately about how the organization's structure and honesty when doing business is a huge draw and despite its critics Ottawa is as nice as any place to live and work. We've got a lot to offer UFAs. We're hardly Edmonton/Long Island.
ahhahha mine came up really really tiny, it should look like this? but maybe facebook has a problem with the resolution? some good entries for sure!
http://i.imgur.com/16hnJ.jpg
Thanks again everyone!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SensChirp/137789796245377
Don't worry so much about moving up in the standings. Either way we'll end up with a lottery pick. There are 4 games left. Worst case is we end up with the 5th overall pick. That doesn't mean we can't try to move up in the draft. We have plenty of draft picks and remember, Murray has stated that he's looking for quality not quantity this year.
That being said, I would like to have a high draft seed. It would only do the organization good if we draft either RNH or Landeskog. I see people are trying to justify possibly drafting fifth. C'mon. We all know drafting 3rd would be better.
If we indeed draft 5th it would be perfectly fine however, as I would love to see Strome a Senator anyways. As to whether he, or whoever we may pick 5th is NHL ready-- which is the expectation-- remains to be seen.
hahah, you're getting there. you're now basically the mark zuckerberg of sens fans now!
I for one am happy they are winning, picking 3rd or 5th makes absolutely no difference to me, plenty of good players to go around.
If we go higher than 5th, I'll be a little concerned, but I think that BM will get the player he wants, he has the assets now to do that.
Check your calendars boys, its just a little April Fools prank!
I dont know he does say this aint no joke even though its april 1
Me too. Supposed to be today or tomorrow.
The leafs are playing exciting hockey now... but they were horrible to watch in the first half. They are also icing their NHL team with very few injuries.
We have a bunch of fresh kids and a ton of injuries. Michalek just came back, Alfie, Regin, Gonchar... No more Fisher, Kelly.
Leafs will lose saturday. Even if they are playing well now, in 2 years all the Burke moves will make this team implode even more. The guy is an idiot, acted too quickly and delayed their playoff return for longer than it needed to be.
The rivalry still exists because we hate the leafs. But the Sens will be dominant soon and the Leafs will be shaking in their boots.
K im just excited to read his blog here
well that is exactly what he said a couple weeks ago. Said that he is going to try to make the scouts unhappy.
Col - Larsson/RNH
Fla - Couturier
Nyi - Landeskog/Strome
Ott - Strome/Landeskog
this is how it's going down boys.
With Dacosta signed (and presumably pencilled in as 2nd line centre) I think the chances are slim we would draft couturier or huberdeau :(
what I do know, is that the rankings will be very different at the end of the season. and no matter what the analysts say, team scouts know 1000X more than the dudes on TSN, and the final rankings will not be the order players are chosen
Tyrant says "if we draft 5th we're getting a guy 4 other teams passed on" or something to that tune..
So I guess last season when Gormley and Fowler (ranked 5th/6th) were drafted at 12th/13th, Anaheim and Pheonix must have been thinking: "damn, this sucks... too bad so many other teams passed on these guys"
The Leafs may be done already, but Leaf Nation is still holding on and believing. I for one would love to rub a big Sens win in all my Leafs buddies faces and see the final nail in the coffin to their playoff hopes.
What would be even sweeter is if Alfie can play and contribute to the win in a big way... maybe a good ole' fake stick throw into the stands for old times sake :)
after the rundblad trade, I have no problem believing in our scouts.
I don't care where we end up, just beat those damn LEAFS!!!
amen buddy.
I think the player you're talking about is huberdeau.
he's slightly younger, and much less physically developped than landeskog, and couturier (larsson I wont even mention, cause I think we're getting a forward)
His number's are better than his competition, despite not being 'NHL ready'
If those guys are NHL ready, and this skinny kid is outperforming them, imagine what he'll do when he's put on 30 lbs...
What makes Garrioch so sure that it isn't improving Clouston's odds? Is he a for sure gonner?
you think hes gonna pot a goal in everynight? hes still a kid and hes also getting chances
Yes, he is a "for sure gonner". There is no way he should or will be back. He created A LOT of problems while he was here.
Nothing can be done.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Richard-Cloutier/Clouts-Corner-This-is-no-Joke/131/34888
Almost had a heart attack.
I would have lost all respect for Melynk if that happened.
Phew
When he first came up this season he was flying
His skating (one of his strengths) has been suffering for the past 2 weeks. either he is injured (doubt it) OR our strengthening/c onditioning/ska ting coaches in Bingo are better than in Ottawa
ever wonder why foligno, regin, Spezza, Karlsson, kovalev, fisher, and phillips all looked super slow at the start of the year, but all of our callups were super fast?
I think Clouston is done. our young guys will progressively get worse under his coaching.
It's nice to see so much optimism for next year but the ill-advised contracts and wasted ice time taken up by Kuba, Gonchar and Phillips will haunt this team until all are off the books.
I liked the Rundblad trade but with the logjam we have on defense maybe we would have been better off to simply draft Tarasenko or Kuznetsov both of whom have franchise player potential.
I don't think sending Butler down would be the best thing for him right now. I think he'll be fired up to play with Da Costa especially after what he said about him in the interview the other day. Wouldn't it make more sense to sit Smith or Winchester for a game since they are centres, as is Da Costa? Not saying that Smith or Winchester aren't playing well. Just a thought...
If Larsson, RNH & Landeskog are certainly the top 3 ranked players than I would be fine for Ottawa to selcet either Couturier which is who I hope they select or Strome who might have a higher offensive ceiling. Either way works for me but if we already have the smaller Da Costa on board than why not draft the bigger Couturier.
My thoughts exactly. what we've been hearing all year "theres no clear cut number 1"... so why are we in such a panic to move down 3 spots? the number 1 from the start of the year is now number 5 and the number 5 is now number 1...
Tank nation might aswell cheer for another team next season.
i have no issue with the trade but time will tell who the better pick was.
Given our luck with Russians, it was a nobrainer, I don't second guess this deal one bit.
Volchenkov was a part of this organization before all the Russian drama really became a factor.
Unless its a Russian thats the next Ovechkin, I'd say its a moderate risk that some Russians may never play for your club.
Yost may want to do both gigs, and blogging Oil there and Sens here, there would be no 'conflict of interest'.
Unlike you Johne I am a technological luddite. I'm afraid I lack the skills to use the Quote button but I'm working on it. What I and Andrews Theory were pointing out is that, as good as Runblad looks, that trade will be analysed for years to come due to the unique opportunity Ottawa had to draft an elite player at #15. The jury will be out a long time on this one.
Unless I missed out on the other 2, I believe that you have 2 more contests to post ??
Does Garioch not know that Gryba is OUT!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EjfLaimGjtU#at=51
Unless its a Russian thats the next Ovechkin, I'd say its a moderate risk that some Russians may never play for your club.
Unlike you Johne I am a technological luddite. I'm afraid I lack the skills to use the Quote button but I'm working on it. What I and Andrews Theory were pointing out is that, as good as Runblad looks, that trade will be analysed for years to come due to the unique opportunity Ottawa had to draft an elite player at #15. The jury will be out a long time on this one.
It makes little sense wondering or worrying about what might have been had we drafted one over the other. We can't change it so let's see what we can do going forward. We have all next year to see what the kids can do with our new draft. Then the year next we know what we need for cup run.
The Leafs have played well lately. Their young guys have been together 2 or 3 yrs so the chemistry and the experience is building. Add to that a young
goaltender who is standing on his head.
The Sens young guys in the lineup are mostly NHL rookies. You can't compare the two teams right now that's ridiculous.
I for one am going to the game tomorrow & the last thing I want is the Sens losing to those bloody Leafs.
The Sens will pick 4th or 5th in the draft but there is always room to move up with the right 'package'.
I like how this team is playing now. Good goaltending & energetic team. What hurt the Sens in the standings this year was bad goaltending for most of the year & the Spezza injury when the Sens won only 1 game during his absense.
I trust the Sens scouts. They have seen a lot more 'junior' games than the rest of us. They will pick BPA.
If it wasn't the Leafs tomorrow.. I would send down Lessard for the rest of the regular season in Bingo. But he is needed to play against the 'blue goons'. I would prefer both Condra & Greening kept in the lineup.
Not sure how many of you listen to TGOR in the morning but they had a great April fools this morning.. got a lot of people, including me (not realizing it was April 1st).
Dean Brown was said to be leaving the Sens broadcast for a full-time HNIC gig (they mentioned he said that last night during the Sens game). Bob Cole was coming to Sportsnet to take Dean's place... That caused a near riot... but thankfully only April Fool's.
No more Sens hockey in the playoffs... no 67's playoffs... Bingo bound?
Those two are paid staff. They've done that with about 5-6 songs this year it happens once ever 3rd Sens game or so to give the fans a laugh. Way to out yourself as never attending games though lol :).
Can't wait to see this kid play.
I dont like the Leafs but im also not a blind Sens fan. The Leafs are playing great hockey right now, desperate hockey and having 4 guys on the verge of 30 goals is a great step in the right direction.
You laugh at the Leafs and say the suck and what not but then say its not fair to compare them to the Sens, LOL.
Not having Karlsson might be a blessing in disguise, with the high flying Leafs, God only know how mant times he get beat 1 on 1, or gets overpowered by smaller player.
1. Landeskog - 4GP - 5g, 2a, 7pts, +3
2. Couturier - 4GP - 3g, 5a, 8pts, +9
3. Huberdeau - 4gp - 5g, 7a, 12pts,+5
4. Nugent-H - 4gp - 4g, 5a, 9pts, +2
5. Strome - 4gp - 1g, 2a, 3pts, 0
The old Guard might still remember the rivalry that used to be, Spezza, Alfie, Phillips but all the new kids could give a rat's ass about the rivalry with Toronto. there is none as far as they are concerned, its just another hockey game.
The days of Tucker, Roberts, Sundin are long gone, nobody on the Leafs really gets under my skin, they are all young guys similar to Ottawa, competing everynight.
I wasn't ever going to go to that site, but I checked out that Cloutier guy. For those of you wondering, don't even bother wasting your time to see if he's good or not - he's utterly terrible. So-called analysis reads like a mixture of a Sens wikipedia page and a 9yr old's complaints about Murray and some conjecture for good measure.
Also, it would be a pretty lame/stupid April Fool's joke to say "this is not an April Fool's joke", then "just kidding, it is - did we ever trick YOU!"
Your funny, no way in hell the SENS take Huberdeau, his play is good now but wait till he plays tougher opponents he folds like a cheap blanket!
let thee not forget the days of Yashin, plenty of nasty Russain drama to be had there...
What verbal garbage - he plays a toatl game - the youngest of all the top picks - most upside - wakey - wakey -there r good players outside the OHL
On Defense:
Schenn. Outside of him what do they really have worth being happy about? Nothing but a gluttony of over-paid under performing talent as far as I'm concerned.
Up Front:
Kessel, Kadri, Kulemin, MacArthur, Lupul, and Grabo. You have an enigmatic top three scoring forward who might well bolt if things don't get better. You have a highly touted prospect who might work out to be a 60 point player. The others are all 2nd line talent and with two of them in MacArthur and Grabo it's highly questionable whether they will be able to show this consistency of quality hockey in future seasons.
So the Leafs essentially have enough pieces to put together a mediocre hockey team using UFA's that might challenge for 9th. What a waste of time.
Haha that guy is at every game, he does all sorts of songs, it's actually pretty entertaining... .
You're telling me that when you look at Kessel, you don't want to punch that smug look off his face? COME ONNNN! hahaha
Not like I've been to 40 games this season, but I've been to a half dozen. Way to be a dick and to out yourself as someone clearly infatuated with guys dancing in the aisles. Bravo.
Just wait til both teams get a bit better and we start eliminating each other from the playoffs... or better yet FACING each other in the playoffs. The hatred will be back, it's just on 'pause' this season...
If you are looking for reasons to hate the Leafs, go to the game tomorrow. Their fans are the most obnoxious pieces of shit in pro sports, and despite not being the players, that easily fuels my distaste for everything blue and white.
Im no Leafs expert but on defense they have more than Schenn, dont they have Aule, Gunnarsson who will be solid.
And as for their forwards, you said it yourself, they have better young players than us, yes they might be a couple years ahead of our young guys but I dont see any of our current crop hitting the 30 goal mark, heck even 20 is pushing it.
Yeah I do wanna punch Kessel but only because he's a threat everygame and would be less of a threat if he's injured!
I have nothing against the guy, he survived cancer, and is one heck of a goalscorer!
To say Leafs young players are better than Ottawa's based on what you think our young players will or will not do 2 to 3 yrs in the future, you can't. We don't know how many goals they will score.
We will have to wait 2 - 3 yrs to make any comparison in that regard.
The Sens blueline in about 3 yrs has the POTENTIAL to be one of the best young blue lines in the league (Karlsson, Rundblad, Cowen, Weircoch, Gryba.. IF (big if) these young players live up to their potential. There is even more coming with Ben Blood & Michael Sdao -- two big mean SOB's...much better when playing against the Leafs.
The Leafs have been rebuilding for 6 yrs.. I'm thinking Ottawa will make the playoffs at a much faster rate in their re-build than the 7 yrs it will take the Leafs.
They may make it next year but a lot depends on Reimer.. who Pierre MacGuire deamed the 'real thing' even though he has played less than 30 NHL games.
Anyone else hear that?
Move to upper mgmt?
Seems to be all over twitter, sounds like a bad april fools joke imo
BREAKING NEWS! Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has just announced that G.M. Bryan Murray will step down at the end of the season and be replaced by Cory Clouston in the dual role of G.M. and head coach. For more on this story, tune into 1310 News.
He will be the GM at the draft as his contract ends the end of June (I believe).
I'm now hoping Pierre MacGuire is not coming in... he certainly has not been singing any praises to Ottawa since the deadline as to their moves.
He started out on his blog ... trashing Murray...
MOTHERF$#@/ER i just got made a fool haha
I apologize for what Murray has done to you. He didn't mean to hurt you.
Yes he is.
With pick #5 the Sens will pick eith Strome or Hubredeau.Maybe the playoffs will decide which way they go.Saint Johns will get more play and will likely be in the Mem Cup. Giving JH the advantage.I wil take Philips with him if we draft him.
It's not so much the Murray bashing I dislike (although I disagree with it). He says stuff like "Spezza is Ottawa's best player" like it's some kind of revelation and he's going against the flow, instead of standard knowledge amongst fans.
Honestly, it looks like he read wikipedia and that is the extent to which he follows Ottawa.
I'll admit I never read him before, but for a guy that was highly regarded by most of the community on this site including Chirp himself, this is pretty bad/generic stuff.
It wasn't Yost trashing Murray -- it was the new blogger who used to do the Oilers...
Now that you are back, when will you post the next 2 contests ??
The re-build could NOT be done prior to this year as there were hardly any prospects in Bingo to bring up to replace the guys leaving, until this year.
The 1st year under Murray as GM going into the playoffs MINUS - Alfie, Fisher & Kelly. Now tell me how the Sens could compete with the high-flying Pens without those 3 and no good prospects to bring into replace them.
Clouston almost got the Sens into the playoffs when he first came in. Bad coaching did the Sens in.
Last season 1st round exit -- without Kuba (he was playing good at the time) - no Kovalev, Michalek, Fisher playing hurt, Alfie & Campoli both with a sports hernia... and again NO good prospects to bring in to replace... This beat-up team took the Pens to 6 games before losing -- pretty good considering how beat up they were.
Injuries should not be excuses.. but they do have an impact when the other team is healthy.
Ya i never liked him either
keep that top 3 pick in ottawa , leaf fan
"This year's Draft has a lot of quality players beyond pick No. 15 and some say well into the third round," Gregory said. "As is the case every season, there's always a sleeper pick … a player who years later proves to be a dominant one in the NHL, and this Draft will be no different. The depth in the early rounds almost makes it a certainty.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=557833
Robery Cyr - why must you be such a stickler about everything?
Lpve stickhandlibg, and keeping posters on their toes !!