While the lucky eight teams remaining focus on chasing down Lord Stanley's Cup, the talk has already begun to shift for the 22 teams on the outside looking in.
With the NHL Draft just a couple months away and the start of free agency looming shortly there after, there will be plenty for Ottawa Senators fans to discuss in the months ahead.
First up of course is the World Championships being co-hosted by Sweden and Finland this season. While there are no Sens playing for Team Canada, after Jason Spezza was surprisingly turned down, there are still six Senators that will be playing in the tournament.
Stephane Da Costa will represent France, Kaspars Daugavins will play for Latvia, Milan Michalek will join the Czechs and Daniel Alfredsson, Erik Karlsson and Jakob Silfverberg will all wear the yellow and blue for Team Sweden. While obviously you still want to cheer on the Canadian contingent, it will be hard to not root for the Swedish team in this tourny.
While Alfredsson's plans for next season remain in limbo, his decision to join Sweden at the World's is an interesting one. Alfie indicated that playing in the tournament has no impact on his future but to me it seems like a guy looking to go out on a high note.
We'll have to wait and see.
As a handful of Sens players get set to represent their countries, Senators Head Coach Paul MacLean has been nominated as one of three finalists for the Jack Adams awarded to Coach of the year. MacLean was able to completely overhaul the culture and attitude in the locker room in just one season and earn a playoff spot in a season where all the experts ruled the Senators out before the season opener.
A well deserved nomination for Coach MacLean.
MacLean joins Erik Karlsson (Norris Trophy) and Daniel Alfredsson (Bill Masterton Trophy) as Ottawa Senators nominated for major NHL Awards. The winner will be announced on June 20 in Las Vegas.
- While the start of free agency is still a couple months away, recent comments by Bryan Murray seem to indicate it could be a busy off season for the Sens. Murray would like to add another scoring winger and a shutdown type defenceman this off season. A little early to be kick starting the rumour mill but I keep hearing the Senators intend to make a pitch for Zach Parise, should he hit the market this off season.
- Some change is expected for the Senators this off season but it sounds like there are significant changes ahead for SensChirp. Over the last week, I've learned that the current web designer will be moving on and the current ad provider, theScore, will not be renewing our agreement. Going to take a couple days to decide the best move forward but I am always open to reader suggestions. If you have an idea or proposal you'd like to discuss, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me directly at senschirp@hotmail.com.
