That’s a nice little distraction.
A day after an ugly loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Senators have announced a multi-year extension for one of their young players.
Ridly Greig, a first round pick in the 2020 Draft, has been signed to a four-year extension. The contract will see him earn $3.25 million per season.
Greig has 12 points through 33 games this season and has spent some time in the team’s top six forwards recently.
While there are still questions about his offensive ceiling, the 22-year old has demonstrated that he can be an effective player at both ends of the rink and that he has a unique ability to infuriate the opposition.
This is obviously a bit of a gamble from the Sens perspective but they are betting that there is still some untapped offensive potential in Greig’s game. At the same time, the fact that he can play both wing or at centre means that he can fill a few different spots in the lineup.
Here’s both Steve Staios and Ridly Greig on the deal…
“Ridly has established himself as a key member of our team going forward,” said Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios. “He brings a good mix of versatility and tenacity to our forward group.”
“I am grateful to the Ottawa Senators for the opportunity to spend the next four years with this group,” said Ridly Greig. “I am looking forward to continuing to develop and for the chance to win with this team.”
***
Oh and about that game last night…
Every team in the NHL is good sometimes and then bad sometimes. Start there. It feels worse when you live the day to day with your own team but the other 31 cities are going through the same thing.
How could they be this bad when other times they looked so good?!
This is especially true for the 10 teams in each Conference that find themselves on the playoff bubble, which as you may recall, is exactly where we hoped to be heading into this season.
There are going to be dizzying highs and there are going to be punishing lows. With the parity that exists in the league, the length of the season and the generally random nature of the sport, the swings are inevitable. There are also going to be external factors that influence the range between those highs and lows and the frequency with which those swings occur. Things like, for example, injuries to a critically important player that is on the ice for the entire 60 minutes, team-wide bouts of illness, month long road trips and whole bunch of other things that come with being human uh beings. NO EXCUSES and all that but definitely things that “lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify”.
This is just the nature of the sport we have chosen to follow.
What is not part of the sport we have chosen to follow is immediately turning to external solutions at every sign of trouble or evaluating the core of your team after each loss. It’s possible obviously, and tinkering is always a thing a team can do but generally, the expectation is that in-season corrections will come from within.
And at the end of the day, what will decide which bubble teams sneak into the playoffs, is their ability to right the ship during those difficult times. And just win a few more games than you lose over the course of an 82-game season. A ridiculous simplification of our hobby but it’s just the truth. And it helps with the wild swings in emotion you might be feeling as a hockey fan. Or maybe not. And maybe, those wild swings in emotion are why you picked this stupid hobby in the first place.
Three points out. Two games in hand. And half a fucking season to go.
Go Sens Go?!
