The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I don't think I'm going to be saying anything controversial here when I say the Sens aren't going to be in the post-season this year. The gap they've created themselves is too deep and their play this season doesn't lead you to think there's any hope of turning things around.

This doesn't mean that I'm not disappointed with the club and I expected this to happen. Far from it. I mean, if you look at their respectable 5th place finish last season, the play of young players like Erik Karlsson and Peter Regin in the playoffs, I had a sense the team was heading the right direction. And it also appeared the team was starting to get healthy again. If they can take the defending champs to six games without guys like Milan Michalek and Filip Kuba in their lineup, shouldn't they be better now that they're healthy? Even owner Eugene Melnyk was predicting a berth in the Stanley Cup finals this season.

So with the bad start to the season, many are calling for the team to be "blown up". Trade this guy, trade that guy, etc. "Tank" the season and get that lottery draft pick. Much easier said than done. And I think a lot of people forget that you still need a roster of players to play the games, too.

First off, anyone asking for Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Daniel Alfredsson, Sergei Gonchar or even Alexi Kovalev to be traded can forget it, because all of these guys have no movement clauses (and if some of these guys are playing poorly, why would another team want to inherit the Senators' messes?). Now you might think GM Bryan Murray erred in handing out these no movement clauses, but for the first three players on the list, they held all the cards after a trip to the Cup finals. I think most of the fan base would have been upset if the core of guys who got the team there weren't re-signed. And as for Gonchar and Kovalev, well, it's part being a small-market Canadian team having to up the ante to sign free agents to get them to play for Ottawa. Of course, the Kovalev signing seemed like a gamble at best when that contract was signed. At least it's up this season: we have another two years to witness Gonchar's play continue to deteriorate.

The only players other teams I think would trade for, especially in the salary cap world where trades are near impossible without matching dollar for dollar, are young guys like Karlsson, Foligno and prospects like Robin Lehnner and Jared Cowen. That would have bad idea written all over it, as the Sens seem to finally be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel with their drafting. The Muckler era did not produce any elite player talent and Murray's drafting seems to be rounding into shape. I think trading away any of the young players for a quick fix would be a mistake.

Regardless of how the Senators end up in the standings this year, we'll see a lot of new faces for the 2011-12 season. Contracts are up for Leclaire, Kovalev, Ruutu, Phillips among others, and that equals about $15 million in cap space. Another $2 million is expected to be added by the league, so that's some money that Ottawa can play around with.

There will be changes no question, but the "blow up" a lot of fans are asking for this season won't be happening. This summer Ottawa will be in a position to retool their club, get a decent draft pick this year, all at the cost of a post-season berth. It may suck they'll miss the playoffs but, it may be for the long-term well being of this club.

Click on the picture for a clearer view...

Although reading about the origins of the old Ottawa Senators was definitely intriguing, the first thing I actually wanted to know about them was why they left in the first place.

The 1933-34 NHL season would be the last one for the old Senators, as they would relocate to St Louis to play as the Eagles for the next season in hopes of finding greener pastures. That did not happen, and they would fold after their first year in the new city, finishing dead last in the league. The first organized Ottawa hockey club was founded in 1884, and fifty years later, it was gone.

Now tell me if these terms don't sound familiar to you: Small market. U.S. expansion. Escalating player salaries. The last Stanley Cup dynasty for the Senators occurred in the 1920's, when they won the Cup in the years 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927. At the start of that dynasty, there were a total of four teams in the league. By 1927, there were ten teams, with expansion hitting places such as New York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago. Ottawa was the smallest of all the cities, with a population at the time of just over 100,000 people. The next smallest city in the NHL was Toronto which had a half million citizens. New York would open "the most famous arena in the world", Madison Square Garden, where 16,000 spectators could watch a hockey game. Ottawa had a decent but in comparison, small arena, with the newly constructed Auditorium that would seat about 7,500 fans.

Ottawa had no problem drawing while playing in visiting cities, as they had the reputation of being the best with their many championships, but the crowds back home didn't guarantee sellouts. Compounded with the fact the new teams were offering bigger player contracts than ever before, the Ottawa Senators found themselves selling player contracts to try to make ends meet. That meant shipping off their star players to pay the bills, and replacing them with lesser talent.

The NHL did not consider the implications on a small market like Ottawa when it expanded as quickly as it did. Did they have a responsibility to a city where hockey was founded (along with Montreal), and where the Stanley Cup originated? Sentimentality could not override economics. Add the realities of the Great Depression, and the team was doomed.

I sometimes think what would Ottawa be like today if they kept their team all of these years. Would there have been more championships? More swagger in the city itself? An arena not located in one of the worst possible areas in the city? Hard to say, but fun to debate. I just hope the new Senators will, this time, stick around for good.

The gloves are off, and it's personal.

It'd be a lot easier to take it the Ottawa Senators weren't trying to fight their way out of the basement of the NHL, but Dany Heatley's decision to bolt on the fanbase that embraced him after the horrible Dan Snyder strategy for still reasons unknown was a spit in the face for Ottawa. It seems a lot longer, but it's been just over a year since he was traded. And finally Senators fans will have a chance to vent.

You could make the argument that this trade, with all due respect to Milan Michalek, probably set back this franchise a few years. As much as people complained while he was around that Mr. Heatley was "slow" and wasn't a fan of playing defense, bottom line is he could put the puck in the net, a skill that's probably 95% genetic. You either got it or you don't, and as the Senators are finding out now, goal-scorers aren't growing on trees.

What'd I'd give to have a winger for Spezza to feed to now.

Anyway, I'll be at the game tonight, threatening to launch tomatoes or lemons depending what's on sale at the grocery store today...yeah, that's an empty threat. But he's going to hear it from me. He gave SBP one of the biggest screwjobs in history, and no one gets away with that without getting an earful!!! In the meantime, for old time's sake, let's revisit Hitler's reaction to Heatley's refusal to go to Edmonton.