James:

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY BUTLER

Now I am become Conrad… destroyer of teams.

You know, there were some points last year when I really got down on the Sens, during one or more of their fabulous flame outs. On Sunday night I was talking to someone about this Sens squad (more or less the post-Heatley incarnation) and was saying how when they are doing poorly they seriously look like theyre never going to be good ever again. Case in point, recent thrashings by Carolina and Barfronto (Which is Algonquin for The Barf Land) do little to help we fans think otherwise. I think almost all of the Sens games I have attended this year, have been losses. This is fine. Its part of the high risk world of buying tickets to see the team take on squads like the Washington Capitals. It’s reflecting on the good times I’ve had at hard fought but lost games that I shake my head and can’t imagine how those fans who paid the, in this case ironically named, ‘gold level’ price, for this shitpile of effort like Sunday’s. Not that the battle of Ontario vibe isnt so fun and welcoming for fans as it is — sorry, just a second I have to wipe the sarcasm off of my keyboard here — okay done.

I think people are okay with paying to see the team lose. . . SO LONG AS THEY LOOK LIKE THEY WERE TRYING TO WIN. Thinking back to an earlier statement I made in this post about how when this Senators squad is doing really poorly they look like theyre never going to be good ever again and how I felt this down on the team several times last season only to be surprised in the end. Heck they still made the playoffs. Something that, in Ottawa, we are sometimes a bit spoiled for as hockey fans. We care for this team and that makes the lows feel…maybe lower than they are sometimes…

Segue to Negative Island:
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT SAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID…

The team is looking fuh fuh fuh fundamentally flawed. They are never going to be perfect. Even in their not so distant hey day there were some holes (Ray Emery was a mildly more consistent Brian Elliot behind better D for one) so … you know… BUT BUT BUT there are some things that need to be addressed

“IM WEEERRRKIN ON IT IM FOOOOKIN WEEERRRKIN ON IT”
                                                     – Bryan Murray, Sens GM 2007-2011

– Daniel Alfredsson, praise be his mighty name, cannot be the team on his back force of blesteryear. The team needs an NHL LEVEL 1st line RW to play with Spezza. Get homie off the 1st line already …guy is 38 years old. If the Sens signed Bill Gueren tomorrow would you say put him on the first li–…well, that WOULD be pretty handy about now..

– In the spirit of Conrad’s going out of team sale, clean house up front and for the love of Pete (from this blog…yes..his love) get a player or two who doesnt make scoring TWENTY GOALS look like an noteworthy achievement.  Like Conrad pointed out that could be in  drafting or bringing guys in young to the brand. By the looks of a lot of other teams it could pay greater dividends than picking up FAs to plug up holes.

Dare to compare:

Erik Karlsson 38 8 16 24 -8

vs. sayyyyyy… 

Alex Kovalev40 8 10 18 -9
Sergei Gonchar 40 5 13 18 -20

Mike Fisher 40 11 6 17 -12
Milan Michalek 36 7 7 14 -6

Jarkko Ruutu 38 2 6 8 2

Like…hot mess folks. Hot. Mess. Keep in mind with the exception of one, the guys I put his numbers up against ARE FORWARDS.

How does this argument hold up for Peter Regin’s one goal and Foligno’s 5? well..it…uhhh…I just think we need more Peter Regins and Nick Folignos to choose from and better results could come from that.

A second year undersized D man should not be putting to shame dudes making Millions of what the Australians call “Dollareedoos” …This is telling me along with garbage
piles like the LeClaire signing that the team is wasting money all over the goddarn place.

There’s a lot of money coming off the books and I hope the team takes advantage of it. We have some decent prospects in the pipe….some…lets get more. Id like to see the team get a bit more of a young and exciting element to it. The Sens have the quiet Dad element NAILED…can we not get some pies in the face and Patrick Kane stanley cup parade speech inspired flavour? If he cant play next year can we not sign Emery to a front office job like “commissioner of partying down?” Im not talking stocking the cupbord where you have to die a thousand deaths to get your Hall, Eberle, Paajjaarrvvii-Finklestein line…but …more a boston bruins type deal where you give up some pretty good assets to some idiot –missing you D. Sutter 😦 —  and fleece them in the end.

This core is flawed and I think the Sens are in a pretty good position to smash elements of the team up and take a chance on something new.

Oh, for the love of god and baby Jesus, dont trade Spezza but build around him…I know I KNOW I KNOW …but find me the new Jason Spezza. Oh what’s that? It’s Chris Kelly right now. Yeah. Dont trade that dude.