Going into this year I was looking forward to seeing Guillaume Latendresse for the simple reason of wanting to have a chance to see what that looked like.
Like Kovalev before him it was straight up really hard to picture him in a Sens uniform.

Admittedly, Latendresse was never my favorite player. Gui and I got off to a bad start. The first I’d heard about him was when he was healthy scratched for his bad attitude during the World Junior Championship despite being one of the better players on the roster. From there I got to know him as, “Dude the Canadiens drafted and instantly have wayyyy too much faith in b/c he has the Frenchest name I’ve ever heard.” Don’t get me wrong, this is nothing against Francophone players or anything. In fact some of my best friends are Martin St. Louises! I’m just saying, the Habs organization does this. See current example Louis LeBlanc taken 18th overall from that HOCKEY FACTORY the Harvard Crimson. Where was I? Oh yeah, I’ve always thought of Latendresse as that guy the Habs rushed and who had conditioning issues, apparently clashed with the coaching staff and was ultimately traded away. I mean, being named Cultural Attaché of Montreal / the Canadiens and given 1st line minutes as a teenager would do anyone’s head in.

Speaking of heads getting done in…fast forward to lighting up half a season in Minny and then more or less missed two years due to hip injuries and bad concussions. The best thing I thought about his signing in Ottawa was that it was only for 1 year. I felt validated in a really shitty way when Tender Willy was already on the shelf after only 6 games. I pretty much wrote him off after that. Experiment failed. Right? Not so fast, Eddy (me). After being shot up with anti-headache medicine or whatever Latendresse has come back and you know what? He hasnt looked out of place clocking top 6 shifts. With 6 points in 11 games and the Sens Injured Reserve teaching me the true importance having over 400 players ready at all times if a club is to survive, GL is quickly making a case to stick around. There’s still some hockey to be played but for 2013-2014 I’m now starting to think I’m ready to Say Yes To The latenDRESSe. *dodges chair thrown at my face* With Colin Greening’s recent disappearance from planet Earth (seriously, that guy has had his moments this year but you forget he’s in the lineup a lot of nights) Gui has showcased that he can play the same net driving game but perhaps with a little more upside behind it. Keeping all current Sens regulars in the conversation some combination of this looks okay to me for next year:

Michalek – Spezza – Silfverberg

Latendresse – Turris – Zibanejad

Condra – Smith – Alfredsson

Daugavins – Greening – O’Brien – Varada – Kassian – Regin – Frozen Dinner – Neil

What think you? BTW Alfredsson is going to play next year. Let’s give the poor guy a FEW less minutes if we can. Also, even a 41 year old Alfie would tear up another team’s 3rd liners.

I’m going start this off by saying, I would be the 2nd worst GM ever (see what i did there?). Maybe I’m just not used to Ottawa having a glut of valuable young assets but I am like a Mother Snake protecting all of her SensSnake Eggs from the Mongeese of Lower Egypt. Meaning: I get attached to certain players easily. Whenever I read trade proposals for Perry’s rights they always included Silfverberg or Zibanejad, other stuff and a 1st rounder. This is a very reasonable trade. But it’s not one I’d make. For me, I want Ottawa to be in a similar situation in a few years that Anaheim currently finds themselves in. That situation being “Holy shit how do we keep all of these amazing players that we’ve drafted?” I don’t know if you watched last night’s tilt against the Islanders but seeing Zibanejad and Silfverberg play together…I dont know….I’m starting to get a really, really good feeling about these guys. As was impressively predicted across the board, Silfverberg’s adjustment to the NHL was gradual but he is quite literally getting better and better each game. Which is saying something because I thought he’s been really solid since game 1. Zibanejad I find is starting to show his pedigree out there as well. He is looking dangerous on every shift. He has tremendous speed and skill with the puck but he also plays like bull. I know he’s getting protected minutes and all. Also, he’s 19 years old. Im pretty sure a little fella named Erik Karlsson got protected minutes in his first year. My ultimate point that I sometimes have to remind myself these guys are rookies with only around 30 games under their belts. If their pairing toward the end of last night’s game is any indication of things to come I cant wait to see them in 2 or 3 years. Am I saying we have two 50 goal scorers of Corey Perry’s ilk on our hands? No, very likely not but I do think we may have a couple of 20 plus scorers on the rise. I know I say this all the time but there’s a Corey Perry every year, every trade deadline, every off season. The rebuild’s not over yet. I’d love to see the organization wait on a few guys to develop before going shopping. I think it will be worth it.

This guy! Cant catch a break. I’ll admit I went off on Regin hard in yesterday’s game preview but dude really is running out of season here and needs to start putting up some goals. So what happens yesterday? Fucking Matt Kassian scores in the first period. Dude got 3 and a half minutes ice time in that game! This is Dave Dziurzynski all over again. Dizzy tosses a wobbler at Carey Price FROM ABOVE THE CIRCLE and boom, goal. Regin is working out there. He looks good, he’s playing well enough but like I said yesterday if he cant pick it up over the next month its going to be tough for his agent to explain the viability of his client to Ottawa’s loaded bottom 6. Ostensibly Ottawa is the only NHL team that would be interested in his services as they are a little more in touch with his potential.  Unless I’m wrong and there is a market for guys with a projected shooting percentage of zero. Real Talk: Despite rocking a minus rating and only six points total his closest competition in Jim O’Brien never the less holds onto 3rd place for number of goals scored so far this season. As my line combos from earlier indicate, even with the emergence of Condra this team aint exactly short on 4th liners and thats sparing Dizzy and DaCosta who’ve shown they can hang. MacLean has already made it clear that he hates Regin as a winger. You’d have to think that if he cant get it going soon coach might hate him as a centre too.