Conrad to James, peter
The season begins a week from Friday. Let’s all talk about the things we most want to see from the Senators 2010-2011 March to Glory.
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Open call to all The Cory Clouston Fashion Review readers: what Ottawa Senators would you consider taking in your Kia Sorento Quizno’s Hockey Ecstasy Zone Coke Yahoo Hotdog Pool?
Of course there are a lot of factors to weigh in your fantasy pool: Is it a cap league? How many people are there? Is it one of those pick-a-line-a-week pools and are the Sens playing Buffalo? What’s your draft position? Are you playing with a bunch of East Coasters who have never heard of the Nashville Predators and would rather draft Chris Drury than Pekke Rinne? Is that Ovechkin kid available?
Since the days of the pizza line, the Sens haven’t really represented fantasy gold. They get goal scoring by committee. A lot of their players are expensive. Their goaltending ranges from ‘needs work’ to ‘total abomination.’ But there are still some players to keep your eye on, especially when they get hot. And there’s some value for those of you in a cap league who don’t want to pick up expensive, enigmatic wingers like a mini Glen Sather.
The takers (first few rounds)
Spezza: Guaranteed to score 60-70 points, has a ceiling of around 100. These are the guys you want throughout your top 6. I wouldn’t take him in the 1st round, but he’s exactly the type of guy – like Brad Richards – you focus on getting in the 2nd or 3rd while everyone else is geeking out defensemen with a ceiling of 40 points because they’re thinking too much like a real-life GM. Take him unless it’s a cap league, in which case his $8M might seem a bit much.
Karlsson: His ceiling is a bit of an unkown right now, but the Sens will lean heavily on him and his game showed tremendous upside at the end of last year. It’s not unreasonable to compare him to Enstrom in Atlanta, who scored 50 points last year. Take him, especially if you’re in a cap league – he’s cheap.
Alfie: He’s consistent in every category: powerplay, +/-, points, goals, shots on net. His numbers may continue to decline overall, but consistency is just as valuable in a pool as end-of-year totals. If he’s playing, and the Senators score, he was probably in on it.
Gonchar: like Karlsson, the Sens’ entire gameplan this year seems to center on getting the puck to the point and on net. Gonchar is central to this. He’s an injury risk, and his cap hit isn’t tiny, but he’s the kind of PP specialist that can make up the backbone of your fantasy D.
The take a flyer-on ’ems (later rounds)
Fisher: A good year last year means you’re getting a 50 point player who heats up sometimes. His cap hit is disproportionate, as he’s paid for a lot of intangibles, but picking up Fisher in a later round could be a steal.
Michalek: if he can stay healthy he’ll be a 25 goal scorer / 50-60 point guy. Especially with Gonchar getting the puck on net and Michalek parked out front. He’s inconsistent, though not terribly expensive for someone with this much upside.
Regin: He’s cheap ($1M) and will be getting boatloads of icetime this year. He’s not likely to score more than 50 points, but these are the type of young guys of which you should be trying to get as many of as you can in the later rounds.
Foligno: like Regin, he warrants some attention. Might go undrafted, but would make a nice waiver wire pickup if he keeps playing like he is in the preseason. The problem with Foligno is that you have no idea where he’ll end up. 15-20 minutes a night in the top six? Or 10 minute third liner in a shutdown / energy / agitating role? He also won’t get a ton of PP time.
Neil / Ruutu: These two clowns are valued, believe it or not, because of how rare it is for an agitator to actually be able to score about 10 goals and play a less-than abhorrent two-way game. They both get some PP/PK time, too. Might be a good late, late round pickup.
Skip ’em
Brian Elliott / Pascal Leclaire: as much because you won’t know who’s starting from one game to the next as because they’re not great at the whole goaltending thing. Might become best friends halfway through the season in Binghamton when Ottawa is rolling a Robin Lehner / Mike Brodeur tandem.
Kovalev: the equivalent of putting $50 on red. Opposite of Alfie re: consistency. You’ll regret not having him when he shows up and scores six points, but you may as well buy a lottery ticket.
James to conrad, peter
Subject: Is it too much to ask for a non-shitshow in net tonight?
So, I’m being patient about not giving it up on the first date and giving such and such player time to develop before Senior Prom (OMG SO EXCITED!!) before making the NHL because I’m smooth like that.
But what I’m writing terribly at here is this…I know that its two pre-season games in and perchance there was a little extra vitriol in my corn flakes (good metaphor!) because Wednesday’s loss was against the hated leafs but lemme axe you this: Is it too unreasonable to expect of Pascal LeClaire a great game tonight if even for his own sake? Pre-season or not, LeClaire’s biggest competition, Brian Elliot, just played a Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric of a game while sprightly chimneysweep Robin Lehner played a game of the Shaq in his prime breaking the backboard off on a dunk variety (I have to go to metaphor jail).
Conrad to James, peter
Editorial:
Is it just me, or are all of these teams who watched the Philly / Chi-town Final and who promptly nudged their star goalies out to sea on an ice flo going to have a rude awakening? I remember how, when Carolina won the Cup after some key deadline acquisitions, the very next season GMs started throwing valuable resources overboard in an attempt to emulate the trend. (What did Waddel give up for Tchchuk..Tchkchk…Tchachuk…?) All of which seems to point to GMs without long-term plans.
Conrad to James, peter
show details 9:48 AM (1 hour ago)
Last night the Alternate Universe Sens did dare to dream. They didn’t have Alfie, Spezza, Michalek, Fisher, Kovalev, Gonchar, Phillips, or Karlsson (or, obviously, Kuba. Or Leclaire, who barely counts, even in an existential sense). The Leafs were missing Kessel, Komisarek, I think Schenn, and a few others like Exelby and, I dunno, Colton Orr or Wayne Primeau or a mop with a bucket for a head or another of their marginal 4th liners.
As we’ve all no doubt heard, Ottawa will host the 2012 All Star Game. This will of course be difficult to pull off given the horrible atrocity of our next devastating lockout is scheduled to occur that same year. This leaves the door open for a Civil War reenactment using monkeys, AKA something that might actually be broadcast by ESPN.
To celebrate this event, and in place of our usual witty repartee, we offer the following list of occurrences we hope to observe while watching the All Star Game on Rogers Cable Access 22 from a bar several hundred kilometers away (AKA downtown)
James Romanuk to me, peter
show details Sep 9 (3 days ago)
Bonjour Bilbo Bagginses,
So here we are only eleventy things away from pre-training camp brunch planning and this weekend marks the beginning of the rookie agent/lawyer conference call and tweeting tournament. WOW! Double training camp all the way! WHAT DOES IT MEAAAAAAN!? (meme reference over?) I’ll tell you what it means. This means the pre-beginning of hockey something is starting in a little while from a little while from now!!!!!!
It’s time to start Richard Gereing up for the upcoming hockey fluurgaf;sdkfjsdf;eifaj;egn!!!!
Conrad to James, Pete
As we all know, season predications are to credibility as Nintendo cartridges are to unmarked white vans – you should never take the bait. For example: did you know that Anton Volchenkov, a $4M guy, was such a gifted defensive defenceman and shot blocker that his loss will result in the Senators tumbling from 5th in the conference last year to 10th this year? Yup, he was that good, at least according to The Hockey News, whose $10 Hockey Year Book I once again purchased because I was in an airport. They follow a time-honored formula: First you look at where the team finished last year. Then you see who was added or removed. Then you add or subtract a few places in the standings. That’s why everyone picked Phoenix to be in the playoffs this year even though everyone picked them to finish dead last in the league last year. One playoff berth and first-round exit will do that. Boston was a contender last year, and this year they’re a bubble team. Forget Buffalo, pegged to be contender because Miller won the Vezina, despite the fact that he was lights out the year before too, and they missed the playoffs.
All of which is to say that the following is ridiculous, and I know it.
Conrad to James, peter
show details Aug 30 (1 day ago)
I’ll start by saying that we all hope the Sens’ team doctor Dr. Donald Chow will recover after his motorcycle crash this weekend. Believe it or not, I was just recently watching an old Youtube video of Chris Neil talking about Dr. Chow, and the players seem to have a lot of respect for him. (A true sign that we’re in August and need hockey back is that I’m watching Chris Neil clips on Youtube.) Anyway, the Sens’ conditioning has been praised, and a small market team without kajillions to throw around understandably puts a premium on keeping their players healthy. By all indications, Dr. Chow is great at his job. All of our thoughts with Don and his family.
Welcome To Your Karlsson Years 