Where does this leave our resident image genius Steve, for whom Kovalev provided the best material? Can he perform similar miracles with Michalek, who looks like an escaped chimp?

James

Kovalev to Pittsburgh in exchange for S. Crosby, E. Malkin, J. Staal and a 1st Rounder!

Conrad

I can’t even think of anything to say to analyze this except that I know Kovalev sucks, and I hate him, and even I’m a little puzzled that he only got a 7th rounder. He got less than Jarkko Ruutu. I know he’s terrible, and costs a lot, but I thought at least a 5th for a veteren on an expiring contract with good playoff numbers.Anyway, I’m wrong. Pick is conditional. If Pens make it past the 1st round and Kovalev plays in fifty percent of the games, it turns into a 6th. Which is a fucking hilarious condition, because I can see him leaving 1/3 of the way through the third game and it turning into a math equation. Plus, the more he plays, the more he sucks. Maybe Murray coulda waited until deadline day? See if anyone missing out on the good players gets desperate?

Now’s a good time for a retrospective on Kovalev’s time in Ottawa. Just imagine a donkey defecating in the street. That’s it. He did nothing, he made way too much, he’s KHL bound after these playoffs so I hope, for his sake, that he tries. This is his swan song. Just like…a…donkey…? Never mind.

Also, Ottawa picks up Marek Svatos on waivers! (*farting sound*)

James

Hey just ordering my authentic 300 dollar on ice Svatos jersey…(obviously Black S.N.E.S. 3rd jersey)

Conrad I think you saying “He did nothing, he made way too much, he’s KHL bound after these playoffs so I hope, for his sake, that he tries. This is his swan song” and again, taking ZERO salary back might explain is why its a seventh rounder.

Listen, before I go too far the other way i think its a pretty insane return…i would have thought 4th round. I just look at it as getting him off the books and taking no salary back = more money for the scoreboard piggy bank.

I used to be like “god why do people give so much of a crap about the scoreboard” then i saw the Hurricaines scoreboard at the all star game and with tears forming in my eyes said “i get it now” its like how you think Blu Ray isnt a big deal until someone with Planet Earth invites you over to watch it on their HD tv.

Pete

Just like I thought… Meh okay I thought bri mur would wait the final two games before dealing AK. Then again it’s been a while since he took a few games off with a hyperextended glavin.

No salary back. Nicely done. Are we going to see some of these picks put together in a package for JM Liles? Vokun?

Hoooow weeeee!, B Murray’s wheel-and-deal meter is approaching dangerous, Sutter-ian le

Conrad

So, to Pens fans who might be checking out this blog to see what you got: apparently, having Kovalev for the playoffs was always the plan for Ottawa, but he was hurt in the first year of his contract ,and we’re obviously light years from the playoffs now. But there’s some logic at play here. Also, he can’t possibly not live up to the cost, even if he only scores a couple of goals on the 2^nd unit PP. But man, will he ever piss you off. Prepare for some sick stickhandling up until he hits the blue line, then he’ll toss it away. Postgame interviews will also be 170% Zen and an anecdote about not sweating the small stuff or changing a thing, even as Bylsma probably says something about expecting more from him. Congratulations!

Prianka

I’m not too surprised that Kovalev only brought in a 7th round (I think it’s 6th, depending on his performance in Pitts). You just know Murray and Melnyk hated him for making $5M a year to either turn over the puck or be the world’s laziest skater. Like everyone else is saying, it is definitely so that we didn’t have to take back any of his salary.

Conrad

Hey guys, I just wrote this song.

“Baaahhhhbeeeeee / Bahbee Butlaaaa-aaaaahhhh / Like fifteen Dean McAmmonds, on the surface of an ice / cold suuuuuuuuuuuun / scored two motherfucking goals / the guys are feeding him all night, awesome / hadouken”

Now that that’s out of the way, you want to know why Cory Clouston is fucking nuts? Ryan Shannon on the point of the power play, that’s why. Sure, there’s literally no one left in this lineup, but can’t Brian Lee get something resembling love? He’s gotta play a preschooler making $500k a year as power play quarter back? Crazier still, it sort of worked. Shannon didn’t flub the puck at the blue line, and scored a goal.

Speaking of Brian Lee being fuckin’ awful, that goal by the Cats (I love that this is short for Panthers. Adorable team name, wish the logo was one of those carpet-covered climbing things) was textbook Terrible Season Senators. Higgins blows by Lee, takes a brutal shot on net, but it reflects off of Phillips’ skate and in. Two minutes later, Carkner, in an attempt to spark his team, takes a needless roughing penalty.

Anyway, more Bobby Butler. Kid goes 11 games without a point. Not goal. A point. Now he’s got five goals in five games. Can we agree that maybe playing him on the fourth line for two minutes a night was a terrible idea and that the guy belongs up there with some talent? He’s a friggin’ scorer, you need to put him with a pivot, give him power play time, not ask him to be a checking power forward. Anyway, Kovalev has 14 goals, fuck that guy. He kills his own team’s penalty stick handling into the corner. Also, there was only five minutes left in the game, Butlahhhh has two goals, Sens are on the power play and Clouston doesn’t put him out there. Does this guy just completely misread his bench or what? (Butler’s awesome.)

You know who else ain’t bad? Spezza. That guy gets a bum wrap, from me occasionally, but he might actually be undervalued, even at $7M. Such a dynamic player. (Probably not undervalued.)

The Panthers are one awful team. I don’t know what the hell Dale Tallon is going to do with them. That’s a five year rebuild if I ever saw one. Look at the Sens lineup. No Alfie, Gonchar, Karlsson, Fisher gone, Kelly gone, and the Panthers lose 5-1. Barf.

Hey, Brian Elliott is playing tonight! Against the Oilers! I can’t wait to read the Avalanche blogs tomorrow to see if they’re like “What….did we…do?”

Marc

I get sooooo pissed off when Clouston traps it up with the lead. Keep that pressure going all game and up the sonic booms.

Here’s what happened after the Great Flushing of 2011: goodiness in the form of hockey intelligence. This team is thinking before reacting. Is it me just me (or the listerine/blue caracao cocktail now known as the Plaqueless Blue Ball Buster) or is this team showing tons of patience, waiting for the play to develop before doing….well….any hockey related action with the puck. I’m feeling the youth movement (that sounds disgusting).

Butler is the new Heatley without the crashed baggage, Manson eyes and lack of respect for back checking. B-Spot is really killing it right now without Alfie, Van Allen, Brunet and Bonk in the lineup. Sign him to a Dipietro type contract now!! But add 10 years.

A miracle happened tonight: Kuba skated and hard at that! Next step which is kinda important if you’re a defenseman: learn how to clear the frickin zone, especially on the PK. Why the hell is he on the PK to begin with?

Prianka

I wish I had had the effort to get out of bed this morning to watch the Florida game. Butler and Anderson seem to be really rocking it, but c’monnnnnnn I thought we were after a top 3 draft pick?! I hate to be that fan that complained about the team sucking all year, and is now complaining because they’ve posted back to back wins for the first time in over two months but if we win too many games and end up 20th or 21st overall, this really will be the worst and most useless season in Senators history. Also we will have traded guys like Fisher and Kelly for no reason – turns out the real change that needed to be made (big surprise, right …) was the goaltender.

When is the trade deadline anyways? I can’t even keep track of what day/time it is in Ottawa these days. Are we trading Kovalev, Gonchar and Phillips are what? I know Phillips would like to stick around and help with the rebuild, and I suppose it isn’t the worst idea but I am ready to see the backs of Kovy and Gonchar.

My friend who has been traveling for the last two months or so is still confused about how our goalies went from being Elliot and Leclaire to Anderson and Lehner within the span or two or three weeks. I say we play Lehner for the rest of the year. It will let him get comfortable, ensure there aren’t too many wins and it will preveent Anderson from getting injured. Then next year we come out with Karlsson, Anderson, Butler and Lessard/Cowen to destroy everyone and anyone. Could be the fastest rebuild ever! Or maybe I am getting ahead of myself after beating two barely mediocre teams.

Conrad

The deadline is this coming Monday. Should be good. I suspect Kovalev is gone, and Phillips too. If Phillips wants to stick around, that’s cool. Just get traded for a pick, then re-sign in the off season, that’s what I would say to him. There’s helping with the rebuild by being around, and then there’s actually helping with the rebuild. We need that pick. As for Gonchar, I think it would be a miracle if someone traded for him. They could have had him in the summer for nothing, but Ottawa out-bid everyone. Why would they give up a pick now to pay terms that Ottawa agreed to?

As for not getting a top three draft pick, I wouldn’t worry: Sens are still four points back of the Isle for 3rd last overall, and seven back of NJ for 4th last. And only one point up on the Oil for 1st overall. We’re getting a top three pick.

Speaking of the Oilers, they beat the Avalanche last night 5-1, scoring 5 goals on 31 shots on…Brian Elliott. Poor guy. I’m not into Schadenfreude, so I won’t pile on, but needless to say: the boy’s just not right this season.

Pete

Watching a sens game these days is like watching an political ad on TV. Sure this guy sounds legit but I’m waiting for evidence of serious malfeasance. The Sens jettisoned serious talent in Kelly and Fisher and still went on to pound the cats. What kind of bizarro universe is this? Why are revolutionary ideas making sense? Yes we should harvest old people so we can extract viable nutrients from them.

Anyways the cats made them look sharp, Kuba wasn’t a liability on the back end and the Bingo line of Condra, O’Brien and Greening was pretty sharp (Incidentally, the sens skills competition was pretty eye opening since Greening was the fastest skater and finished second in the hardest shot)

Fear not draft-niks, we still suck, we’ll still get that delicious top three pick.

What I’m concerned about is who coaches this team next year, everyone has Clouston out the door, but I’m not so sure anymore since his roster next year will be about as mature as any AHL roster. I think he sticks around so he can put Shannon on the PP point (worked) and play Foligno at centre (what the hell, he’s not a winger?)

Conrad

Same thing happened in Atlanta last year. They lose Kovalchuk, everyone thinks they’ll go 0-22 to finish the season, and instead they go on a run.
 
As for coaches, man I dunno. I really fucking hope it’s not Bob Hartley or Ken Hitchcock. Dudes are rumored every single time there’s a vacancy. May as well be Patt Quinn. They need to do what Yzerman did in Tampa this year: go out and find whatever AHL savant is trying out new systems. Go new school.

Seems like the general reaction to Colorado’s decision to abruptly (and, coldly, I think) cut ties with a goalie who provided them stellar value for their dollar was “buh?” In fact, on paper the move doesn’t make much sense for either team. The Senators take on salary to improve their goaltending in a lost season. Anderson comes in to a train wreck and either nothing happens and the team still stinks, or he actually improves their position in the standings and thus worsens the quality of their pick. I was having visions of Brian Burke picking up Gerber on waivers a couple seasons ago and doing nothing but losing the chance to draft Brayden Schenn.

The prevailing logic employed by the Sens’ vast number of independent bloggers seems to be that this will give the Senators a chance to get a good look at Anderson, for the purposes of perhaps offering him a contract. Why on earth any team, in an era of perpetual video analysis and scouting, would need to trade for a player in order to analyze their worth is beyond me. When you mix in Ottawa’s uncertain management scenario — someone new is going to end up calling the shots, but it’s not clear who — you have to think that this move was not made with signing Anderson in mind. After all, he’s a pending UFA. If they liked him that much, they could have taken a run at him on July 1st, and if they didn’t get him there are a number of cheap alternatives on the market for a rebuilding season.

What I find strange is that Anderson isn’t being linked in any further trade speculation. He was great filling in for Vokoun in Florida, he was great in Colorado, especially in the playoffs, and he’s had some injuries this season that have limited his effectiveness on a Colorado team falling apart. But one has to think that one of many playoff-bound teams with uncertain goaltending may be interested in Anderson’s services. What if Murray just turned ninth round pick Elliott, with no trade value whatsoever, into a player he can trade at the deadline? Not hard to imagine a team like Philly, San Jose, or perhaps Washington parting with even least a low pick for goaltending depth. For those teams, every other piece in place, and they’re contenders if Anderson plays the way he did in the playoffs last year.

Maybe Ottawa really does love Anderson so much, and wants to sign him so badly, that they’d send him a message about their commitment. Seems strange — who is Murray to send that message? But if Anderson plays his brains out in the three games Ottawa has between tonight’s game against the Leafs and the deadline, this just might be the shrewdest upgrade of assets we’ve seen from Murray.

This person’s image comes up when you search for ‘Chris Kelly’. I can only assume the actual Chris Kelly struck the same pose upon learning that he was being traded to a bona fide contender and wouldn’t have to watch Brian Elliott piss away the lead again.

Marc

Hot 89.9 is banning all Kelly Clarkson music to protest the Chris Kelly trade to Boston. Enter: another pick in the 2011 Draft, this time in the second round. At this pace Ottawa is gonna have 20 picks in the first 2 rounds.

If the Sens can trade Phillips for that Leafs pick as Conrad suggested, this team will be in a good position sooner than we all might think.

Butler was killer again tonight. This guy looks like the real deal after the 10 game goaless streak to begin his career. Elliott was terrible again tonight. This guy gives his team zero confidence. The shorthanded goal hurt my feelings on so many levels. I dig that Grabner is fast. But there is no valid reason for Elliott to be that far out of position. That was the CCFR turning point of the game for me. Lehner is not impressed and will break him.

The game is decided by a shootout and the Sens come out with a pointless point. The journey through the 9 faceoff circles of overtime hell continues while the old pieces are shipped out of town.

James

Bryan Murray on Kelly Trade:

“We are prepared as an organization to get scored on on each penalty kill
for the remainder of the year”

Conrad

Having put up a post last night suggesting that Kelly should be targeted in exchange for a 2nd round pick literally at the same time as Boston was targeting Kelly for a 2nd round pick, I’m now going to say the exact opposite: I don’t like this trade. I’m okay with Kelly for a 2nd rounder, which is fair, and I’m even okay with not having a veteran, affordable, versatile utility player around for the rebuild, which I admit is problematic. What I’m not okay with is trading such a useful player inside the division. Boston already has the potential to be scary good (though they never seem to be quite as tough to play against as they should be. Ask Philly about that). Kelly is perfect for that team. He can contribute offensively, and slots in perfectly in a defensive, grinding system. And they’ve got him for next year, too. Boston just got a lot stronger, a lot stronger than the addition of a 3rd line grinder would imply. I guess it shouldn’t matter, considering Ottawa will probably stink next year, too, but I would have liked to see him go out West or not at all.
 
Also, why are our highest value players being traded two weeks before the deadline? Are we screwing ourselves out of a bidding war, here?

A shout out to The 6th Sens, whose latest podcast features Sens President Cyril Leeder. Leeder says some encouraging things about where the franchise is heading, and talks about some of those decisions which we now know to be mistakes (ahem, Kovalev). Worth listening to. Funny how hearing it from the mouths of those making the decisions makes their logic seem so much more reasonable. I also felt like this regime is taking this catastrophic season really hard. They’re doing town-hall style consultations with groups of fans from 10 to 100 to talk about what went wrong (!). I think the Senators and their fan base have a really high-maintenance relationship.

Peter

Two ways at looking at this trade. 1. Yes trading him to a division rival is sketchy business that happens way more in the NHL than it does in any other sport.  You’re allowed to be upset that a good character, faceoff guy who does everything else well but nothing else great is gone. 2. You can view it that when his contract expires and if he’s still a sen, management will have a tough decision to resign him. Will he fit with the youth movement? Will all this wheeling and dealing leave room in the top six for him? Would he even bother to resign to be a 4th liner with kids ahead of him on the depth chart?

In my opinion two years from now we won’t need a Chris Kelly. Who knows, maybe Eric Condra is a Chris Kelly clone. Not that we would know after one game but this brings me to my next point.

I know I rant about Denis Potivn alot but last night but his wet-eyed remembrances of high sticks past with his beloved islanders was fucking shameful. He spent the entire third period practically fellating Michael Grabner and Garth Snow. Forgetting that they’re a shitty team too and have used 6 goalies this year.  I still know very little about Eric Condra who played well in limited ice time. Do I know everything about Michael Grabner? Yes granted he’s the hottest player in the NHL but home broadcasts are for home fans. I like watching games on TV since there is additional insight. What insight did we get about Condra from Denis? Basically a faux-rockwell ode to how kids want to play hard for their dads. What? Who gives a shit? What does he do well? What does he need to work on? No one spends any time talking about the up and coming talent on this club until they get called up. Then when they do, we instead have to hear about the time Denis and Butch Goring stole a bunch of hotel mints. 

Look, I don’t know the rules about slander and his job is probably harder than I think but I’m going to say this. I get pie eyed and sentimental too, when I drink. I also slur my words and have a hard time keeping up with the play. Not saying, but I am fucking saying.

Denis Potivn’s legacy has little or nothing to do with the Ottawa Senators and I’d really appreciate it  they ease up on force feeding it to us.

There’s been plenty of speculation about which of the Senators will be leaving town in the coming days. It’s a given that at least the expiring contracts – Phillips, Ruutu, Kovalev, Shannon – will be on their way out, even if it’s for late or conditional picks or, probably in Kovalev’s case, with some bad salary coming back the other way.

But for all the conventional wisdom about GMs hedging their bets, the first trade was for Mike Fisher, who has two years left on his deal. Toronto just traded Kris Versteeg  to the Flyers, and Francois Beauchemin to Anaheim – all players with years left on their deals. This might signal a change in (at least this year’s) deadline strategy; if a valuable pick is being sacrificed, perhaps GMs are placing a greater emphasis on finding a player who acts as both a boost heading into the playoffs and addresses longer-standing gaps on the team.

Given the only untouchables are Karlsson and Alfredsson, and that even some of the Senators under contract or pending RFAs represent some value, I figured it pays to put ourselves in the other GMs’ shoes. If you were, say, Paul Homlgren of the Flyers, George McPhee of the Capitals, or Mike Gillis of the Canucks, who could you actually imagine giving up assets and moving salary around to add?

Personally, I’d go after Chris Kelly. A utility player who can play in any situation, is inexpensive, and contributes offensively. He’s just the kind of depth required for the stretch, and you don’t mind holding onto a contract like that for next season. He seems like the perfect bait for a second round pick.