General Anlysis of Debatable Worth on a Tuesday

I failed to write a post game report due to my participation in a McDonald's double-cheeseburger eating contest (I finished in 1st place with 10) following the Sens' 3-2 shootout victory. You would be surprised the level of delerium 20 of those greasy faux-meat-squares can inflict on a man. In light of my glutony, and Andy's participation in the real world is interrupting his once steady flow of morning wrap-ups, I felt it appropriate to provide all 30 of you who read this with anything resembling regularity with your TSC "fix."

A few notes of possible interest:

1) I thought the Sens were great on Saturday, at least compared to the continuous mediocrity we’ve all come to know and love. They peppered Ryan Miller with 42 shots over 65 minutes of hockey, and looked energetic and focused while doing so. While I am not prepared to back this up with "research" at the moment, that has to be one of, if not THE, highest shot count the team has posted all year. Kudos, fellas.

I think what most impressed me was the team's effort in the shootout. I felt all was lost after the talented Mr. Spezza missed on his first attempt but lo, the team rebounded. How about Jarkko-freakin'-Ruutu and that leg kick deke he pulled? We all knew he was good in the shootout, but man alive that was unexpected. Mike Fisher and Daniel Alfredsson also pulled what appeared to be new tricks out of their bag of shootout moves. Chris Yzerman appears to have been spot on.

Since I feel the need to conform to the standards set out by my superiors in the print media, I am going to credit Cory Clouston for the improved shootout effort, and also suggest Bryan Murray should be fired for not hiring a better shootout coach earlier, and also for not getting Jay Bouwmeester for Vermette, Schubert, and a 7th-rounder yet.

2) Did anyone watch Coach's Corner during the intermission this week? If you did not, you missed quite the show. While I will give honourable mention to the disturbing love-letter-esque montage Don Cherry clearly supervised that paid homage to both him and Bobby Orr (while, ironically, never showing the two together at any point) that literally brought Cherry to tears, the highlight of the week had to be Cherry's public shaming of Thomas Vanek.

Cherry intimated that Vanek’s fractured jaw courtesy an Anton Volchenkov slapshot was not, as I had assumed, the product of bad luck but rather the divine providence of the hockey gods. As we all should have guessed, Vanek’s dynamic individual performance against the Maple Leafs, wherein he recorded a hat trick, was in fact the cause of his injury. Apparently, the hockey gods are very similar to most of CBC’s broadcast talent, in that they are thinly veiled Leaf fans. When Vanek “ran up the score.” He earned himself a very painful injury. Had he done so against the hapless Senators, I’m sure the correlation would have gone unnoticed. One implication that I found particularly newsworthy is the revelation that in NHL hockey, apparently, a 5-0 win is now “running up the score.” Had Vanek allowed the Leafs a chance to steal a much needed two points from the Sabres, who are in a tight playoff race, the gods would have spared the Austrian goal scorer. Kids: Remember, if you beat the Leafs, god will break your jaw.

3) The normally competent Allen Panzeri penned what was I consider to be his most glaringly revisionist and sub-standard piece to date for Saturday’s edition of the Ottawa Citizen. I’m usually a fan of his work, so Allen, if you read this (though I’m sure you won’t) know that it’s strictly business, not personal.

Panzeri sought out to assess each transaction the Ottawa has made since the lock-out, grading each one “good”, “bad”, “good deal gone bad”, or “jury’s still out.” I dispute many of Panzeri’s conclusions, such as his decision to altogether omit Muckler’s acquisition of Tyler Arnason, signing of Joe Corvo and giving him a pass on signing Martin Gerber. Equally offensive was his unequivocal condemnation of Murray’s signing of depth offensive defenceman Brendan Bell, and his evaluation of the 2005, 2006, 2007, and particularly the 2008 draft as anything other than “the jury’s still out” as in today’s NHL, one must allow at least 6 or 7 years before judging what a team got out of a draft.

The article, included here, does not have the convenient little chart contained in the print edition, neatly summarizing everything wrong with the club.

That Panzeri feels himself qualified to judge all of the club’s transactions in black, white, blackish-grey and whitish-grey is the height of journalistic arrogance, as each transaction is only given a brief overview, many of which don’t give any in-depth consideration to the salary cap consequences of a move. salary cap figures dominate trade negotiations, and to0 neglect their role in the process is short sighted. How Mr. Panzeri termed the Peter Schaefer (a player who is no longer in the NHL, and had 3 years and $7 million left on his deal) for Shean Donovan (a player who had 1 year, and $800K remaining on his) a failure is beyond me. Talent wise, that may not have been the best move, but cap wise, it was a winner.

Panzeri seems to be joining the growing crowd of people who have chosen to heap the blame on Bryan Murray for the club’s current struggles. This trend is simply unfair.

Nobody was crying foul when many of Murray’s “bad deals” were made. How many of you can honestly look within your souls and say you thought, based on previous performance, Mike Fisher, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, or Ray Emery should have been let go at the time they signed their deals? How many of you were not in favour of adding Cory Stillman’s scoring and Mike Commodore’s professed defensive prowess, and jettisoning the fragile, moody, and inconsistent Joe Corvo’s cap hit? Patrick Eaves has done nothing since he left for Carolina, and was producing precious little prior to his trade, so don’t cry foul over his loss. And I don’t want to hear that “we should have kept Wade Redden” line out of you, because the team’s fan base was calling for his head and he is being grossly overpaid for his nevertheless under-rated services in Manhattan.

The fact of the matter is, Murray is a good GM who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. John Muckler traded away a 2nd round pick and a prospect (see Brooks Laich) every year he was here, and his scouts uncovered no late-round hidden gems up to this point. He got nothing for key building block Martin Havlat, and based on talent alone, how many of you would do that Heatley for Hossa deal again today? The cap relief that came from Heatley’s reduced salary, and offloading Greg DeVries’ contract, which was what made this deal a winner.

Murray inherited a track record of poor asset management that is readily demonstrable, and while his moves have not been sterling, and his reputation is deservedly un-teflonish, Murray should not be blamed for the gradual erosion of this team’s keys to victory: strong drafting and frugal player personnel decision that garnered maximum value. Murray has new people in place, so give the man a few drafts, and a chance to make and use cap space before casting him into the flames with Mel Bridgeman and Randy Sexton.

4) Nick Foligno and Brian Lee continue to impress. Foligno scored another goal on Saturday off a tip, with credit owing to his willingness to drive the net. Foligno appears to be a huge benefactor of a more aggressive forechecking system, as he has been great in the offensive zone, winning battles for loose pucks and making smart plays. I liked the speed and offensive flair of the line he was one with Ryan Shannon and Mike Fisher.
Lee is looking more and more like he could help the club fill one of their "Puck Moving Defenceman" vacancies from within. One play he made on Saturday night really stood out in this regard. He took a bad pass of the outside of his skate inside his own blueline and, without breaking stride, corralled the puck and hit Mike Fisher with a tape to tape pass just outside the Buffalo zone. In a season where the club has struggled to make those outlet passes, Lee is beginning to get the hang of the trade. The rookie is always willing to take contact to make a play, and shows good patience and hockey sense when he has time with the puck. Lee has been, in my opinion, right behind Filip Kuba as the number 2 option on the club's defensive depth chart since Christmas.

The progress of these two young players this season, coupled with the benefits of an off-season of hard work, provides hope that the sens may see improvements in a few areas of weakness next season: Notably their breakout, secondary scoring, and forechecking.