Archive for January, 2008
Senators 5, Islanders 2
An encouraging performance today by Team Red. Apparently they are still capable of playing defence. They also only took two penalties, and didn’t give up their entire lead. Even after Alfie left injured again, they managed not to collapse. Good job, Sens. I wish Alfie would just take some time off to rest his hip because it keeps getting re-aggravated. Maybe he will now.
Meanwhile, this article about the cold weather on the prairies made me laugh.
Comments are off for this postThumbs Down to “Retirement”
My personalized Google homepage informed me when I got home today that Teemu Selanne has re-signed with the Ducks. I suppose technically there is nothing wrong with what’s going on there: technically, they just signed an unrestricted free agent. This one isn’t as shifty as the Scott Niedermayer thing in the end. But still, sitting out your older players for the first 50 games and then bringing them back well-rested just in time for the playoff run feels quite a lot like cheating to me. I don’t suppose the Sens ever considered sitting Alfie, who is 35, and I look at Chris Chelios playing all season in Detroit at 46, and I lose a whole lot of respect for Niedermayer and Selanne, really, who formerly were two of the few Ducks players not wholly offensive to me. It’s a loophole the NHL should think about closing.
So the Ducks get better (in theory; maybe Selanne will suck? Sure he will!) and the Sens continue this awful downhill slide they’re on. Ray Emery showed up late for practice yet again today. I just … hate both the goalies right now, so much. So, so much. I want to love them, but I can’t do it. Gerber at least comes to the rink. If only he would play well.
To cheer myself up, a bit of fun: TSN put up a thing today where people can pick their own rosters for the 2010 Canadian men’s Olympic hockey team, so I did that. Who knows what things will be like in two years, but it was a neat exercise anyway. I record my roster here for future review:
Forwards
Daniel Brière
Sidney Crosby
Shane Doan
Mike Fisher
Dany Heatley
Jaroma Iginla
Vincent Lecavalier
The Amazing Rick Nash
Martin St. Louis
Joe Sakic (assuming he’s still able to play)
Jason Spezza
Eric Staal
Joe Thornton
Defence
Jay Bouwmeester
Brian Campbell
Mike Green
Ed Jovanovski
Scott Niedermayer (even though he is LAME … if he “retires” again I would obviously have to substitute someone else)
Dion Phaneuf
Chris Phillips
Goaltenders
Martin Brodeur
Jean-Sébastien Giguère
Roberto Luongo
Three French Canadian goalies, a mix of young superstars and veteran leaders, no players with really bad karma (Chris Pronger was not selected for this reason), and lots of Senators. Ah yes, this team would be very good indeed. My team is also very hot, it should be noted, especially if Luongo can be convinced to cut his hair. Just put me in charge now, Hockey Canada, because I smell gold!
Comments are off for this postSkills on Parade
I watched the All-Star Skills Competition yesterday. It was, as always, a pretty entertaining event, but I think it could have used more Spezza. The CBC had him miked up so they could have broadcast anything he said to anyone on the ice at any point, but they didn’t. Come on now, CBC, the guy is hilarious.
Here are my random thoughts on this event:
- The obstacle course was so complex I’m surprised the players could remember what to do. Spezza had to do the stickhandling part and he kicked its ass. Way to go, Spezz!
- The format for the Young Stars game this year was a 3 on 3 shinny game for 12 minutes, which was extremely entertaining. Patrick Kane is really rather spectacular. The younger Staal also did a nice job.
- On a related note, I have now determined that Eric is the cutest Staal brother, Jordan is the second cutest, and Marc is the least cute. Poor Marc.
- I want to hate Ryan Getzlaf, but he’s actually pretty funny. Damn you Getzlaf. I can still hate Corey Perry though.
- Chris Pronger was trying to disrupt the interview when the CBC was talking to Perry, and he fell flat on his face. HAHAHA you suck, Pronger. They asked if he was alright and he said no, he’s day to day with hurt feelings. OK, that was amusing. But Pronger still sucks.
- Speaking of which, they had a shot of Pronger sitting with a bunch of kids during the events. Yes, let’s all leave our kids with Chris Pronger! That seems like a great idea!
This new wacky breakaway contest could, I thought, have been really entertaining, but the execution kind of failed. Most of the players just weren’t hot dogging enough. A couple of guys did neat things: I liked Marian Gaborik’s do a lap, snow the goalie, go behind the net move, and Ovechkin (whom I find such a fun player to watch and I really don’t get the people who don’t like him) picked the puck up, bounced it on his stick a few times and then tried to swat it into the net from the air, swinging his stick like a baseball bat. That was pretty cool. I think Martin St. Louis was going to try something that looked potentially awesome, but frickin’ Nabokov came out and poke checked him! Nabokov, seriously … what the hell dude?! If I were St. Louis I would have been super pissed. I am uncertain as to why The Amazing Rick Nash didn’t participate in this event. He seemed like an ideal candidate, especially after scoring that ridiculous goal against Phoenix last week.
Apparently they had the goalies miked up on the US coverage and Rick DiPietro said to Ilya Kovalchuk, “Why don’t you set yourself on fire, set the puck on fire, do a backflip, and score?” Now that would have been exciting. Maybe next year.
Comments are off for this postAlfie! Alfie! Alfie!
The Sens beat Tampa 8-4 yesterday, which is a ridiculous score especially because the Sens were up 5-0 at one point. Defence is a good thing, people, even when you have a big lead. Really. I promise. But Alfie had 7 points in the game. That is a new all-time team record, and lo and behold, who should now be leading the NHL in scoring? Let me see:
Oh hey, it’s Alfie! Anyone who said he shouldn’t be starting the All-Star Game can really bite me.
There is also a Fantasy Hockey report on TSN.ca that has footage of Heatley skating! I was so pleased to see that. He’s in full gear and holding a stick so the shoulder must not be bothering him too much.
Could it be things are looking up in Sens-land? I hope so.
Comments are off for this postNo, Sens. No.
Long time no post! And interesting things have been happening with the team over the last little while, too. Mostly bad things. I will now do a quick recap of the last two weeks in Sens land, which I feel can be summarized with reference to three disturbing trends.
Disturbing Trend #1: Blown Leads
January 10 against Buffalo, the Sens give up a two goal lead in the third period. They end up winning in a shootout. Then January 12 against Detroit, after playing a truly beautiful first two periods — huge thumbs up to the entire team for that one — the Sens give up another two goal lead in the third. They end up winning in regulation. So in both cases, the result was of the good, but I’d really like to see them … I don’t know … not collapse once in a while.
This disturbing trend no longer seems to be an issue for the team, but sadly that’s just because they never get the lead any more so they can’t possibly give it up. More on that later.
Disturbing Trend #2: Injuries! So many injuries.
I was really enjoying the Detroit game until that horrific moment in the third period when Dany Heatley went shoulder-first into the boards and left the game, at which point I started hyperventilating and soon passed out. When I came to the next morning I heard the news that Heatley had separated his shoulder and would be out 4-6 weeks. I lost consciousness again, waking up just in time to listen to the game that afternoon against the Islanders. I tried to calm myself down by thinking that hey, it couldn’t get much worse, right? Except no, because Jason Spezza left during the first period of that game after taking a hard hit. That almost did me in. Happily, Spezza didn’t end up missing more than part of one game. Relief! Except that not really, because two games later Alfie went down with a hip problem. What the hell?! How do those three of all players on the team suddenly end up getting injured at almost the exact same time? It’s too much for a Sens fan’s heart to take! Too much for a Sens player to take as well, I think: I had the feeling the team was shaken after seeing Heatley leave the Detroit game, and I think they likely would have maintained their lead in that one had he not got hurt. Though they seemed to be unaffected by Alfie leaving during the game against Carolina, I definitely think the shock of losing both those guys so close together hurt them in the games Alfie missed against Tampa Bay and Philadelphia.
Somewhere in all this there is a pun on The White Stripes’ song “The Big Three Killed My Baby.â€
As I write this post, I am listening to the Florida game, and Alfie is back in the lineup, though it seems obvious that the hip is still bothering him. The Ottawa Sun reported today that Heatley, being some kind of genetically superior uberman, could be back sooner than expected. That’s good, because I have been walking around saying “4-6 weeks!†in a plaintive tone to various friends since his injury happened and I’m sure they’re getting sick of hearing about it.
Disturbing Trend #3: General Suckitude
Yeah that’s right, the Sens suck now. We all know it. Let’s look at the evidence.
Record: The Sens were 16-3-0 in their first 19 games. Since then, they are 14-12-4, aka 14-16, aka below .500. To put a bit brighter spin on it, they are 14-8-1 since that seven-game winless streak in November-December during which they went 0-4-3. However, in their last 15 games, they are a mediocre 8-7-0.
Goals against: The Sens are in the bottom half of the NHL in terms of even strength goals against and power play goals against. The team’s goals against average of 2.77 is 19th in the NHL.
Goals for: The Sens are still the highest scoring team in the league. Unfortunately, they pretty much have to be given the above. Since losing Heatley, they’ve been outscored 23-13. Take away the 5-1 win over Carolina and that’s 22-8.
Special teams: Well, we are used to the Sens’ power play being absolutely craptastic this season so the fact that it’s currently ranked 13th in the NHL actually comes as something of a pleasant surprise; however, they allowed their first short-handed goal of the season in the terrible 6-1 loss to Philadelphia, which is telling regarding the team’s defensive play of late. A look at the penalty kill stats is a shocker, as the Sens are now 16th in the league in that area.
Add all that up and it’s bleak to say the least. What’s truly alarming is the fact that the team struggles and struggles and does absolutely nothing about it. It feels like, for the most part, they just don’t care. They started the season with such fire; I could tell they were determined to get back to the Final this year, but that seems increasingly unlikely. This team has awful goaltending, weak defense, spotty offense, and what appears to be a real lack of character. I am not surprised at the goaltending or the fact that the offense behind the big three isn’t all that great. I am really shocked by the poor defensive play and character issues. If you had told me in October that a large portion of this team was basically going to quit showing up for games within a couple of months, I would never have believed you.
And yet I still think there’s reason to be optimistic. The game against Detroit showed that they can put in an extremely solid effort when they’re motivated. It’s still in there somewhere. It just has to come out a lot more often, and it needs to start showing itself very soon or this post-season will be a short one indeed.