Sens at Land’s End

Apologies for the lack of posting lately. I find myself having a much busier summer than I’d like.

Although the biggest move that will (hopefully) take place this offseason has yet to occur and the Sens are still in possession of one stupid grumpy sniper, they have made a couple of moves lately. Most notably, they’ve signed Alex Kovalev, recently of the Montreal Canadiens, to a two-year, $10 million deal ($5 million cap hit). I’m not wild about this signing for a few reasons.

1. That’s a lot of money.
2. Kovalev is 36 years old, which makes it seem like an especially high amount of money.
3. Kovalev has a reputation as an inconsistent player who takes frequent nights off. Not to beat a dead horse, but again: that’s a lot of money to pay someone who might spend a third of his time floating.

I also just plain don’t like Kovalev. Granted, my dislike may be less related to Kovalev himself than to the fact that I find almost anything in a Montreal jersey completely obnoxious. When I see him in Sens colours I might well become his biggest fan. I hope so.

This is a signing that, in theory, helps the Sens by adding some offense. That’s always a good thing. It’s not that elusive secondary scoring we’ve been hearing about for years — recent events should soon rob us of a third of our primary scoring — but it’s still good. It’s also great to have that top six forward we needed — except that, due to recent events, we actually needed two. But I guess we can’t have everything.

The other recent player move is the trade of Alex Auld to the Dallas Stars for a sixth round draft pick. This is something I’m not on board with. Auld was one of the few bright spots in the 2007-2008 season and I liked him. I also liked the team’s goaltending depth with Pascal Leclaire and Auld on the big team, and Brian Elliott starting another season in Binghamton. Now it looks as though we have Leclaire starting, Elliott backing up, and the recently-signed Mike Brodeur next in line for a spot on the NHL roster in the unlikely event *cough* that something should happen to one of them. Greeeeeaaaaaat. I know, in the big picture this isn’t something that’s going to have a gigantic impact on the team next season. Still, I don’t really see the point.

In other news, the Sens have announced their 2009-2010 preseason schedule. It features games in Halifax (against the Panthers) and Regina (against the Lightning). My mother lives in Regina and she tells me that game has already sold out. Here is the full schedule:

Sept. 15: Ottawa vs. Florida, 6 p.m. (Halifax)
Sept. 16: Ottawa vs. Florida, 7 p.m.
Sept. 18: Ottawa at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 19: Ottawa vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.
Sept. 21: Ottawa  vs. Tampa Bay, 9 p.m. (Regina)
Sept. 25: Ottawa vs. Boston, 7 p.m.

According to various sources, the NHL is likely to announce its full schedul for 2009-2010 on Wednesday afternoon. I hope to make a post about that once I’ve finished adding all the games to my Google Calendar. Woo hoo!