Sens at Land’s End

There was a signing in Senators-land today: Bryan Murray rewarded Matt Carkner’s solid play with a two-year, $1.4 million one-way contract.

The timing of this deal strikes me as strange. Carkner has performed better than I think anyone expected to this point in the season, but it’s only been seven games and it seems a bit soon to conclude that he’ll keep it up forever. On the other hand, a cap hit of $700,000 would make Carkner the 191st best paid defenseman in the NHL this season. A number like that doesn’t seem like much to risk on a guy who can, at the very least, worry people and kill penalties. When you think about the somewhat inflated contracts of Chris Kelly, Chris Neil, and Mike Fisher, it’s unfortunately refreshing to see a hometown hero type of guy get a very reasonable, totally non-crippling deal from the Sens for once.

The interesting part of all this is wondering what it means for the Senators’ future roster. Ottawa’s defense looks rather crowded at the moment; if Filip Kuba ever happens to recover from whatever injury he’s dealing with, someone will have to come out of the lineup. The team also has Brian Lee down in Binghamton and the monstrous Jared Cowen in the pipeline. But:

• Anton Volchenkov is a UFA at the end of this season.
• Chris Campoli, Alexandre Picard, and Brian Lee are all RFAs at the end of this season.

That leaves four spots on the blueline definitely filled in 2010-2011: Chris Phillips, Carkner, Kuba, and presumably Erik Karlsson. It’s also possible that Cowen will make the leap to the NHL, which means five of six/seven positions may be filled before Campoli, Picard, Lee, and Volchenkov even enter the picture.

So. What is the deal here? What is Murray’s plan? It seems reasonable to assume that at least one and maybe two of Campoli, Picard, and Lee will not be back. Personally, I’d be inclined to re-sign Picard. He played very well paired with Kuba at times last season and he’s definitely looked more impressive than Campoli so far this year. As for Lee and Campoli, well, it wouldn’t break my heart to see either one walk (unless I started thinking about wasted first round picks).

The real question is: what will happen to Volchenkov? Is signing a very cheap player like Carkner a way of readying the payroll to give the A-Train his raise? I kind of hope so. Every time Volchenkov crushes another rookie, he reminds me why he’s one of my favourite players and I would hate to see him leave Ottawa. That said, I’m also with Nichols of The 6th Sens in not particularly wanting to see Volchenkov eat up $5 million of the Sens’ cap space for the foreseeable future (see Nichols’ post “What’s Volchenkov Worth?” for some good reading on this subject).

With that in mind, I wonder if signing a physical d-man like Carkner might be Murray’s attempt to fill a forthcoming Volchenkov-shaped void. I hope not: I like Carkner, but really … he’ll never be the A-Train.

Seven goals. Two shorties. Several players with multi-point games. A goal from each line. No major defensive woes. A bit of truculence. Steve Downie on his ass. Yep, this was a fun one.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. At last! An offensive breakthrough! I really hope this is the start of a trend and not just some flukey one-time Tampa-induced outburst. No, I don’t expect them to start scoring seven per game, but three or four would be a level to aim for. It would be wonderful to think the offense has started to click.

Manic Michalek! This is what I’m going to be calling Milan Michalek due to his foot speed and his hilarious speed-talking in interviews. Michalek was clearly the star last night. Two shorthanded goals is pretty impressive, and it was exciting to see him get his first NHL hat trick.

All Aboard the A-Train, Part Whatever This Is. Yet another high profile rookie learned the hard way about Anton Volchenkov’s ability to throw a hard bodycheck last night. This time it was Victor Hedman who went down after a big hip check. It seems Volchenkov is on a mission to educate the young ‘uns this year. He’s had a fantastic start to the season.

Alas, Poor Giggles. Jason Spezza, on the other hand, probably hasn’t had the start he’d hoped for. With just three points in six games, he’s currently ninth on the Senators in scoring. Despite that, he’s playing very well. He’s leading the forwards in icetime, and he’s been noticeable doing little things like winning puck battles. Cory Clouston has been using him in all situations and Ray Ferraro singled him out during TSN’s broadcast last night for his “exemplary” effort in the game. Spezza has said he feels he’s starting to click with his linemates, Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo, and his beautiful pass to set up Michalek for the hat trick goal seems to back that up. No doubt Spezza will break through with some points soon — maybe even as soon as Saturday when the Sens play Montreal, a team Spezza has traditionally destroyed.

Is There a Matt Carkner Fan Club? Because I’d Like to Join. How long have Sens fans been waiting for someone to come along and beat the crap out of Steve Downie? Two years. That’s how long. Last night, Matt Carkner did exactly that. Afterwards, Carkner said: “Payback for McAmmond … I hate that little prick.” Music to our ears! Unsurprisingly, Downie went for the eye gouge and kick post-fight, but Carkner prevailed because Downie is a pathetic little boy and Carkner is awesome.

No I in Beatdown. I also saw Carkner standing up in the penalty box and cheering after one of the Sens’ goals. He seems to be a real team player, and his kind of attitude appears to be one Cory Clouston has somehow managed to cultivate on this Senators team. From the Sun:

“The atmosphere is good on this team,” Volchenkov said when asked to explain his early season success. “It feels good. I like playing with this team.”

You can see this positive atmosphere in the way they’re standing up for each other, and in the small stuff like Spezza grabbing the puck as a souvenir after Michalek scored his third goal. I also see it, or think I see it, in how I feel after I watch the games. I come away from Sens games these days feeling that I haven’t really noticed any one forward or forward line standing out (last night Michalek was the obvious exception), but they’ve all generally played well. I think what I mean is best expressed by Spezza’s good play, and by the fact that I was really shocked to discover that Daniel Alfredsson is the team’s leading scorer with seven points right now. His performance hasn’t stood out to me as being particularly strong; in fact, I thought he was having a rather slow start.

Now, this team-wide invisibility could be a horribly negative thing if it meant all the forwards were playing badly, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. They’re just quietly going about the business of, you know, winning a few games. Their philosophy seems to be that there’s no need to be flashy: just get the job done. The Sens are playing a real team game so far, and it definitely feels good to watch.

Toot Toot

If I may belatedly promote myself a bit: I was asked to contribute a short piece on the Sens’ “sore thumb” — that is, the one issue that might be the team’s greatest weakness this season — for Cycle Like the Sedins. No, my answer was not “everything.” See what I came up with here.

The first half of this game was extremely entertaining. The Sens managed to trap the Islanders in their own zone for long stretches of time and everything was great. Then the Islanders came back, and it seemed as though it might end up being a wasted opportunity. Luckily, Mike Fisher played hero in overtime and Sens fans everywhere went to sleep happy.

Luck Be a Lady Tonight. Interesting trend in Sens games this season: good luck. Two reviewed goals go in Ottawa’s favour. The refs fail to blow the whistle when the puck hits the mesh, and Peter Regin scores. Is this good karma saved up from the whole Heatley thing? Whatever has caused fate’s fickle finger to point favourably at our heroes, it’d be nice to see it keep up for a while. (Although it’s also possible that the botched goal call had something to do with the almost complete lack of Ottawa power plays last night, which is less great.)

All Aboard the A-Train, Part II. Rookies of the NHL take note: the A-Train changes track for no one. Not even you, John Tavares. Evander Kane is probably feeling a mysterious sense of creeping dread right about now.

Dazzly Pazzy, Part II. Another solid performance from the goaltender. That one save? You know the one. I pressed the little 15-seconds-back button on my remote to watch it again about five times, my jaw hanging wide open all the while.

Long Time Coming. Matt Carkner’s goal was a real bright spot in the game. You can’t help but root for a guy who’s spent the better part of 10 years in the AHL and is now finally, unexpectedly, getting his shot in the big league. Carkner’s total joy after he scored what was his first NHL goal — he must have wondered if this moment would ever come — was infectious. His teammates on the bench were smiling. I was smiling as I watched on TV. Heck, I bet even the Islanders were smiling as the crowd at Scotiabank Place gave Matt Carkner a standing ovation. It was lovely.

Woe! I was happy for Carkner, and happy to see the third line of Jonathan Cheechoo, Chris Neil, and Peter Regin playing a great game. It’s wonderful to get goals from unexpected places. It really is. Nonetheless: I think it would be advisable for the Sens’ top six offensive players to start scoring soon. For example, Mike Fisher obviously knows how to shoot. Maybe he could try doing that before overtime in a future game.

Like maybe Saturday would be a good time for that to happen. I know it’s the Thrashers and we’re used to not taking them seriously, but they’re tied for the league lead in goals per game right now, with an average of five. Five. Granted, they’ve only played two games. Still, that’s impressive and, given that Ottawa is tied for 25th in the league right now with an average of 2.33 goals per game, a bit scary.

Cory Clouston has attempted to address the scoring problem by putting Nick Foligno on the first line with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek, and moving Alfie to Foligno’s old spot on the second line with Alex Kovalev and Mike Fisher. The second line seems like it could work. Alfie brings out the best in Fisher (he does that for everyone except Leafs fans, actually) and he might be a good intermediary between Kovalev’s fanciness and Fisher’s … non-fanciness. I’m not convinced by the first line, but Spezza and Michalek seem like they might be developing chemistry.

If the big guns don’t start producing then, well, Chris Neil may just beat them up. Awesome! I think Darren over at Silver Seven summed it up best: “Good to see the team playing with intensity at practice, bad to see Chris Neil ready to punch the team’s top centre in the face.”

Yay, first points of the season! I think we can view this game as a small step forward. It wasn’t a great performance but it wasn’t horrible either and, in the end, it was two points Ottawa got and a divisional opponent didn’t.

All Aboard the A-Train! Everybody knows the story with the Leafs this year: it’s a series of 10 cent words that mean they like violence. Despite that, the Sens were the ones wreaking a bit of havoc in last night’s game. Anton Volchenkov took out Viktor Stalberg with a massive hit in the first period, and I thought Volchenkov and Mike Fisher were pretty big with the bang and crash throughout the game.

Sheantastic. I like Shean Donovan. I wish he got to play more. That is all.

He Doesn’t Really Shoot or Score. As nice as it was to see Donovan get that goal after the Sens caused chaos in the Leafs’ crease, it’s got to be a cause for concern when the fourth line is the only one generating offense. Other than Milan Michalek’s aborted breakaway that led to the Daniel Alfredsson penalty shot (and to Michalek needing some dental work courtesy of Luke Schenn’s stick), I can’t remember Ottawa having many dangerous looking scoring chances. I’d be hard pressed to tell you anything really notable that most of the forwards did during the game, although I did notice the line of Nick Foligno, Mike Fisher, and Alex Kovalev doing some good defensive work in the third period. Kovalev had a nice presence, I thought: he looked steady and calm with the puck.

Dazzly Pazzy. It’s hard for me to trust a goalie. I’ve been hurt, you know. That’s why I’m starting slowly with our Monsieur Leclaire. I don’t want to say anything too positive because it’s only been two games and you never know: he could fall apart — literally or figuratively — at any moment. However, I will say that so far, he looks strong out there. He doesn’t at all make me want to hide under my covers until the puck is out of the Ottawa zone. And I call that progress.

You Can Do Eet! (That’s supposed to be a reference to The Waterboy. I shouldn’t love old Adam Sandler movies so much, but I can’t help myself.) Pierre McGuire offered what I thought was an interesting tidbit from his position between the benches during TSN’s broadcast last night. He said he could hear all the Sens players encouraging each other, and it was “fun to listen to.” The fact that he bothered to point it out made me think this was something beyond the norm. Can it be that there’s a positive atmosphere within the team? I don’t know, but I’d also say Alfie looked pretty darn happy during his second intermission interview, and Alex Kovalev had some very nice things to say about Alfie in particular and the general level of communication between players on the team in his blog for RDS’s website. (Thanks to Battle of Ontario for pointing it out.) We can only hope this apparent positivity will lead to good things on the ice.

Ottawa’s next game is their home opener, Thursday, vs. the New York Islanders. Practice update via Sportsnet’s Ian Mendes: Jason Spezza sat out today but won’t miss a game. Filip Kuba and Ryan Shannon will not play against the Islanders. Jesse Winchester was on the ice today. Pascal Leclaire will probably start tomorrow night.

I may have been the only fan in GM Place who didn’t suffer any type of shellshock at the Canucks’ home opener last night. Of course, I may also have been the only fan wearing a Blue Jackets t-shirt. The Jackets are, if you don’t know, my adopted Western Conference team, second only to the Sens in my heart. After that foulest of former Senators revealed his true, devilish nature this summer, the excellent Rick Nash inherited the title of My Favourite Player. I’m sure he will do it great justice.

He got off to a good start last night, picking up three assists in a 5-3 Columbus win. The Jackets played a fairly strong game. The highlight for me was a great kill on a 2-man disadvantage that lasted over a minute near the end of the first period. They managed to kill the first penalty, with new acquisition Sammy Pahlsson doing notable work, and then non-evil former Senator Antoine Vermette scored a nice goal after some very pretty passing from Nash just as the second penalty expired. With the goal coming in the last minute of the period, this was one of those TSN Turning Point moments.

The Jackets managed to score three more goals in the first six minutes of the second period: in fact, they scored four goals on four consecutive shots, and chased Roberto Luongo from the game. While all of the goals — scored by Kristian Huselius (after a cheeky behind the back pass from Nash), Rostislav Klesla, and rookie Nikita Filatov — were pretty to look at, I don’t think any of the shots could have been considered unstoppable. Luongo just plain didn’t look good, and the fans cheered when Andrew Raycroft came in to replace him.

Vancouver made the game interesting and came back to within a goal in the third, but Little Stevie Mason looked awesome and the Jackets held the lead. Mason stopped 40 of 43 shots, and yet was absurdly not named one of the stars of the game in the building. Madness.

So, the Jackets have started 2-0 — for the first time in their history, apparently — and the Canucks are now 0-3. Fingers are approaching panic buttons in the city of Van. It’s only three games, though: it’ll be okay.

Oh Right, the Sens

The unpredictable adventure that is the 2009-2010 Ottawa Senators will continue in about 20 minutes as the Sens take on the now super-testosterone-fuelled Toronto Maple Leafs. “The Monster” is in goal for Toronto. Filip Kuba and Ryan Shannon are both sitting out for the Sens, with Alexandre Picard and Shean Donovan stepping in as their replacements. No idea how this one will turn out: I can see it being a total blowout for either side or a really close game. Who knows?