Oh Captain, My Captain

I tuned into the Team1200 this afternoon upon a frenzy of news reports that Kings scouts were watching Alfredsson in Montreal on Tuesday night (Muckler refuted the rumour before most people even knew it existed). As always, there is one buffoon that calls in and claims that Ottawa can't win the Cup so long as it has a European captain. We're supposed to be knowledgeable in hockey, but there is always an army of simpletons that think the only way you can win a Cup is by putting a letter C on an aging Canadian. So I took to the books (read: wikipedia) to uncover the truth behind this myth. Let's call this next blog a mythbuster. Here are the key facts that I found. ALL RESEARCH IS FROM 1950 - PRESENT

1. Since 1950, there have been 361 different captains in the NHL. 306 of them have been Canadian, 26 have been American, and 29 are European. That means since 1950, 85% of the captains in the NHL have been Canadian, 7% American, and 8% European.

2. Of those 29 European captains in the past 50 years, 13 of them are currently the captain of their team (9 in the East, 4 in the West).

3. Of the 55 Stanley Cup Championships since 1950 (mind the lockout), there have been 24 different captains to be the first to raise the Holy Grail. 23 were Canadian, Derian Hatcher is American.

I understand there doesn't seem to be much meat in this sandwich, but please take note of the incredibly weighted statistics before you say a European captain can't win the Cup because it has never happened before. 85% of captains in the past 55 years have been Canadian - that is kind of a factor in Canadian captains winning Cups. Remember that in the past 55 years, only 24 captains have WON a Stanley Cup. So let's all take it down a peg or two and instead discuss who will be the first European to lead his team to a championship, because with 13 European captains, it is inevitable that it will happen soon. Quit throwing proverbial danishes at the head of our captain and let's just hope that he starts scoring in bunches or at least finds a scoring centre to play with!

Other interesting facts I came across that you can use at your local Royal Oak Pub:
- Scotty Bowman lost three straight Cups as coach of the Blues, two of them to Montreal. His solution? He took over as coach of Montreal and won four of the next seven.
- Of the 24 captains to lead their team to the Cup, 14 of them did it multiple times.
- The only two Stanley Cups that Boston has won since 1950 had no captain.

Come back on Friday as Matt and I issue our first ever POINT / COUNTERPOINT where we debate three current topics involving the Senators.

Sens Game Report - Ottawa @ Montreal - 10.31.06

Here's a scary Halloween thought - we stink.

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Montreal wins 4-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Spezza (5) on a seeing-eye puck that almost gave us a chance to think we could we win
- Preissing (2) with 9 seconds left....yaaaaaaay
Making Sens: Alfredsson (I'll defend this one in a moment)
Lacking Sens: Defencemen 1 thorugh 5, Coach Murray
It was over when: Kovalev's goal at the end of the second put us out of our misery
It was definitely over when: Markov threw one at the empty net when we started to press to ice it
Message in a Molson Bottle: This just in - we kinda suck. Our powerplay is absolutely atrocious to the extent that when I said two weeks ago that we should actually just tell the refs we'd rather keep it five-on-five, it has become something we really need to think about. Our defencemen phoned this one in and all they were really missing was having Redden out there to go minus-3 or something. We didn't even deserve the opportunities we did have with the terrible skating we showed tonight.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261031010
Next Game: Saturday at home against Carolina.

Grab a Timmy's double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- This may be a stretch to find something positive out of this game, but I really liked the effort level of Alfredsson tonight. He was trying to lead by example, but unfortunately the rest of the team must have been full from their $2.99 poutine from the Peel Pub down the street or something, because this one was ugly. The worst part about Alfie's night is that he is the only forward that showed up and he finished a minus-4. I'm usually a strong proponent of what that statistic means, but this one isn't justified. The few opportunities we did have to score goals and to move the puck well were created by the captain. I hope he has a temper and throws some chairs, because he's gotta be just steaming inside right now at his stats and his team's record.

The Bad
- Hi, I'm the puck. Whoa, wait, you just skated over me. Peace out. Where in the dickens were we skating tonight? We'd either pull up way short of the puck or skate far past it. Now I'm somewhat partial to the Senators and usually like to argue that we can match the Sabres in terms of speed and skating, but they sure didn't back my argument tonight.
- More on the powerplay later, but the work we did on the 5-0n-3 in the second period when we were only down 1-0 was a joke. We pass the puck around the perimeter and set up the hulking Daniel Alfredsson in front of the net and maanged one shot from the point with no traffic. I think we need to score on 100% of our two man advantages. On the bright side, at least we didn't give up a shortie n that powerplay! Hooray.

The Ugly
- For the sake of time and space, I'll only focus on two. First, our defencemen were halfway to humiliating tonight. Preissing was left standing naked by Higgins, Meszaros coughed it up a handful of times, Phillips and Volchenkov looked as stupid as they did in game one, Corvo was a bit overanxious, Schubert, our number seven defencemen, was just the cat's meow tonight, the only guy that had a half decent game.
- I'm going to point a finger here for a second, at Coach Murray. Why is our powerplay so bad? Why is our defensive coverage so bad? Why do we have trouble moving the puck through the neutral zone with the lineup we have? As much as we can single out different players that screw up regularly, one has to start to wonder what the hell we're doing in practice when we show zero improvement in so many key areas each game. I love our coach and think he can fire these guys up pretty good and proper, but he said it best himself when he said there hasn't really been an improvement in this team from the time he took over last year until now. Why is that? At some point, fair or not, this becomes the responsibility of the coach. Our powerplay is garbage and has been for some time - why hasn't that been fixed so we're at least giving the appearance of having scoring chances?

Overtime
- Not much else to say. This is one where you have to let it sting for a few days to learn the lessons, and then get ready for the Cup Champions.

Sens Game Report - Toronto @ Ottawa - 10.26.06

Raise your hand if you didn't score tonight...

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: We’re good, Ottawa wins 7-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Fisher (2) from his knees banging in a rebound
- Vermette (4) floating a wrist shot on from the left side that finds its way in
- Heatley (4) on the first of two great feeds from his boyfriend
- Corvo (2), zinggggg, blasts one in from 20 feet out
- Heatley (5) with another great feed from Spezza
- Heatley (6) continues kills the Leafs banging on in from the slot after fishing out the rebound in his skates
- Spezza (4) with a naughty little move on Raycroft fires on in from an impossible angle.
Making Sens: Spezza, Heatleym Fisher, Neil, Corvo, Phillips, Volchenkov, Eaves
Lacking Sens: Alfredsson, Redden
It was over when: Heatley giving us a 3-0 lead really was a backbreaker for the blue and white.
It was definitely over when: Toronto got two back and made it close, but Corvo’s blast spelled the end of this one and the rest was just a race to the stick rack.
Message in a Molson bottle: Any of you that questioned the character of this team, shame on you. This team has put up 21 goals in its last three games and dominated in every facet. Tonight was no exception as the Leafs big guns were invisible and ours were scoring hat tricks. Great showing and it restores our place as owners of the Leafs. Toronto has far more problems then their first 6 games would have you believe.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261026014
Next Game: Saturday in Boston, and we’ve been asked to bring takeout from Baton Rouge.

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- As modest as I’m not, I’ve gotta toot my own horn here for a minute. One week ago in this very space, I told you that Joe Corvo would be a major difference maker for this team and would be a favourite in no time. His 5-point performance should have won the hearts of every single Sens fan. He plays hard every shift and has a hell of a shot. This guy is going to be THE biggest impact player on our blue line this year. Write that down.
- Spezza and Heatley didn’t play fair tonight. It is hard to tell if they backchecked at all because the puck was never in the Ottawa zone when they were on the ice. Chemistry class is back in session here, folks. Watch out.


The Bad
- Powerplay was 1-for-8. While it is hard to call anybody out in a win like this, I was very disappointed with the performance during the 1:20 or so of 5-on-3 time we had. I’m of the belief that a team like Ottawa should be scoring at 100% when they have at least a minute of a two man advantage. Instead, we lollygagged in our own zone and before you knew it, we needed Emery’s pads and Phillips backcheck to break up a Kaberle chance out of the box. Just score on these opportunities, guys.

The Ugly
- Are you ready to have your mind blown? In the 13 goals we’ve put up against Toronto in the past 72 hours, Daniel Alfredsson has zero points. It isn’t a that hard to believe if you watched his presence tonight. He was often skating away from the play and floating in the neutral zone, in my opinion, and really sat back and enjoyed the scene. Now if Alfie is the type that will carry the team on his back in a one-goal game and then lets everyone else have the fun in a blowout, that’s one thing. But given the start this team had and the fact that Alfie has one empty net goal to his name this season, I reckon it is time this guy started to pop a few in there

Overtime
- Fans eat pizza twice in a week.
- Gratts and Kaiger didn’t see the ice until the third period. Somewhere, Jacques Martin groaned at the three-line operation.
- McGrattan, Volchenkov, and Neil all blocked slapshots from the point in the dying minutes of a 7-2 game. That’s awesome. Believe this – we are becoming the blue collar team that our management promised.
- Corvo leads the team with 8 shots on goal. Outstanding. This guy is fantastic.
- Speaking of total domination, Spezza wins 18 of his 20 faceoffs, and we hold specialist Michael Peca to to 45% in the circle.
- Nothing came of the Tucker/Belak/Neil/McGrattan hype, as expected. Maurice must have told them something in the second intermission about how ridiculous they’d look trying to fight after the embarrassing performance they were putting out.

Sens Game Report - Ottawa @ Toronto - 10.24.06

If we win on Thursday, that's called a winning streak. It has happened before.

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Ottawa wins 6-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Fisher (1) flying in on a two-on-one with Preissing moves it to his backhand and in around Raycroft.
- Meszaros (1) with a shot from the point
- Eaves (2, pp) on a great 360 move from one knee in front of the net
- Vermette (3, pp) on an amazing pass from Fisher to the front of the net
- Heatley (3) cashing in on Spezza’s work behind the net
- Chris Neil (2) icing it by tipping in a Meszaros wrist shot
Making Sens: Spezza, Heatley, Meszaros, Neil, Fisher, Redden
Lacking Sens: Schubert had trouble moving back to the blue line after Volchenkov left the game.
It was over when: Heatley’s goal did them in. Best forechecking shift of the season.
It was definitely over when: Neil’s goal was the ultimate momentum shift after Toronto came out hard in the third with a goal and then a disallowed goal.
Message in a Molson bottle: For some reason, this game at times seemed closer than the score. We put up the five-spot and then seemed to let them change the style of the game to a more physical tone and we were back on our feet a bit more. But solid puck movement and constant pressure kept this one to what should be called a blowout.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261024021
Next Game: Thursday hosting Toronto to close out the home-and-home.

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- Our penalty killing is our best asset right now. It was there for us when the powerplay was struggling and it is there for us now that we’re starting to click. Bounces went our way tonight and that was part luck and part hard work. Let’s keep up the hard work on this and we’ll continue to get at least half the bounces, right?
- Redden and Meszaros read NxNE! The two combine for 3 points and a plus-6. Great work from the two behind the circles for us tonight.
- Who doesn’t love Chris Neil right now? The guy has been our best player this week and is a great all-around player right now considering the different roles he can play for us.
- Powerplay at 2-for-5 (the last one lasted 12 seconds in the third) seems to have found some mojo.

The Bad
- Chris Kelly’s has hands of stone. I love the kid on the PK and the fourth line, but he is very far out of place with Alfie and McAmmond. Alfie makes some guys better players, but I don’t know if Kelly could score a point between Mario and Wayne. That’s fine, just keep him at a low salary and plugging away on the fourth.

The Ugly
- Toronto’s second goal almost drove me to the bottle, which is exactly where I was in 2004 when Lalime let in the same goal. Twice. To Toronto. Gerber was good tonight, but not great. He leaves some rebounds and is still working on covering pucks, but he was good enough tonight.

Overtime
- Like I said earlier, Heatley’s goal came on the best forechecking shift any Ottawa line has had all season. The puck never had a shot of leaving the Toronto end without the help of McCreary picking it out from behind Raycroft (Aubin played the third).
- Sad moment on the TSN Leafs coverage when Harry Neale said, and I quote, “Mike Fisher and Darcy Tucker are cut from the same cloth.” Except one piece of that cloth is in mint condition and sewn into fine garments while the other piece of fabric has been doused in urine and ketchup and is lying in a gutter near the Humber. That was the second half of Harry’s comments, I would hope. I’ll take Fisher playing in one of those metallic uniforms from Medieval Times before I take Tucker. The guy is a disgrace, once again proven when he runs over Patrick Eaves, forces him into a fight, and then tries to call him a turtle. For those that didn’t catch this game, McGrattan and Belak had a go at it earlier and Gratts pointed out to Belak in the penalty box that he seemed to cover up early. Long story short, Darcy is an idiot.

Sens Game Report - New Jersey @ Ottawa - 10.21.06

If we win Tuesday in Toronto, that would be two in a row…
I also want to give a shout out to co-blogger Matthew for amazingly predicting the immediate firing of Hitchcock mere hours before it became a reality. We all knew there was unrest in Philly, but nobody came out and said it would happen so soon. Street cred for NxNE!

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Ottawa wins 8-1
Ottawa Goals:
- Spezza (3) on the powerplay with a zinger over Brodeur’s glove
- Heatley (2) tipping a Preissing wrist shot through the five-hole
- Vermette (1) banging in a rebound and getting nailed on the play
- Corvo (1) receiving and releasing an Alfredsson pass into the slot
- Preissing( 1) on a squirrelly wrist shot coming down the boards
- Vermette (2) tipping a Volchenkov point shot
- McAmmond (2) hitting rebound off a defender’s skate and in
- McAmmond (3) knocking a bouncing rebound over Clemenson
Making Sens: DMac, Corvo, Vermette, Neil, Spezza, mostly everyone
Lacking Sens: hard to call anyone out after a win like this
It was over when: Vermette and Corvo scored 50 seconds apart to put this away and the rest was just padding on the stats and a confidence boost.
It was definitely over when: Brodeur was pulled after the sixth goal. That typically means things aren't going well for the Devils.
Message in a Molson bottle: We converted on the first powerplay, didn’t give up a shorthanded goal, skated hard and won the battles for loose pucks. This one brought back the memories of last year when we made opponents pay for every misake.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261021014
Next Game: Tuesday starts a home and home in Toronto (we host them on Thursday)

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- Dean McAmmond and Daniel Alfredsson looked awesome together. DMac’s speed and Alfie’s vision will work very well together. I think Kelly being on that line is a bit of a wasted opportunity, but Alfie and DMac can be great producers on that line. Can Kaigorodov play the wing? That would be an interesting experiment.
- Chris Neil deservedly was awarded the first star. As the New Jersey announcers kept pointing out with amazement, Neil has really redefined his career while at the same time remembering what got him here. He makes the right plays and still manages to be a pest. A good contract there. More on this night later.
- Two goals straight off defencemen’s sticks and another two were deflected on the way. Good things happen when you get shots through from the point as it resulted in four of the goals.

The Bad
- Nothing really to point out here. Fisher had a bad turnover in the neutral zone that led to the Gionta goal, but the whole team regrouped after that. Pass from Meszaros was in his skates and Gionta's shot was unstoppable. It still gave a quick reminder about the importance of moving the puck through the neutral zone.

The Ugly
- Meszaros and Redden still managed to be a minus-1 tonight. That blows my mind. With the way Corvo has fit in and played in his two games, expect to see a lot more of him and the defensive minutes being spread out.

Overtime
- Kaigorodov centering the fourth line went a whopping 1-7 in the faceoff circle. I know he is better at centre, but I wonder what he’d look like on the left wing of McAmmond and Alfredsson.
- Chris Neil had 11 hits, seven more than Fisher’s four (our second biggest hitter last night).
- Neil also led the team with 6 shots on goal.
- A telling sign that the defence is different in Ottawa this year is that Joe Corvo led the team in icetime with 22:23.
- This is a start in the right direction as the team is rewarded for playing hard. Hopefully this feeling will stay with them and they’ll understand that if they do what they’re supposed to do, they win games and people eat pizza.

A Good Time for a Change

As Mr. Geoffrey Tiberious Cheek informed you all in the previous post - the lines are going to be a little different tonight. I am indifferent to the change and expect a successful game for Alfredsson and Spezza - but Heatly on the other hand - that's a different story. Heatly is a pure goal scorer. He has never been a creator and never will be. Ive never admired players like this but they can be effective if they have a highly skilled player to get them the puck. Dany has always been blessed with a number of elite level plyers on his line (Kovalchuk, Spezza, Savard, Alfredsson) and tonight, for the first time, he will be playing with a rag-tag group of players. Antoine Vermette, although speedy, has never shown that he can playmake consitantly and although I admire Chris Kelly's work ethic - his hands leave alot to be desired. I expect Heatly to flounder tonight and be immediadtly re-paired with Spezza next game.

Rumors

My trade rumor record has been pedestrian at best but the winds of change are blowing in Philly. Darien Hatcher is being offerd up to anyone who will listen and to quote Ed Snyder "Nobody is safe on this team". Now nobody is going to take Hatcher or Rathje of their hands so expect Hitchcock to be fired by mid-week if the Flyers continue to struggle.