You know nothing about hockey, unless it's the Toronto Maple Leafs. When the Ottawa Senators declined an 'offer' from the Florida Panthers to acquire Gary Roberts, Kypreos declared that he had lost all respect for the Ottawa Senators. This is stupid for three reasons.
First of all, this implies that Kypreos had respect for Ottawa in the first place. I think we all know that his love-in for all things Maple Leafs is evidence enough this is not the case.
Secondly, it assumes that Florida was asking the same in return for Roberts from both Ottawa and Pittsburgh. Conspiracy theories are always fun, but I will reference Don Cherry as a citation for the following statement: Jacques Martin did not want to give Ottawa a major factor in the repeated defeats of the Martin-era Senators to the Maple Leafs. Why would Martin offer Roberts to the man who fired him (John Muckler) without trying to gouge as much in return as possible? Especially if the opportunity is there to trade him to Pittsburgh--at a time the Penguins looked to be Ottawa's first-round opponent.
Finally, Roberts wasn't the decisive factor. He pissed all Sens fans off, scored a few goals, threw some borderline hits (which probably should have been penalized if the refs weren't so sorry Roberts is such a poor skater), bitched at the refs constantly (once again, for some reason unpenalized despite the lack of a letter of his left shoulder), and apparently helped the young 'Burgh whippersnappers, but none of it really helped. The Pens lost the series.
In a related story, Oleg Saprykin didn't look like such a bad move, after all. This goes out to all the folks responsible for berating Muckler for this blockbuster (that means you, Ottawa Sun): Don't judge a move until you see what it's brought. Sappy played a solid game last night, and in game four, and probably should have had a goal or two in those matches. Furthermore, he looked like he was willing to take a hit once in a while, and has some darn good speed. Ottawa didn't need a slow old-timer to lead a team with solid internal leadership, they needed (more) offensive depth.
In an unrelated story, Anton Volchenkov might be my all-time favourite Ottawa Senators player. He is certainly giving Norm Maciver a run for his money. Let's take a look at his first-round statistics:
- Points: 4 (1G, 3A)
- Hits: 16
- Blocked shots: 14
What more can you ask for? His one goal was a game-winning goal, too... incredible. Game five was a testament to his toughness; after Roberts appeared to hit Volchie's elbow and bend it the wrong way, "the Big Defenceman" (Bob Cole's nickname for Volchenkov, as well as all other Ottawa Senators defencemen) barely missed a shift, and returned to play the last shift of a 3-0 game rather than staying in the dressing room on a precautionary basis. Still incredible.
Now... awaiting the second-round opponent. Stay tuned for a "Ottawa Senators Eastern Conference Semi-Final Opponent Watch" update later tonight.
Posts
