More haters be hatin'

Bleacher Report's Greg Caggiano released his Eastern Conference predictions for 2008-09, and--surprise, surprise--he picked the Sens to finish out of the playoffs in tenth place. Here's his justification:

"When you hear the phrase "one-line team," the Ottawa Senators have to come to mind. Other then Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, and Dany Heatley, this team's offense on the bottom nine forwards is incredibly thin.

"On defense, they lost Wade Redden, and even though he had been struggling, I would still rather have him over Filip Kuba, who they just added in a trade with Tampa Bay.

"If they made one good signing is was the rugged and tough defenseman Jason Smith who will shore up the defense. The goaltending is a question mark with Martin Gerber and Alex Auld between the pipes."

I'm not going to try and debate the issues in this post, but check out my "Are the Sens really that bad?" posts on the forwards, defence, and (soon) goaltending. Long story short: No, they're not really that bad.