During tonight's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, TSN took a sick pleasure in pointing out to Ottawa Senators fans that while our new crop of forwards were struggling to score, Dany Heatley was tearing up the Western Conference. (Where's the love Duthie? You're an Ottawa boy!)
Dave Hodge's mailbag question was "Should the Senators have handled the Dany Heatley situation differently?"
Going into the game, all signs pointed to the Sens being a sinking ship, in need of a shake-up. Well, I guess it's time to find a new angle. The Sens won the game 7-1, and made me look like a total ass for all the internet to behold.
Milan Michalek scored a trio of pretty goals, thanks in no small part to a few long-time Senators. Jason Spezza maintained (yes, I've been praising him despite his lack of points for some time now) his strong play, and set up Milan a few times, Daniel Alfredsson collected three assists (all in a day's work for Alfie), and Chris Kelly's hard work in the PK not only kept up the Sens' excellent penalty-killing stats, but set up two short-handed goals.
So what's the score now TSN?
Dany Heatley 5G, 5A (No points in two games, btw)
Milan Michalek 4G 0A
Jonathan Cheechoo 0G 2A
Not looking so bad now (would be looking even better if Cheechoo were anything more than a salary dump. Ouch... too soon?). Next time, I'm picking the game winner using some sort of hockey tarot cards.
Karlsson? Oh yeah, that guy...
After a win tonight, and a game on Saturday night against the Habs, you won't find bored hockey writers speculating about the future of Erik Karlsson. I think Bryan Murray will do what he thinks is best, and with modern free agency rules, he's probably going to the minors (or back to Sweden) no matter how well/poorly he plays. Probably.