Project Hennessy: To be continued

I didn't expect to see it happen, but the Senators' brass have decided against ending the Josh Hennessy project and re-signed the centreman to a two-year two-way contract. I haven't found financial terms of the deal yet, but I can't see it being worth any more than the $565K Hennessy made last season.

Although he'll have a chance to make the NHL squad in training camp, Hennessy will likely re-join the Binghamton Senators for the third season in a row, with a few mid-season call-ups if the big team runs into injuries. In 152 AHL games over the last two seasons, Hennessy has scored 49G and 59A for 108P total.

The signing retains the services of one asset we received in the Martin Havlat trade, along with 2008 second-round pick Patrick Wiercoch and I think Michal Barinka is still technically a Sens prospect.

The Sens also re-signed goaltending prospect Jeff Glass to a one-year, two-way deal earlier in the week. It is, according to NHLScap, worth $550k.

The Rumour Mill: Khabibulin and Ruutu

I don't like reporting on rumours from HockeyBuzz.com. But this one, by Kevin Lee, is too funny too pass up.

The idea is that the Sens would send Ray Emery, a prospect, and a second-round pick (the same pick the Sens acquired in the Martin Havlat trade) in exchange for Nik Khabibulin and Tuomo Ruutu. While I wouldn't mind Ruutu, I seriously doubt that GM Bryan Murray would look to Khabibulin as an answer to the team's goaltending problems. Especially with Khabby's injury problems, as described on Black Aces quite well.

It would just be funny if Emery was packaged with Josh Hennessy and the aforementioned pick for Ruutu and Khabibulin because it would be like trading Havlat and Emery for Ruutu, Khabibulin, and Tom Preissing. Which seems like a solid deal to me.

Sens drop two in a row

On Saturday night Ottawa lost 4-3 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks because of goaltending. The other team got it, Ottawa didn't. It wasn't the first time this season that's happened.

Nikolai Khabibulin looked great while Ray Emery was not playing anywhere near his best. The Bulin Wall stopped all seven of Daniel Alfredsson's shots, and three of five from Dany Heatley. When players like that get stoned, a goalie is one. Rayzor, on the other hand, appeared sluggish--it kind of looked like his pads weighed 200 pounds each--and it looked like he might still have some nagging injury holding him back. I'm sure if he was given the opportunity to play a few games in a row he could bounce back--Rayzor's certainly not a bad goalie, although he didn't look good against Chicago--but the way Martin Gerber has played in his last five games (including the 3-2 loss to Atlanta, where he stopped 42 of 45) The Gerber has earned the start tonight in New York.

Going back to Heater, he was apparently credited with 10 scoring chances. Incredible. He played a great game tonight, and he was rewarded with two goals. Alfie had all sorts of chances and shots, but Khabibulin was always there to stop him. I'm sure Alfie's getting frustrated after missing the net as time ran down on Thursday against Atlanta and then getting stoned repeatedly by Khabi to end his point streak at ten games.

After Heater, Alfie, and Jason Spezza (who also had a grest game), there was no consistenet support--which has been the case for a few games now. At times Dean McAmmond and Shean Donovan looked like they could help, as evidenced by their assists on Heater's first goal and D-Mac's big short-handed tally, but they were only given 6:57 and 2:49 respectively to work with. Meanwhile, Antoine Vermette--who's been disappointing the last couple of games-- and Randy Robitaille--who has shown improvement, but not enough-- were awarded with 19:27 and 17:40 minutes of ice time. M.C. 'Ammer and Shean Don, along with Brian McGrattan (20 secons of ice time), were blamed for the 'Hawks first goal, and were left on the bench most of the rest of the game because of that fact. When Chris Neil takes two stupid, completely useless penalties, the second of which gets the 'Hawks back in the game, he should not be getting almost twelve minutes of ice time. And Neil should never play on the powerplay; while he's useful while standing in front of the net, he's a liability when breaking into the zone because he can't control the puck to save his life.

I'm really beginning to question John Paddock's tactics over the course of this season. Okay, not beginning, I've been questioning him for months now. Continually playing struggling players (Robitaille, Vermette, Chris Kelly) while benching those who are working (McAmmond, Donovan, McGrattan) and over-playing the first-line guys (Spezza, Heatley, Alfredsson) is not at all proactive, and will more than likely hurt this team in the long run. No matter what Paddock says about 'doing what it takes to win,' I don't care about the regular-season. I want this team to have what it takes to win in the playoffs, and if that means playing McGrattan 10 minutes a game against the Chicago Blackhawks, let him have it.

On the other side of the puck, Chicago was great to watch. I had no idea this Patrick Sharp kid was that good, although I'd heard of him, but he had a great game. Obviously, so did Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, but that was to be expected. And then there's Khabibulin, who kept the 'Hawks in it through to the end. Once Cam Barker, Brent Seabrook, and Duncan Keith really develop into the defence corps they appear destined to become, this team will be something else. Didn't see much of Martin Havlat--aptly nicknamed "always injured" by Ben--because he got injured in the second period and left the game, but he did have one or two good chances. Every time I see Mach 9 (or is it Mach 24 now?) come back from injury with guns blazing, I think, "Man, it would be nice to have him here still... " and then I remember how unreliable he is because of his injury problems. When he's healthy, though, he's one of the most exciting in the game.

(P.S. Sorry about the lack of update from the Atlanta game. In my opinion, the Sens made three mistakes--Donovan, Christoph Schubert, and Andrej Meszaros--and paid for all three of them. The Gerber played well enough to keep the Sens in the game, but certainly didn't steal anything.)

Darth Gerber now a brand

A nickname that rose from the blogosphere and then infiltrated CBC has now become a T-shirt. It was only a matter of time, and now Darth Gerber can be immortalized on your chest in logo form (I suppose a tattoo would also do it).

You can get yours at this website*.

In other news...

It should be a very good game tonight when the Sens take on Martin "always injured" Havlat, and a team of the very brightest high-school aged hockey players the NHL could find.

Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Cam Barker will all do their best to defeat the much manlier Senators while waiting for their moms to drop off their lunches. I guess the Blackhawks are finally seeing the dividends of their "let's have a shitty team for 20 years" strategic franchise plan. It only took the Sens 5 years of absolutely horrendous hockey to get our draft picks.

What do you mean 'always injured'? Well, Havlat has played a total of 85 NHL hockey games since 2005-06. For comparison's sake, Dany Heatley has played 197 games in that same span.

Around the Bank...

Did anyone else catch Senators' rookie centre Cody Bass calling John Paddock "Mr. Paddock" in the Ottawa Sun yesterday? He is now one of my favourite rookies on the team. It seems he certainly appreciates the time he's spending with the big team. I wonder if Mr. Spezza has given the Bassmaster any pointers yet?

Patrick Lalime will make his glorious return to Scotiabank Place tonight, starting in net for the Hawks. I love Patrick Lalime. He was the first not-terrible to play for the Sens and still holds the team's record for most regular-season wins.

Mike Fisher will be back in the Sens lineup according to sportsnet.ca. Hopefully this will shake up the second line and give the team a boost after a limp game against the Thrashers on Thursday.

*Sens Army Blog Inc. (a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group) does not endorse the quality, fashionability, or possible long-term mockability of these T-shirts.

Hold on a second!

Once again, the media got the scent of the story in each of their noses and everyone seemed to run with the story that this year's Ottawa Senators are as good as the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens - widely considered to be one of the best teams ever.

The 67 Habs lost only 8 games all year (and tied 12), and this leads many people to believe that this year's 13-1 Sens could match or beat that record if they keep up their current pace.

First of all, that's probably not going to happen. Secondly, looking at past Senators rosters, I think in terms of pure talent the 2005-06 Senators are as good as this team. Just think of it. It's the current Sens plus monstrous defenceman Zdeno Chara and the extremely talented Martin Havlat. Plus, they were supposed to have Dominik Hasek in net all season. If that team couldn't do it, I don't think there's a team that can.

This isn't counting injuries, but 13 games into this season, I don't think the media is accounting for them this year either.

Prove me wrong 07-08 Sens, prove me wrong.

Peter kicked some smack-talking ass over at the Jasper's Rink blog, letting them know why the Sens are going to trounce the Caps tonight.

"At their current pace, it would take the Washington Capitals another 24 games (so 39 total) to get as many wins as Ottawa has in our first 14 games. Our forwards have more goals, assists, and points. Our defencemen have more blocked shots and better plus/minus ratings. Our goaltender has more wins and a better save percentage and goal-against average. Sorry, Caps fans."

Case and point.

The Havlat Deal

The sens are playing the Blackhawks in 40 minutes, and I originally decided to post this following the game. However, after some inward reflection, I realized that this blog would have been tainted by the outcome of the game.

Thus, I present to you my analysis of the Havlat trade last summer.

What the Sens gave:

Forward - Martin Havlat

Forward - Bryan Smolinski

At the time, Martin Havlat was sending "sign me or trade" me signals to the Sens management - he was signed until the end of the 2006/07 season, and he was looking for a big boost from the 2.6 million he was making at the time.

If the sens had not traded him, undoubtedly, Havlat would have tested the free agent marked at the end of this season and the sens likely would have lost him for nothing. With their current cap space, the sens certainly would not have been able to keep him.

An interesting aspect would have been what they could have done with a bait like Havlat at this year's trade deadline. With Muckler's record, likely nothing, because he would have been more valuable in the playoffs. So in the end, we would have had him this year and lost him for nothing at the end.

Bryan Smolinski is a solid centreman with solid faceoff percentage - making 2.24 million per season. He was mostly a salary dump, but likely sweetened the pot for the 'Hawks.

(The Blackhawks resigned ol' Smoke for 1.5M for 06/07, and recently traded Smolinski to Vancouver for a conditional 2nd round draft pick)

What the Sens got:

Defenseman - Tom Preissing

Prospect/Forward - Josh Hennessy

Prospect/Defenseman - Michal Barinka

2nd round draft pick in 2008

Preissing has been a pleasant surprise this season, he's on pace for 39 points this season and is currently +33 (constantly amoung the top in the NHL this season). He's come into his own as a solid defender and something of an offensive threat. Making $600, 000 the man is one of the top bargains on the team (call him the anti-Redden). With his play this year the sens should be willing to hold onto him as one of their top 5 defensemen - probably with a boost to the 1.5 million dollar range.

Josh Hennessy has seen some playing time this season with the sens, but is mostly a work in progress - sharpening his skills with the Binghamton Senators this year.

Barinka is is rated by TSN.ca as potentially a top 4 defenseman, which bodes well for the young man.

The Low-down!

It's hard to say who 'won' this trade. The sens gained some nice prospects, but gave up a skillful sniper with amazing offensive prowess.

In short, the deal had to be done because there was no way that Havlat was going to sign with the sens. Did the sens get enough? No, probably not. For a player with 'Mach 9's' potential, they should have at least got a starting forward.

But this deal could very well lay the foundation of the sens team in the next 3 - 5 years. So talk to me then. For now, let's just watch the game... starting in 3 minutes.