The Sens' all-time best lineup

In response to Bleacher Report's Ottawa Senators' blog's all-time Senators' lineup (which included the likes of Randy Cunneyworth and Janne Laukkanen), I've formulated my own all-time Senators' lineup--respecting the players' natural positions. I've gone All-Star Game style, picking the best players with little to no thought of how they would serve as 'fourth-line role players' or 'grinders' or anything; pure skill is measured, with very few exceptions made to intangible assets (like Magnus Arvedson).

Got any comments, criticisms, or recommendations? Let me know in the comments.

FORWARDS

1. Dany Heatley-Jason Spezza-Daniel Alfredsson

• 'Nuff said. Best line the Sens have ever had.

2. Shawn McEachern-Alexei Yashin-Marian Hossa

• Alexei Yashin may not be very popular in Ottawa today, but he was certainly one of the best all-time offensive players the Senators have had. He helped reinvigorate Shawn McEachern's career, which is the biggest reason he made this list. And Marian Hossa is one of the best right wingers in hockey today, cementing his place in Senators' history.

3. Vaclav Prospal-Pavol Demitra-Martin Havlat

• Injury problems aside, Martin Havlat is a dynamic player, and has the ability to be a game-breaker. He was hampered in Ottawa by virtue of the fact that in front of him on the depth chart were Daniel Alfredsson and Hossa. And even though Vaclav Prospal and Pavol Demitra enjoyed much of their offensive success for other teams, they very well could have done so for the Senators given the opportunities.

4. Magnus Arvedson-Mike Fisher-Peter Bondra

• It would have been interesting to see this line in action. Again, most of Peter Bondra's success was with another team, but he could very well have produced given more than a half-season with the Sens. Mike Fisher may very well move up on this list, and is certainly higher on a popularity listing. And Arvedson may have been given this spot because he played his heart out, but he also had a great career as a Senator.

Notable forwards: Antoine Vermette (LW), Radek Bonk (C), Mike Comrie (RW), Andreas Dackell (RW), Bob Kudelski (RW).

DEFENCE

1. Zdeno Chara-Chris Phillips

• Incredible shut-down pair. The only defenceman in Senators history who made Chris Phillips look small was Zdeno Chara, and the two were strong when they played together.

2. Steve Duchesne-Wade Redden

• Offence from the defence. His later years were not as strong, but Wade Redden was the Senators' highest-scoring all-time defenceman. And Steve Duchesne was a huge part of the Senators' early success.

3. Anton Volchenkov-Norm McIver

• Norm McIver is the only Sens defenceman to lead the team in scoring. And I don't need to outline the many attributes that earned Anton Volchenkov a spot on the all-time roster.

Notable defencemen: Joe Corvo, Sami Salo.

GOALTENDERS

1. Dominik Hasek

• As irritating as Dominik Hasek's injury problems were, he was the best goaltender ever to play in the Senators' uniform. Had he managed to play the whole season, I can only imagine where the Sens would have gone. And I'm imagining the Stanley Cup.

2. Ron Tugnutt

• Ron Tugnutt's best years, by far, were with the Senators. In 1998-99, Tugger set an NHL-low 1.78 goals-against average, and he's a nice guy to boot.

Notable goaltenders: Patrick Lalime, Ray Emery, Damian Rhodes.

One-way ticket to jerktown: the holdout

Yashin.

...angry yet? If there's one word that gets Ottawa Senators fans pissed off, look no further than the team's former captain. During his eight years in Ottawa, Alexei Yashin held out three times (including the entire 1999-2000 season) and fans began to hate him for it. Over the course of five years, Yash also demanded a new contract on three occasions. To top off his application for asshole sportsperson of the decade, he donated $1 million to the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, but on the condition that half of it be funneled to his parents as consultants. The NAC then rejected the offer.

He was traded in 2001 for Zdeno Chara, Jason Spezza and (which name doesn't belong here...) Bill Muckalt. I think Muckalt sells hot dogs outside the LCBO on Rideau street these days.

Enough of the history lesson, now to the present. Andrej Meszaros is weighing his options after receiving what some have called Bryan Murray's "final" contract offer. After a golden rookie season, Meszaros' play has dropped somewhat in the past two seasons, receiving a C+ for this past season in the Sens Army defence corps evaluation.

He can accept the Sens' offer, take the rumoured lucrative offer from a Russian team, or refuse to play for Ottawa until he gets the contract he wants.

But let me advise you this much Meszy, DO NOT HOLD OUT. If there's one way to piss off fans in Ottawa, it would be to do anything remotely Yashin-esque. Don't even drop a buck in the NAC collections bin. But if you hold out, it will be your one-way ticket the "On Notice" sidebar.

If you want the money, go to Russia. If you want to be hated for the rest of your career in Ottawa, hold out for half the season. Do what Antoine Vermette did: sign a reasonable contract, make nice with management and the city, and just be thankful you're on a team that believes you're work $3 million per year.

More explanation of The Emery Saga

As pointed out over at Black Aces, there is a great article about He Who Must Not Be Named over on ESPN. It delves into his personal issues and his reasons for departure a lot more than the interview on TSN's Off The Record did. Here's an excerpt, but there's a lot more to the article, so I recommend reading the whole thing.

[Ray] Emery, himself, said it's less about being angry than about having too much, too soon, too easily.

"Things have always come easily to me. I want everything and I want it easily," he said.

A year ago, after offseason wrist surgery, things didn't come easily, and Emery said he wasn't prepared to do the work.

"Obviously, I've had bad games. I've had bad days, rough weeks. But [I had] never had a bad year, like, on every level. Nothing went well," Emery said. "I had no fun. I didn't play well. I didn't accept responsibility. I ended up with a failing grade on every level."

Emery said his visiting a therapist wasn't specifically to address anger-management issues, although he's been involved in anger-management programs in the past.

"It was good to talk about things," he said.

In fact, he said, if he'd been angry, he'd have quit. But he didn't.

"I just tried to get back to where I came from. I'm not a rock star. I'm a kid from Hamilton. I'm trying to be a bit more down-to-earth," Emery said.

Sens poised to surpass expectations: The Hockey News

According to THN.com blogger Rory Boylen, the Senators' could be one of a few teams poised to surprise a few people this season by performing better than expected. (In my opinion, it can't be too hard to surpass the expectations that have been set after last season, but that's another post.) From Boylen's blog:

They [the Sens] shed the character that was quite often pointed to as the reason for the decline in Ray Emery and a defenseman who many felt had worn out his welcome and usefulness on the Ottawa blueline in Wade Redden. After all that, they still have one of the best lines in the game, a blueline that makes up for a lack of recognizable names with tough, effective shutdown play and a goalie in Martin Gerber who gets no respect, despite having a career full of respectable numbers.

--THN.com

Now, he also picked Florida and Columbus to surpass expectations, but one out of three isn't too bad. Say what you will about pitting the blame on Emery, the fact that Ottawa's for the CASH line intact, a very defensive-minded defence-by-committee, and an influx of grittiness with Jason Smith and Jarkko Ruutu, it's still a solid roster on paper. And I maintain that Gerber is a bona fide starting goaltender in this league, even if Ben and a number of other pundits disagree with me.

Hartsburg's coaching is "suspect": ESPN

A recent article on ESPN examined the head coaches of the NHL, placing them in categories from 'Elite' to 'Unknown'. Craig Hartsburg, recently-named head coach of the Ottawa Senators, was placed in the 'Suspect' category, largely thanks to his failures as a head coach in the past. Here's what ESPN said about him:

Craig Hartsburg, Ottawa
He's back for his third try, and there's a chance he became a better coach during his recent stint in major junior.

The previous stints in coaching that ESPN is referring to were with the Chicago Blackhawks (from 1995-98) and with Anaheim (from 1998-2001). His all-time NHL head coaching record is a half-decent 173-169-65-3, which isn't too bad (even if he never made it past the second round in the playoffs). It's certainly not 'suspect', although it might be appropriate to say his hiring should be approached with caution. In the past four years with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, he's notched a stellar record of 141-91-8-23, consistently going a few games over .500.

After this season with the Senators, his NHL head coaching record will be even better.

(Thanks to FrankD from Pensburgh for pointing out the ESPN story.)

The Rumour Mill: The worst it's been

Solid article on MVN's Senators Row about the ridiculous amount of rumours and rumour'mongers we're seeing regarding Senators' trades or signings this summer.

"All across cyber-space your ‘maniac’ Sens fans have been ‘chirping’ about some ‘buzz’ they apparently are hearing from their covert inside sources nestled deep within the Sens brass. The news in Ottawa is apparently slow this time of year, because it seems both print and radio outlets picked up on these stories and ran with them as if they were something more than what they actually were; rumors."

-Senators Row

It's amazing how quickly rumour sites are popping up. And I do love reading them, even if it's just to stare wide-eyed at how ridiculous some of them are. Not to lambaste all rumour-bloggers or local columnists, but some certainly do overstate (or simply make up) rumours just to get people to read their writing. Which is irresponsible, even if it is commonplace.

Here at Sens Army, we don't spread rumours. We discuss them occasionally, and discuss free agents that would be good pickups for the Sens. While discussing them, we make it blatantly clear they are rumours, and that we have no 'inside information' to speak of.

Easy summer for 2009

Looking back at the summer of 2008, it wa a pretty busy one for Sens GM Bryan Murray. If not for some shrewd mid-season signings, though, it could have been a lot busier.

Each of Mike Fisher, Jason Spezza, and Dany Heatley had their contracts extended during the season, saving Murray a lot of headaches had the three made it into free agency. It's been bad enough with only Chris Kelly, Antoine Vermette, Shean Donovan, and possibly Andrej Meszaros to re-sign (after a few other potential free agents were either traded or allowed to walk).

Looking forward to the summer of 2009, however, it looks like Murray decided to save himself a few headaches by locking up key players into multi-year deals. Aside from possibly Daniel Alfredsson, whose contract includes team-options if he fails to produce (don't count on it), none of the possible free agents should be difficult to re-sign. Dean McAmmond and Chris Neil are the only two UFAs who see a regular shift, and seem poised to make less than $1M if they are extended. Martin Gerber will also be a UFA, but the idea seems to give the starting role to either of Jeff Glass or Brian Elliott, if they're ready for it for 2009-10.

It seems a lot of the signings Murray has done have been to build a two-year plan, with flexibility afterwards of completely reassembling the team. Contracts that will come up after the 2009-10 season include Vermette, Donovan, Cody Bass, Nick Foligno, Jason Smith, Anton Volchenkov, Christoph Schubert, Brian Lee, and Alex Auld. Certainly not an impossible summer, but it will be difficult--especially considering all those defencemen's contracts.

One would assume that, as long as this upcoming 2008-09 season goes relatively well (better than last season, if not quite as good as 2006-07), then Murray will continue with the current two-year plan. And if not, well, there are a lot of reasonably-priced contracts that should look good at the trade deadline or on July 1, 2009.

Mats Sundin updates

Part two of an ongoing series:

Stuff sports writers like

It must be tough being a sports writer, begging at the feet of the former Leafs captain for any sort of indication about when, where, or why he will make any sort of decision regarding his hockey future.

Like being high priest in the temple of volcano God Hephaestus, every plume of smoke must be interpreted for the benefit for the masses. Could the volcano explode today? It hasn't in the past 1000 years... so it could be any minute now.

As the graphic on the right illustrates, sports writers are hungry to update sports fans, even when there is no update to report.

"Still thinking it over"

"Sundin to make decision soon"

"Sundin decision two week away"

"Sundin nearing decision"

"News is no news on signing of Sundin"

Sports writers, known normally for such hard-hitting questions as "Your thoughts on tonight's game...", have been reduced to one- or two-word questions. "Anything?", they ask Sundin's agent. "No," replies the agent. The sports writers then dutifully transfer this information into a succinct 150-word update on Sundin's condition.

Modern sporting websites are built on this sort of valuable information, as public servants wind down the hours until their death day ends, surfing the internet while scanning the screen for two phrases to alert then of interesting content: "NSFW" or "Sundin update".

The Sundin saga has now been extended into mid-August, according to the latest smoke signal. This can only mean one thing: We are mere moments from an eruption of catastrophic proportion.

God bless the sports writer, nobly waiting at the foot of the volcano, blackberry in hand. Only through his diligence can we possibly escape the fallout.