Trading Spezza would be a disaster for the Senators

Although perhaps “worst move in the history of the franchise” is a little much.

Still, all things considered, I’d be interested to know what kind of return we could get for him.

Spezza is a keeper. His commitment to the city has been fantastic. If I have anything negative to say about him, it’s his body language when we’’re down in a game. I remember in the sweep against the Pens last year him skating over to the bench, shoulders all slumped…We still had a chance to win the game, but you’d never know it from his 2nd period body language. You gotta be confident that players will continue to battle for their team until the end (look at game 6 this year). But that is literally the only moment that I can recall being mad at this guy.

I admittedly, drunkenly boo’ed Spezzer at that game this year. I’m sorry Spezz. Nobody here really wants you to go, we just love our whippin’ boys, and it’s usually the player that has been around the longest, and quite often the player we expect to be the best. Fans just feel helpless when the team is losing, and there’s literally nothing we can do about it, except cheer when we perfrom well, and boo when we perform badly.

The one time i actually appreciated the cynical nature of the Ottawa media was during the heatley fiasco. Brennen (who sucks) tore up heater in a press conferece. While keeping in tradition of being unclassy, I loved it.

This is being blown wildly out of proportion by some irresponsible writers. I totally agree that Murray should come out and put the smackdown on them. Of course Spezza was unhappy with the way the season ended. The team was so close to beating Pittsburgh and making a real run in the playoffs this year. The fans too had every right to be upset as the Sens coughed up a lead and let the game slip away from them. Spezza has and will always be a lightning rod for the fans. None of this is news and for the media to try to make something out of it is irresponsible and selfish on their part. Murray is right to give Spezza cooling off period and to keep him engaged in the on-going team building process. Spezza may have his flaws(enough with the blind drop passes already!!!), but he is a good soldier for the team and a good ambassador for the city. Moving him out for 50 cents on the dollar would be the worst thing the team could do as they look to be building some momentum following a bounce-back season. Wayne Scanlan et al, off to the penalty box with your snivelling rumour-mongering non-journalism!

The Edmonton guys are just looking to drag other teams down into the their level of suffering. Misery loves company.

Jeremy Milks is billing Ottawa as “Edmonton East” as player after player—Joe Corvo, Ray Emery, Wade Redden, Heatley, and now Spezza—appear to be run out of town by overzealous fans and an unforgiving press corps.

That would be a hell of a lot more accurate if it noted that the press only became unforgiving after the player in question left the team because before then thave problems typing negative articles with their hands full of pom-poms.

The only player close to being run out of town was Ray Emery. If the media were close to that negative it might be sharpening its knives (finally) for Bryan Murray but it’s not.

Maybe that means controlling the media. As an independent writer, I believe freedom of the press is important, but the Senators also have a brand to control. If media members are unfair to their team, or perceived as unfair, then the team has plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their displeasure. At some point, a line must be drawn.

I’d ask Erin Nicks about just how much controlling of the media is already done by the senators. They are the only game in town and the media knows that and act accordingly. Pretty shocking comment though. Guess you don’t really believe in freedom of the press.

arent ottawa sun writers on the sens payroll?

He plays killer offense and his defensive game suffers, idiots bitch. So he steps up his defensive play and his offensive game takes a slight slide, and the idiots bitch again. They never seem to be satisfied, no wonder he is frustrated with them.

There are probably some Caps fans who would be perfectly willing to trade Semin to get Spezza. It seems like every time any star is rumored to be available, the cries keep coming “trade Semin for him”. I recall proposals of Semin for Bouwmeester, Semin for Phaneuf, Semin for Heatley, Semin for Kovalchuk, Semin for Pronger; etc.

I would not be for that trade. (I think there are enough Caps fans that want to run Semin out of town. There also seem to be fans who want to get rid of Schultz and/or Green as well.)

I would not want want Speeza to be traded (as a general rule) if I were a Senators fan.

I remember when the Caps fans ran Larry Murphy out of town and he became a Hall of Famer (with another team, of course).

Badass!

http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/bob_mckenzie/?id=323476

I’m with you, Peter. Spezza needs to stay.

The simple fact is, yeah, in terms of ripping the team/players, Ottawa media is pretty up-and-down – I think the frustration from the fanbase comes more from the fact that of all the players to rip on the guy who scored more than a point per game isn’t necessarily the place to start.

Giveaways or not, Spezz has been valuable to this franchise. He’s produced well and besides that has always been willing to answer to the media, it seems any time there is a story Spezz is among the first to be quoted, usually being pretty straight about it. He’s proven he can be a vital piece in a strong team (2007?) and improves those around him (Regin?). He’s not a two-way player, but we have two way players. He’s creative, passionate, puts up numbers and reps the team well. While there are certainly deserved criticisms, it doesn’t feel much like he gets his due, either.

As a Senators fan, my screaming at the t.v. comes solely from repeatedly seeing him make the same mistakes over and over. I am from the camp of trade him for this reason and the fact that he is too easy to shut down. We as fans of this team have seen what drafting can do for your franchise. With Alfie, Phillips and Fisher getting up there, there is going to have to be a youth movement and thanks to some not so good trades along the way we have stripped the cupboard bare and are just starting to restock. Murray has done a good job in that area but lacks in trades and free agent signings. I say Murray goes and shortly there after so does Spezza for picks and prospects. We are not serious contenders right now and need some high end young talent to properly compete (in my opinion). Get rid of the guys that aren’t going to be a part of the future and play the young guys. We as fans need a reset just as our team does. I remember the joy of watching our team develop all our draft picks and seeing which ones were the keepers and which ones were expendable. The joy I got from the hard work and effort shown. I had great pride in my team and nowadays I am just left wanting more from the players and the wins seem to be the only important thing. It’s such a crap shoot trying to build through free agency and middle to low end draft choices. Bring back the pride in our team!

As far as the media is concerned I see a huge backlash towards the press for stirring the pot and running players out. It has got to the point where comments after story’s aren’t always about the story but directed towards the writer and usually in a negative way. I think we are realizing what our reading and believing what is being said is leaning us towards the negative view, like we are being trained to hate on our players. I am absolutely disgusted with the representations of our city and team by Garrioc and Brennan. The only time that I have like Brennan was when (as stated earlier by someone else) he was attempting to rip Heatley a new one.

People may not boo Spezza at the home opener, but that’s not love at work, it’s crowd noise.

Wait until the festivities are done and Spezza turns over the puck, it will begin anew unabated. You hate to say Ottawa has been spoiled but it sees other players in Spezza’s age group perform better than he does, then look to his on-ice unforced errors and the boos rain down.

It might be the best for Spezza to move on to a city where he won’t be a focal point and he can get his points and go home happy.

The Citizen article was jarring…did the team really think it had two future captains in Heatley and Spezza? They don’t seem like leaders, to be honest, not when you have guys like Kelly, Fisher, Phillips on the team that are long-term guys with the respect of the crowd and their teammates.