This was the last year where the Sens finished in last (don't quote me on that), the year they hired Jacques Martin, and the year Daniel Alfredsson won our hearts. This is the beginning of the the Sens dynasty, or the year before. Either way, Leafs suck.

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Ok, so with one win in their last six games, there's not a lot of positive things to write regarding the Ottawa Senators. I'm a born optimist though, and I'm just waiting patiently for them to right the ship. which they inevitiably will. In the meantime, I though I'd have some fun and look at potential line-ups for Team Canada at the 2010 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships.

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So I have been tempted to chime in on this headshot debate for awhile now. I don't mean to start one side against the other, and I recognize this is a Senators website, but I am interested to know if anyone else feels the way I do.

I am as big a fan as any of the regular NHL fight, brawl, hit, etc. However, I am not a fan of headshots. But who is really? Headshots do not need to be a part of the game. There is no reason for a headshot. None. And before anyone argues that it will soften the game if there is a rule made regarding headshots, please give your head a shake. The idea that eliminating headshots would soften the game is ludicrous to me. How can anyone believe that those types of hits that lead to headshots are necessary? They are not incidental because the majority of players who are delivering these hits are goons and cowards (see Matt Cooke, Steve Downie). These players are paid for this play. Sure none of them would admit it but that's what they do. 

What do we need to see next in order for it to stop? Do we need to see someone die? If the NHL does not seriously do something about this then it may be a possibility. And if that happens the American media outlets will go crazy coming down on the 'agressive ' and 'dangerous' league called the NHL. The NHL is an entertainment industry. It is there to serve the customers, as it should be considering they are the ones who pay the salaries (theoretically...) and unless they do something about it then something worse is going to happen and there will be an outrage if that is the case, leaving the NHL with probably the same amount of fans in Canada but losing ground in the ultra competitive sports industry in America. 

NHL concerned about softening the game? How about being concerned about losing money when people don't want to go see this cheapshot fest. Americans won't buy into the game as much as Canadians would after something like that. Or maybe even more concerned with a player dying on the ice, because that isn't that far from being a possibility.

I don't care how entertaining or aggressive the game is suppose to be, the NHL must do everything within reason to prevent something bad from happening on the ice, something that they are NOT doing right now. No game is worth losing your mobility or life for (or any other injury a headshot may cause). I understand that it is still a dangerous game and accidents do happen, but headshots are not accidents and they have no place in the game in the modern day.

It should be a players responsibility to make sure he is not delivering a headshot. I know the game is played at a high speed and players are bigger and heavier than before but these players still have the ability to sidestep making a headshot, they are not kids who don't know what they are doing out there. It should be like the highsticking rule where intentional or not, it's a penalty (make it 5 and a game). The only exception I would make is if it were completely and incredibly incidental and the player was not harmed at all. The game misconduct could be the referees discretion, but the 5 minute should be mandatory. The NHL could make a mandatory 4 game suspension for a headshot which could go up depending on the severity. And there may be an option to appeal the 4 game suspension if it can be shown that it was completely accidental (using video and historical player information). I'm not keen on hashing out exactly how it could be done but why is the NHL so tentative on eliminating these from the game?

Sorry for the rant, folks, I am just perplexed why I have heard so many people (and the NHL) who are opposed to taking this more seriously.

Woo, another West Coast game 10 pm game! Good news is you get another season in review.

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Bullet form, because I'm tired and if I wait for the morning I'll forget.

• Alfredsson breaking the glass and delaying the game? Excellent.
• $7.50 for a plastic cup of Canadian? I clearly don't go to many sporting events. Wow.
• Right after the anthem, Brian Lee and Andy Sutton did some sort of "secret handshake" type thing, a-la baseball. I found that to be a little strange, given one's status as a new player and one's status as a barely-there player.
• That wasn't a high stick.
• Erik Karlsson is fantastic. He looked as smooth and fast as I expected, but I noticed a certain level of scrappyness (rubbing people out, pushing back, chirping) that I didn't expect
• On the topic of grit, Michalek skating across the ice to get involved in a scrum made me happy. I wondered if Heatley would have skated as fast in the opposite direction.
• Regin and Kovalev are both zeros. I may never forgive Regin.
• Despite the enormous ice time disparities, I noticed Winch/Donovan/Ruutu many times more than Spezza/Alfie/Michalek
• After the game, the Flames all gave their jerseys away to fans in attendance. I laughed out loud at the guy who got Vesa Toskala's game worn sweater.
• The most surprising part of the night was seeing the number of Senators fans in attendance. I had gone, running on the assumption that I was going to be one of the very few there, like maybe a dozen at most. There were at least a couple hundred. Every "Go Flames Go" was drowned out by a "Go Sens Go", the disallowed goal was booed very loudly, and the post game consisted of plenty of "At least we're not in 8th place" heckles. I got several positive comments on my Alfredsson jersey, and was even there to back up another Senators fan in a Stanley Cup argument (Q: Have the Senators won the Cup? Yes.) The Sens fan base is apparently greater than I had imagined.

I may have more to add tomorrow, I'll leave them in the comments.

Another game, another look into the past. Did the Sens win more than one road game? Was Alexandre Daigle worth blowing a whole season over? Did you already goggle the 93-94 season for the answers? Well if you did, screw you, if you didn't than click the jump and found out.

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On a rainy and miserable Saturday morn in the fall, I awoke to a splendid surprise. It was a friend of mine calling, and offering one extra ticket to the Senators-Rangers game, with puck drop in a half hours time. After accepting (obviously), I realized two things- one, that it wasn't morning, but rather early afternoon, and two, that I was still drunk from the previous nights antics. 

As it turned out, the seat was in one of the 400 level Molson boxes, with complimentary beer and a most hospitable environment to boot! Arriving to the box as the puck dropped, we asked our friendly barkeep for some beer and sat down amongst the others in the middle of the seating area. Ah, the high life.

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So yeah, I see everybody posting long articles about this teams past and I thought to myself, how can I do the same without showing my large lack of Hockey knowledge? So here it is, a look into the past of the Sens (this Sens, not the very successful Sens that won a Stanley Cup, God damn Ducks), starting from our worst season.

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Back on January 14th, 2010, DarrenM posted an article entitled "Are Elliott and Leclaire the worst Senators goalie tandem ever?"  ( http://www.silversevensens.com/2010/1/14/1249349/are-elliott-and-leclaire-the-worst) .  The article goes on to debate that question, but it also asks if the Senators have EVER had the quality goaltending needed to win the Stanley Cup.  I'm a firm believer that any team, regardless of talent and skill up front and on the blueline, has a better chance to win it all with a steady goaltending situation.  The statistics researched below paint a very telling picture in proving my point.

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[Ed. Note: The following is a FanPost written by a community member. The level of analysis GelatinousMutantCoconut put into the post is certainly notable and noticeable, and for that reason it's been promoted to the front page. For more info on FanPosts or FanShots, check out the SBN Welcome Guide.]

Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson vs Michalek-Spezza-Alfredsson

Alfredsson isn’t the same force, but he’s still an elite ageless wonder. Spezza’s game seemed to decline until fairly recently, when he finally realized he could shoot the puck. Michalek is a downgrade in terms of goal scoring from Heatley, but brings better defense, speed and grit. Though less offensively dominant, I like the current incarnation a bit better, especially for playoff hockey (Though hopefully Michalek isn’t doubly cursed come playoff time. After all he is a former Shark. Scary.)

Cullen-Fisher-Kovalev vs Schaefer-Fisher-Comrie

Certainly a HUGE upgrade. Fisher is having his best year, Cullen is so much better in all areas than Schaefer, and Kovalev, when he wants, can do things Mike Comrie can only dream of. Again, 2010 wins it, though much more emphatically.

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