This morning, the Tampa Bay Lightning sit 11^th in the Eastern Conference, nine points out of a playoff spot. They have six wins in their last seven games, making them one of the hottest teams in the East, but they still have a lot of ground to make up in order to get close to competing for the post-season.

Tampa has 11 games between now and the Feb. 27 NHL trade deadline. In the event that the Lightning can't make up some, most, or all of that massive gap, GM Steve Yzerman may be looking to off-load some of his expiring or undesirable contracts. If the Senators remain in the thick of the playoff hunt (and, unfortunately, the current six-game losing streak is making that less likely), you would expect Bryan Murray to kick the tires on some players to see whether or not there's a fix.

According to John Fontana from Raw Charge, there seem to be four Lightning players who might be available for trade: Dominic Moore, Steve Downie, Pavel Kubina and Ryan Malone. Each brings some value to the table, and each comes with some question marks.

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Although Bryan Murray seems to think the Ottawa Senators need a scoring forward more than anything else, I'm of the opinion that the biggest void on the Sens' roster is on the blue line.

Although Erik Karlsson is the team's top defender, he's still prone to mistakes once in a while, and he's just 21 years old. Jared Cowen is solid defensively, but he's also just 21, and he's in his first pro season--we can't expect miracles from him. Filip Kuba has had a great bounce-back season, but he's just solid--he won't do anything special, but he'll be there when you need him. Sergei Gonchar is putting up good points, but he's slow, and that exposes him to speedy opposition forwards and can force him to take penalties. Chris Phillips has had moments of solid play that have been largely overshadowed by many more moments of facepalm-worthy play. Neither Matt Carkner nor Brian Lee appear capable of playing a meaningful shift with any regularity. Consider the possibility of an injury to the top four (Karlsson, Cowen, Kuba, or Gonchar) and all of a sudden that D-corps looks mighty vulnerable, especially if the Senators are able to make the playoffs.

Which brings me to Marek Zidlicky. He's a very capable offensive defenceman who's on the outs with Mike Yeo's Minnesota Wild, and carries a cap hit of $4M for this season and next.

He's having an off-season this year (just 11A in 34GP, no goals), but his career average is better than one point every other game (0.54 P/GP). His plus-minus is pretty awful, but that might be expected from a player of his style. The Senators don't necessarily need another offensive defenceman, but they do need someone who can play a regular shift, and can provide something meaningful with some regularity. That someone might be Zidlicky.

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When the NHL All-Star weekend wraps up Sunday night at Scotiabank Place, the Ottawa Senators will be facing the last 30 games of their season. They currently sit sixth in the Eastern Conference with 60 points. Toronto, Florida and New Jersey are all five points back of the Sens. However, Florida and Jersey have four games in hand and Toronto has three.

The moral of the story is the Sens are a serious bubble team at this point. This has many fans almost giddy that a team that experts picked to be in the basement has a fighting chance of making the playoffs, but it creates quite the situation for Bryan Murray and the rest of management come February 27^th.

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The NHL's 2011-12 season has been filled with surprises, both good and bad. Although some of the divisional leaders (the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins, for instance) are fulfilling expectations, there are a lot of teams which have fallen well short of their expectations, and in their place have been many teams far exceeding theirs.

One of the teams far exceeding expectations is, of course, the Ottawa Senators. Fans of the Sens quickly recall dire pre-season predictions that ranked the Senators at or near the bottom of the NHL standings come season's end, and few of the fans thought the Sens would have had anywhere near the success they're having today. The reasons for the surprising turnaround are many, starting first and foremost with Ottawa's forwards.

Many pundits openly wondered where Ottawa's goals would come from this season, looking at the question marks surrounding just about every one of the players up front for Ottawa. Daniel Alfredsson? Old, getting older, and fighting injuries, they thought. Jason Spezza? Immature, and not capable of leading an offence. Milan Michalek? Chronically injured. Nick Foligno? Enigmatic and unpredictable. After those four, it was a toss-up of unproven youngsters who weren't expected to do much. All of these assumptions have been disproven so far this season.

On defence, it was at least as unfortunate. Erik Karlsson was expected to once again lead the Senators' from the blue line, but no one could realistically have predicted the success he's had so far. Little was expected of Filip Kuba and Sergei Gonchar after their disastrous years last year, but both have rebounded quite well--especially Kuba, who's become the most valuable defensive defenceman on Ottawa's roster. Not much was known about David Rundblad, and not much was seen of him before he was dealt early in the year. It was hoped Chris Phillips would rebound from an abysmal season that ended with him at -35, and although he's not as relied upon as he has been in the past, his +12 +1 ranking this season shows some improvement.

In goal, it was expected that most Senators wins would be because of Craig Anderson. Although he has almost single-handedly won some games (Saturday in Montreal a primary example), the team has won in spite of him on other nights, especially earlier in the season.

But, with all the surprises this year, are the Ottawa Senators the biggest surprise? It's difficult to say.

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The Ottawa Senators have given out their fair share of restricted-movement clauses since those contractual bonuses became in vogue since the lockout. Obviously, the most memorable instance if the one handed to Diminished Dany Heatley, but other players who had some limited-trade, no-trade, or no-movement clauses have also included Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Filip Kuba, Sergei Gonchar, and Chris Phillips. It's been a tool used by a lot of general managers in the NHL in order to offer players a little stability in place of a little bit of money, and it works sometimes, and few general managers have used limited-movement clauses as frequently as Bryan Murray.

Perhaps the large number of restricted movement clauses included in contracts bothers Senators fans because it ties the hands of the general manager, but it should be all that surprising. The Ottawa Senators were, in all likelihood, the first hockey team to offer a player a no-trade clause.

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With their 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, the Ottawa Senators have arrived at the half-way point of the 2011-12 season. Virtually no one predicted the team would be as successful as they have been: A 21-15-5 record has Ottawa sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference (although they've played more games than just about any other team in the East), with a high-powered offence often covering up for defensive gaffes and sometimes-poor goaltending.

With the first half of the season in the books, it makes sense to take a look at the individual performances of the players on the Senators, and look at who's been good, who needs to improve, and who we're likely to see the best second-half from. After the jump, check out our 2011-12 Mid-Term Report Card for the Ottawa Senators.

Grades for each player is based on a compilation of factors. Most important is the player's performance to date as compared to how he was expected to do, but also factoring in are that player compared to similar players in the same role on other teams and the player's importance to team success.

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The NHL is a reputation league. Let's not pretend it's not. Rookies don't draw the same calls as veterans, and third-liners don't draw the same calls as superstars. Sidney Crosby draws penalty calls in part because his skill on the ice often forces players to hack, hook, or trip him just to try to stop a play, and yes, in part because he talks to the officials constantly, but also in part because he's Sidney Crosby and there will always be a set of eyes watching him. It's hard to get away with fouls when someone is watching.

And it works the other way, too. Senators fans know this well, thanks to years of watching Chris Neil and Jarkko Ruutu play. Both players have a reputation in the league: Neil as guy who plays on the edge and deserves most of the retaliation he gets, and Ruutu as antagonistic pest who would dive from a kiss on the cheek by his own mother if he thought it might result in a power play. Though that play was, and is, beneficial to the Senators--don't think Neil's 10 hits against Florida didn't make a difference in last Thursday's win--it also means Neil better be bleeding heavily for the other side to even sniff the penalty box. Just ask Alex Ovechkin if you need proof.

So when Nick Foligno crushes Keaton Ellerby with what is indisputably a clean hit and winds up ejected for charging, you have to wonder just what the heck is going on--and knowing that the NHL is a reputation league, the question has to at least be asked if the penalty on Foligno that came out of the officials' conference only after the hit was based on a reputation he has developed.

It's not like there's been a shortage of big hits from Foligno this year.

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Milan Michalek and Erik Karlsson have gotten most of the press for the Ottawa Senators this year, and rightfully so--they are having outstanding seasons by any measuring stick. But lost in their success is the extremely impressive play of another young Senator: Nick Foligno.

Through 29 games this year, Foligno has 19 points (10G, 9A), putting him on pace to destroy his previous season high of 34 points (14G, 20A), set just last year. Foligno has also thrown 82 hits, putting him on pace to obliterate his season high of 119, also set last year.

Why is this so impressive? Foligno's pace of 53 points is not terribly exciting by itself--there are plenty of 50-point players in the NHL these days. But this is Nick Foligno we're talking about, and probably no Senators player has been a bigger tease over the past few seasons.

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