Silver Nuggets: Draft lottery and Playoff Pool Draft tonight; Senators/Leafs rebuild comparison
Greetings Silver Sevens. A thousand apologies for not putting up the prediction post yesterday. I had to act as a tour guide for an Ottawan who didn't care much for my humble hometown. But staring out at the night at a height of 346 metres in the CN tower remedied that.
In any case, the prediction post will be up later in the afternoon! Also don't forget the player pool draft will be live tonight at 8:30 p.m. Before that of course, at 8:00 p.m., is the NHL draft lottery on TSN (or Versus for the Yankees). It is also a big night with the Federal Leaders debate tonight from 7:00 to 9:00, so try to not forget about the lottery!
In case anyone cares, I ran a lottery myself with the appropriate odds given to each team. My winner? The Colorado Avalanche. After that, I just kept running it over and over to see how long it takes for Ottawa to win. After about 30 tries, I gave up. If my predictions are anything to go by, the complete opposite will happen. So maybe Ottawa will win after all! I will ramble once more, Ottawa has an 8.1% chance at first, 74.7% chance at 5th and 17.2% chance at 6th. May the Senator ball be picked tonight. SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL!
Here are today's links:
General Sens News
- The Binghamton Senators start their playoff series tonight. Here is a series preview courtesy of our very own Crooklyn Banks. (Silver Seven Sens)
- Ian Mendes compares the rebuild of the Senators and the Maple Leafs. He gives Ottawa the edge on defence and goaltending, while Toronto gets the edge on forwards, coaching and cap space. On general managers, they were judged to be equal. Overall, Ian has them about equal and I agree. (Sportsnet)
- Bryan Murray thinks the bottom line for the next coach has to be #winning. If only Ben Blood could change his first name to Tiger. (Citizen)
- Murray is also confident of getting a good player even if the Senators don't get lucky tonight. Well I suppose he isn't going to say, "we are screwed if we don't get first!". Still with the movement in the latest player rankings, maybe we can get Sean Couturier at #5! (Citizen)
- The Senators might have had an awful season, but we have a lot to look forward to. Wayne Scanlan takes a look. We don't just have a young lineup next year, but a young lineup with talent, or at least potential talent. Erik Karlsson, David Rundblad, Jared Cowen, Bobby Butler, a top five pick, a surging Jason Spezza, and even a possible #1 goaltender in Craig Anderson. Even if we are awful (which I don't think we will be) there is still lots of hope. (Citizen)
- Bob Hartley is no longer a candidate for the Senators job as he will honour his commitment to his Swiss team. (Citizen)
- Here is the Ottawa Senators player report card. Biggest surprise to me is Alfredsson with a B- and Gonchar with an F. (Sun)
- Earl McRae argues that Bryan Murray gave up on Cory Clouston too soon, especially given how many second chances Murray was given in his own first coaching gig. (Sun)
More after the jump.
General Hockey News
- A study by the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto says that Canada can support up to 12 NHL teams, including 2 additional ones in Southern Ontario. They also claim there is a market for a second team in both Montreal and Vancouver. The report is rather long, but worth a read at home. I haven't read the whole thing yet. (University of Toronto - Mowat Centre)
- Puck Daddy ranks the eight playoff series in terms of interest. (Yahoo!)/