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Dynasties are anathema to Gary Bettman’s salary-capped NHL, where parity, not prominence, is king.
Fans of the Ottawa Senators are asking these days – could someone please deliver a cup of parity this way?
Senators partisans would kill for a middling run of mediocrity, a flirtation with .500, a memo from on high that would assure them Erik Karlsson ain’t going anywhere, via trade or free agency.
Somehow, despite playing in a league in which analysts love to say, “on any given night, any team can win,” the Senators cannot find wins for love nor money. Their lone world-class player, along with several other personnel, has been asked to submit his 10-team, don’t-trade-me-here list. You know, just in case the GM is inclined to trade any or all of them. (Any potential Karlsson trade would be months in the making. Small mercy, that.)
Erik Karlsson.
Toss in their 11th loss in 12 games, many of them woefully one-sided, and this winter is setting up to be five months of darkness where Ottawa’s faithful are concerned. Sitting barely above last place Buffalo in the Eastern Conference (setting up Tuesday’s Toilet Bowl Game against the Sabres), it will take a miraculous about-face to qualify for the playoffs. Being a lottery team, aiming for a highly-rated teenager in the 2018 draft, seems more likely.
It’s all quite distressing for a cash-strapped franchise that has tickets to sell for another 27 home games, with season’s ticket sales light. As thoughts turn to a future hockey home at LeBreton Flats, getting fans out to Kanata is tough enough with a winning product, let alone a lost cause.
READ: Dorion keeping all his options on trade front, including Karlsson
On top of everything else, the timing for this free fall could not be worse – this Saturday, the hockey world will be peering in at the nation’s capital during the NHL 100 Classic outdoor game at Lansdowne, a historic nod to the first night of NHL competition 100 years ago.
Without a quick turnaround this week, the outdoor spectacle could get derailed by questions surrounding Senators ownership, Karlsson’s contract, leadership, management and coaching.
Little more than six months ago, this franchise was the polar opposite, the talk of the league, and part of the final four playoff teams – a gratuitous bounce away from potential glory.
How did it all go so wrong, so fast?
Ten different people will give 10 different answers. It’s goaltending. The coach’s message is finding deaf ears. Marc Methot, Clarke MacArthur and Kyle Turris are gone. There is a leadership void. Captain Karlsson, minus his steadfast partner, Methot, is playing with myriad defence partners and a borrowed tendon in his ankle after off-season surgery. In short, he is not remotely the same player who dominated the playoffs last spring.
There is no one factor. There is bleeding from many cuts — to the point that the team of last spring, so maddeningly difficult to play against, is not even recognizable any more.
Margins of victory tend to be slim in today’s NHL, games decided by a bounce off someone’s rump in the blue paint, or some artisan in a shootout, ending an overtime tie. How incredible then that Ottawa has found a way to routinely lose 5-0 (to Winnipeg and San Jose). On a rude swing from Winnipeg to three California cities, the Senators were outscored 17-3, no small feat considering the goal of their steely eyed coach, Guy Boucher, is to win by scores of 1-0 or 2-1, defensive hockey being his calling.
Defence? Senators fans would have killed for a tiny bit of it, while their team yielded 50 shots to the Sharks in San Jose Saturday, and 49 to the Jets in Winnipeg the previous week.
It’s all a great lesson in humility. Just a few weeks ago around here, the sun shone brightly, autumn lingered and hearts were light. The Senators, nicely in a playoff position, were talking big after scooping centre Matt Duchene and heading off to Stockholm, Sweden for consecutive wins against his former Colorado Avalanche team.
Ottawa Senators right wing Bobby Ryan (9) falls next to San Jose Sharks center Melker Karlsson during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, in San Jose, Calif.
“We’re on the path to win right now,” said general manager Pierre Dorion boldly, after sending popular centre Turris, prospect Shane Bowers and a couple of high draft picks away to acquire Duchene.
Dorion was clearly a believer in the team that was within one goal of qualifying for the Stanley Cup final last spring, though perhaps he underestimated the toll that roster changes took on the club. Others speculated the playoff run was a fluke, not based in any analytic measure or pure talent.
They should have stayed in Sweden. They returned to North America, altered somehow, time zone zombies, lacking chemistry and line cohesion as Boucher spun the deck. In 12 games back, they have one victory. Nine on the season.
Did the soft-spoken Turris quietly place a curse on his former team as he set off to win games in Nashville?
If only Bryan Murray were still alive, to settle the masses and rattle some cages.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter/@hockeyscanner
查看原文...
Fans of the Ottawa Senators are asking these days – could someone please deliver a cup of parity this way?
Senators partisans would kill for a middling run of mediocrity, a flirtation with .500, a memo from on high that would assure them Erik Karlsson ain’t going anywhere, via trade or free agency.
Somehow, despite playing in a league in which analysts love to say, “on any given night, any team can win,” the Senators cannot find wins for love nor money. Their lone world-class player, along with several other personnel, has been asked to submit his 10-team, don’t-trade-me-here list. You know, just in case the GM is inclined to trade any or all of them. (Any potential Karlsson trade would be months in the making. Small mercy, that.)
Erik Karlsson.
Toss in their 11th loss in 12 games, many of them woefully one-sided, and this winter is setting up to be five months of darkness where Ottawa’s faithful are concerned. Sitting barely above last place Buffalo in the Eastern Conference (setting up Tuesday’s Toilet Bowl Game against the Sabres), it will take a miraculous about-face to qualify for the playoffs. Being a lottery team, aiming for a highly-rated teenager in the 2018 draft, seems more likely.
It’s all quite distressing for a cash-strapped franchise that has tickets to sell for another 27 home games, with season’s ticket sales light. As thoughts turn to a future hockey home at LeBreton Flats, getting fans out to Kanata is tough enough with a winning product, let alone a lost cause.
READ: Dorion keeping all his options on trade front, including Karlsson
On top of everything else, the timing for this free fall could not be worse – this Saturday, the hockey world will be peering in at the nation’s capital during the NHL 100 Classic outdoor game at Lansdowne, a historic nod to the first night of NHL competition 100 years ago.
Without a quick turnaround this week, the outdoor spectacle could get derailed by questions surrounding Senators ownership, Karlsson’s contract, leadership, management and coaching.
Little more than six months ago, this franchise was the polar opposite, the talk of the league, and part of the final four playoff teams – a gratuitous bounce away from potential glory.
How did it all go so wrong, so fast?
Ten different people will give 10 different answers. It’s goaltending. The coach’s message is finding deaf ears. Marc Methot, Clarke MacArthur and Kyle Turris are gone. There is a leadership void. Captain Karlsson, minus his steadfast partner, Methot, is playing with myriad defence partners and a borrowed tendon in his ankle after off-season surgery. In short, he is not remotely the same player who dominated the playoffs last spring.
There is no one factor. There is bleeding from many cuts — to the point that the team of last spring, so maddeningly difficult to play against, is not even recognizable any more.
Margins of victory tend to be slim in today’s NHL, games decided by a bounce off someone’s rump in the blue paint, or some artisan in a shootout, ending an overtime tie. How incredible then that Ottawa has found a way to routinely lose 5-0 (to Winnipeg and San Jose). On a rude swing from Winnipeg to three California cities, the Senators were outscored 17-3, no small feat considering the goal of their steely eyed coach, Guy Boucher, is to win by scores of 1-0 or 2-1, defensive hockey being his calling.
Defence? Senators fans would have killed for a tiny bit of it, while their team yielded 50 shots to the Sharks in San Jose Saturday, and 49 to the Jets in Winnipeg the previous week.
It’s all a great lesson in humility. Just a few weeks ago around here, the sun shone brightly, autumn lingered and hearts were light. The Senators, nicely in a playoff position, were talking big after scooping centre Matt Duchene and heading off to Stockholm, Sweden for consecutive wins against his former Colorado Avalanche team.
Ottawa Senators right wing Bobby Ryan (9) falls next to San Jose Sharks center Melker Karlsson during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, in San Jose, Calif.
“We’re on the path to win right now,” said general manager Pierre Dorion boldly, after sending popular centre Turris, prospect Shane Bowers and a couple of high draft picks away to acquire Duchene.
Dorion was clearly a believer in the team that was within one goal of qualifying for the Stanley Cup final last spring, though perhaps he underestimated the toll that roster changes took on the club. Others speculated the playoff run was a fluke, not based in any analytic measure or pure talent.
They should have stayed in Sweden. They returned to North America, altered somehow, time zone zombies, lacking chemistry and line cohesion as Boucher spun the deck. In 12 games back, they have one victory. Nine on the season.
Did the soft-spoken Turris quietly place a curse on his former team as he set off to win games in Nashville?
If only Bryan Murray were still alive, to settle the masses and rattle some cages.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter/@hockeyscanner
查看原文...
