The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

I remember like two weeks ago or something the Sens fired Eli Wilson, their goalie coach for the previous two seasons. The Sens had just lost five straight and allowed 26 goals in their previous six games, which is of course a crazy-ass number. But people still snickered.

“Fire the goalie coach?!” they scoffed. “Fire the goalies!”

The move was most often compared to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in such a way that they are all precariously stacked on top of each other before being dropped directly off the back of the ship. A real who-cares move from a floundering franchise desperate to scapegoat someone in no real position of authority.

I get that sentiment.

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Daniel Alfredsson re-signed with Ottawa today to a cap-friendly deal worth $5.5 million a year over the next four. When the contract expires, he will be 39 years old.

As reported first by Sun Media this morning, the Senators have called a 12:30 p.m. press conference today at the BankAtlantic Center to announce the club’s captain has signed a four-year, $22 million deal.

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is flying in front his ranch in Ocala, Fla. to participate in the press conference with GM Bryan Murray and Alfredsson. Getting him signed is a huge relief for the club because he had the ability to go to unrestricted free agency next season.

This is a very good thing for the Senators in theory. They get to keep their franchise player for below market value (if you think Alfie couldn’t get $6.5 from someone, you’re crazy) in favor of keeping the band together. Whether or not said band is capable of winning anything is up for debate, but it at least puts the Sens in a position to re-sign some guys like Mike Fisher and Antoine Vermette or the entire Sens D corps save for Chris Phillips, whose contracts are up in the next two years, if they’re so inclined.

But the contract will also allegedly contain the dreaded “no-movement clause” which, ehh, it’s not so good for the team. Now, regardless of whether or not he’s earning his $5.5 million in three years, he’s going to be making it in Ottawa until he’s 39. Even if they could move him for something that helps the team long-term, Alfie probably wouldn’t want to go, which isn’t helping anyone but Alfie.

The Lead

All it took for Buffalo to lose in regulation was a healthy dose of irresponsibility with the puck and Jason Spezza.

Spezza had two goals and an assist, all in the second period, as the Sens pounded Buffalo 5-2 and handed the Sabres their first regulation loss of the year. And what a fine mess the Sabres were the entire night. They were bad at pretty much everything for the entirety of the first two periods and really they just didn’t show that resiliency I’ve seen in them the first few games.

Ottawa went at them hard early and it really seemed to rattle the banged-up Sabres who were playing without either Craig Rivet or Henrik Tallinder. Without the defensive stalwarts that helped Buffalo to a best-in-the-league 1.6 goals against per game, the Senators were free to shoot from where they wanted and pass it around the zone with impunity, and what really killed the Sabres were giveaways. A TERRIBLE clearance attempt on the penalty kill led to Christoph Schubert’s goal to open the scoring and things got little better from there.

Dany Heatley’s goal, set up by Spezza and also on the power play, was the result of no one on the Buffalo defense even noticing that he was streaking into the slot. How in the hell do you not cover 15? Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t he have close to 150 goals in the last three seasons? Might wanna keep an eye on him on the PK especially. Just a thought.

Spezza’s two goals, like Schubert’s, were both the end result of giveaways. First Jarkko Ruutu dispossessed a Sabre in the attacking zone to spring Spezza for a breakaway goal, and then a failed clearance attempt led to a scrum out front that Spezza was Johnny On the Spot for. Even Sean Donovan’s goal was an embarrassment for the Sabres. How do you leave ANYONE that open in the slot for a redirect. This is Sean freaking Donovan for Christ’s sake! He got stopped on a breakaway by a HIGH SCHOOL KID! You have to get a stick in that passing lane instead of having two guys standing around in it.

Buffalo deserved to lose this game. They played like crap even if they did score a pair of late goals. And yeah, Sabres fans will whine about injuries but the fact is they only went 2 for 10 on the power play. If you get 10 cracks at going a man up, you gotta pop in more than two when the game is well out of hand. It’s really that simple.

Patrick Lalime, of course, didn’t help his cause with the number of big, fat rebounds he gave up tonight, though. He made 23 saves on 28 shots, and that’s never going to win you a hockey game. Alex Auld, meanwhile, was perfectly alright at the other end.

This was more the Buffalo I expected to see this season, but depending upon how quickly Tallinder and Rivet get back, things could unravel quickly in Buffalo. Too many soft forwards that try to make fancy plays instead of doing the straightforward thing in getting the puck to the net, too many bad penalties, and no sense of composure or leadership in their own zone. Just stupid play after stupid play. I know it’s only one loss, but this was a total 180 from the Sabres of this weekend.

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Uh ohs.

Adam Proteau of the Hockey News says Sens defenseman Andrej Meszaros has signed an offer sheet with an unidentified team just two days after TSN said he and the Senators were “not close” to a new deal.

Hours after Ottawa GM Bryan Murray held a news conference to announce the team was at a contractual impasse with restricted free agent defenseman Andrej Meszaros, The Hockey News has learned from an NHL source that Meszaros has agreed to a multi-year offer sheet with an average salary in excess of $5 million per season.

The team that has agreed to terms with the 22-year-old has yet to be confirmed.

When contacted by The Hockey News, Murray denied the report.

“I’ve heard rumors that that’s happening, but there’s no confirmation of that at this point,” said Murray.

Initially, the reports were that it was Tampa Bay that signed Meszaros, and that made enough sense. The Bolts’ defense is suspect and Meszaros would help them as they rebuild the entire blue line down there. But then came the revelations of the obvious: 1) Tampa is only about $3 million short of the salary cap (NHLNumbers.com says they’re at $53.445m), and 2) The compensation for an offer sheet in the neighborhood of and under $5,231,249 is a first-, second- and third-round pick in the ensuing year’s draft. Tampa traded their third-rounder to Pittsburgh for the rights to negotiate with Ryan Malone (success!).

So who signed Meszaros? The following is a list of teams that have all the picks necessary to sign him:

• Pittsburgh
• New Jersey
• New York Rangers
• New York Islanders
• Carolina
• Washington
• Atlanta
• Florida
• Detroit
• Columbus
• St. Louis
• Nashville
• Edmonton
• Vancouver
• Colorado
• Dallas
• Phoenix

Of those, only the Islanders, Caps, Panthers, Blue Jackets, Blues, Canucks, Avs and Coyotes have the cap space or room on their self-imposed spending limits to have signed Meszaros to a deal of this kind.

This part is me throwing crap at the wall, but I really think this is a move Phoenix would and probably should make. Their blue line is thin at the top (Ed Jovanovski, Derek Morris, Kurt Sauer and Zbynek Michalek make up the top four) and Morris is coming off the books after this season. Phoenix could also make a big step forward in the West this year and maybe, if they perform to their massive potential and things break as expected in the depths of the East’s basement, even have the pick fall lower than the 10-12 range.

The Coyotes also need to get someone to run the point on the power play and find a suitable replacement for traded-away Keith Ballard (not that I wouldn’t do that Jokinen deal again in a heartbeat).

Plus, the Coyotes are still below the cap floor of $40.3 million (at $39.067 million). Would it surprise me that it was someone other than the Coyotes? No. Most of the listed teams could use him (that Avs’ second pairing is hurting), but I think it’s the best fit.

AND ANOTHER THING:

“I think Mez is a potentially good young defenseman who had a bit of an off-year this past year, and we’ve asked their camp to entertain that in what we’re trying to do with him,” Murray said.

So that’s worth exploring. It would be tough to match the lofty expectations Meszaros set for himself with his 10-29-39 rookie campaign that featured him finishing +34(!) and certainly Murray is right to point out that the 2007-08 season wasn’t at that standard.

However, Meszaros was still the Sens’ best blue line threat with the man advantage (16 points was tied for the team lead with the likewise departed Wade Redden). A quick peak at a few stats sites show that Meszaros’ point totals have gone 39, 35, 36 with goal totals of 10, 7, 9. Pretty consistent there, no? So maybe it was his hits and blocked shots that declined? Not especially. His 101 hits and 100 blocked shots were both down from 124 and 143, respectively, in 2006-07, and 128 and 124 in his rookie season. Not a huge dropoff. Turnover ratios, you say? In 2005-06: -22, 2006-07: -47, 2007-08: -15. And while I don’t put much stock in plus-minus, he went from -15 last season to +5.

Basically, I don’t see Murray’s argument. From the look of things he seems to have become a smarter hockey player if nothing else, while holding more or less the same stat lines across the board. If Jeff Finger’s worth $3.5 million and Ron Hainsey’s worth $4.5 million, Meszaros is worth $5 million. Maybe not to the Sens, but to someone, and it’s disingenuous of Murray to say otherwise.

In the lead-up to the new NHL season, more and more of the logos from the NHL’s new line of third jerseys are starting to leak to the public in dribs and drabs.

A few weeks ago, we saw the new third jersey concepts for the Bruins, Coyotes, Thrashers, Sabres, Penguins, Sharks, Lightning and Leafs and today, we get black and white drawings of the Senators’ (maybe) and Kings’ new logos.

They both stink.

The Sens’ is just their regular ol’ Senator, slightly meaner looking, and now they’ve added a cape, possibly because they’d like to capitalize on this Batman craze that’s going around right now.

The Kings’ though? Yeesh.

Not good, guys. Why is the font vaguely Japanese? It looks like someone just saw it on the front of an Akira Kurosawa DVD box set and said, “Yes, this is the font for us.”

I don’t know why teams seem to miss the whole concept that simpler is better.

EVERYONE TO EVERYWHERE (E16)

Beware, o reader. What you are about to read makes absolutely no sense. Not even the slightest bit. For the sake of your own sanity, it would be best to read this next post after popping a handful of valium just so you don’t overreact and do something outlandish.

You have been warned.

The Ottawa Sun is citing “internet rumors” (always trustworthy) of an impending three-way trade between its hometown Senators, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Los Angeles Kings.

This alleged trade would have the Sens giving up Andrej Meszaros and Martin Gerber, the Kings giving up Anze Kopitar, and the Blackhawks giving up Nikolai Khabibulin and either Brent Seabrook or Cam Barker. Other players and picks could also exchange hands in this insane fantasy world.

On the surface, it seems the deal could be a rare win-win-win.

No it doesn’t. Let’s look at this rationally.

Ottawa gets: Khabibulin, Seabrook/Barker

L.A. gets: Gerber and Meszaros

Chicago gets: Kopitar

Try to wrap our heads around this one. Ottawa gives up Meszaros and a fairly cheap goalie in Gerber for expensive and aging Khabibulin and a Meszaros comparable (in terms of age and salary) in Seabrook or Barker. Ottawa gets worse in net and stays the same on the blue line for more money. L.A. gets a mediocre goalie (they have a lot now) and Meszaros, who is a perfectly good defenseman but gives up one of the best young offensive players in the league despite struggling to score last year. Chicago unloads an awful contract and a redundant defenseman to get Kopitar.

The only winner in this trade would be Chicago, and they would win by a wide, wide margin.

The wonderful Eklund says the trade would work like this, which is surprisingly more sensible but still quite bad.

Sens get: Khabibulin,Barker and (Patrick) Sharp
Kings get: Gerber, Seabrook and (Chris) Neil or (Antoine) Vermette
Hawks get: (Eric) Ersberg, (Tom) Preissing , (Patrick) O’Sullivan and Vermette or Neil

Sportsnet has picked up this story as well, which tells you just how much you, as a hockey fan, should value anything they ever have to say.

If Snoop Dogg still wants to watch his buddy Ray Emery play hockey, he’ll have to go a little farther than Ottawa.

The (shall we say) troubled netminder has signed a one-year, $2 million contract with Atlant Mytishchi of Russia’s new Continental Hockey League. Google tells me that Mystishchi is a suburb of Moscow and the second-largest city in Russia. Emery, who’s had enough problems away from the rink to make an Ohio State football player blush, was bought out by the Senators last week to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Emery’s not a bad goaltender and, in my opinion, was great for the league (everyone loves goalie fights!), but the reason he had absolutely no offers from any NHL teams at all is that, by all accounts he’s a bit of a problem in the locker room.

A perfunctory list of Emery’s misdeeds from the past year or so:

• Was involved in a traffic accident while speeding to the airport because he was late for the team flight after sleeping through several wake-up calls from team officials and other players
• Was fined for showing up late to practice at the end of January, an increasingly common problem in the weeks prior
• Allgedly threatened to kill an Ottawa retiree that cut him off on the freeway while headed to Scotiabank Place. Said elderly man, Jean Therien, said that Emery blocked the road with his Hummer and then lost a “war of words.”
• Was pulled over numerous times by Ottawa area police, and got into a verbal confrontation with one officer because he felt he was being “targeted” after getting nabbed for aggressive driving. “I wasn’t given a warning for anything, I will say that,” Emery said at the time. “He pulled me over for no reason. I question why I get pulled over for so much here.”
• Was the subject of many rumors in Ottawa, some circulated or perpetuated by the vague reporting and hints of The Universal Cynic’s great freelance writer Erin Nicks, suggest Emery has a bit of an off-ice problem that has nothing to do with his anger issues, if you follow. Google it if you don’t.

Emery’s agent, J.P. Barry, says that’s all a misunderstanding and, even if it wasn’t, it’s all behind Emery now.

“Unfortunately, it’s only been a short time since the buyout and there isn’t anybody willing to give (Emery) a second chance at this time,” said … Barry to the Sun Media. “I think if people knew the things that he’s done over the last little while to turn the corner, there might be more interest out there.

Does it occur to anyone else that Emery will have just as much of a problem in Russia, where the locals tend to be a little, ummm, pro-white. This is the same country, you’ll remember, that saw its fans throw bananas at Anson Carter when he went there for a few exhibition games during the lockout.

This might be it for Emery. Too bad.