GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Washington Capitals - 12:30pm EST - Feb. 1st, 2009

Anybody know how much time the Caps spent in the Sens' zone? Looked like most of the first.

Alfie does the intermission interview and says "I think we played a pretty good road first period."

I'm sorry, but that just doesn't cut it.

Ouch. Caps get two in the first two minutes of the second. Elliott's out, Auld's in.

I wish I had posted earlier. I was thinking Washington will score 10 after I saw the second goal. They are on pace for 10.

Hartsburg should get the gas tomorrow. The team is not competing.

Someone remind me please why Elliott is up with the Sens? Valuable experience sure, but at the expense of exposing him to a potentially rotten locker room, and a club with a losing atmosphere. Send him down and recall Gerber for god sakes. It's not like he's stealing games for us right now. I'm all for him going down, and having a nice run with Bingo, then bringing him up next year under better circumstances. Gerber can deal with the trainwreck known as the Sens. I could care less what it does to him as a player to get lit up every night. He's gone anyway after the season. Let him be the one led to slaughter.

Yep. Plus Gerber would actually enjoy playing for an NHL team. He wants to play, so why not?

Heartless, Gutless, Sad.

Embarassing.

Neil and Kuba were both -2. They need to play well, so that when we trade them, we get a better return.

Nice to see some goals, but after Washington scored the 2nd goal, I knew the game was over.

Fire sale time!

Denny, you are right. It was over after the Caps' 2nd goal.

I have rarely seen a team give up the way the Senators so obviously have.

If Alfredsson isn't mortified by what is going on...

And how long will Eugene Melnyk put up with this?

The time has come for Harsburg. I would approach Torterella and see if he would take the team for the rest of the year with a team option for next year if we like what we see.

This team needs a tough arse behind the bench. Their compete level is disgusting.

It's time.

IF anyone can give me a good reason why Dany Heatley still got an A, I will virtually kneel down in front of him.

504Heater wrote:The time has come for Harsburg. I would approach Torterella and see if he would take the team for the rest of the year with a team option for next year if we like what we see.

This team needs a tough arse behind the bench. Their compete level is disgusting.

It's time.

A Stanley Cup winning coach would demand a 3-year deal, minimum.

While Paddock and Hartsburg are not NHL-worthy head coaches, the problem is clearly one or some of the players. The task now is to remove the problem within the room. I don't really care what assets the team gets back if the problems are extricated from the dressing room.

Neil's passion recently has been good. The problem I have always had was with his head. He's a goner.

Kuba, McAmmond, Gerber - goners.

I expect some sort of shocking move on top of the obvious between now and March 4th.

I didn't watch..


PVR, delete, check.....

dennycrane wrote:

504Heater wrote:The time has come for Harsburg. I would approach Torterella and see if he would take the team for the rest of the year with a team option for next year if we like what we see.

This team needs a tough arse behind the bench. Their compete level is disgusting.

It's time.

A Stanley Cup winning coach would demand a 3-year deal, minimum.

While Paddock and Hartsburg are not NHL-worthy head coaches, the problem is clearly one or some of the players. The task now is to remove the problem within the room. I don't really care what assets the team gets back if the problems are extricated from the dressing room.

Neil's passion recently has been good. The problem I have always had was with his head. He's a goner.

Kuba, McAmmond, Gerber - goners.

I expect some sort of shocking move on top of the obvious between now and March 4th.

If the problem lies in the dressing room then how can we blame the coach? Should he not be given a chance to coach players that want to win?

Didn't Hartsburg sign a three year deal? I can't see Melnyk wanting to eat too many more contracts.

Melnyk could move Hartsburg sideways into another job in the organization, or negotiate a settlement. Anybody know what Hartz is being paid? I couldn't find the terms of the deal with a Google search.

From the UPI press release:
OTTAWA, June 13 (UPI) -- Craig Hartsburg, a former coach of NHL teams in Chicago and Anaheim, was hired Friday as the coach of the Ottawa Senators.
Hartsburg coached the Blackhawks for three seasons and was the coach of the Ducks for more than two. He has been the head coach of Sault Ste. Marie of the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons. Hartsburg was signed to a three-year contract. Other terms weren't released.

Here's what Coach Craig had to say when he was hired (as reported by CTV Sports in June last year):


Hartsburg: "We want this group to take great pride and passion in being a team. To me, that is one of the utmost important things right from the start that we'll stress.

"We certainly want to be a team that goes on the attack with lots of structure and that will allow skilled players to play, but to me, none of this will matter unless it's accountable.

"I will push, I will challenge our players everyday to be their best. If you do that and the players accept being pushed and challenged, by the end of the year, we will be our best. I know it's a great challenge and I can't wait. I love challenges."

OK, here's the quote of the day. Alfie on the team's performance against the Caps (from The Citizen/Allan Panzeri--filed this afternoon):

"It's hard to say," Alfredsson said. "I mean, you're losing . . . and you obviously want to win all the battles, but I guess I didn't feel it was that bad an effort from our side.

This is gonna be one long 2nd half of the season if it's going to be like this game in and game out.

There is clearly a disconnect between the players and Hartsburg. The contrast between Alfie's post game comments and Hartsburg's couldn't be more obvious.

Coach Craig: "The thing for us right now is that we have to play the game with a lot more pride than what we started this game with," he said. "You know what? (Washington) is a great team, and they exposed some things in us, but we have to take a lot more pride in ourselves as a team right from the start of hockey games." Just like he said when he was hired...