Has the day finally arrived?!

All this "blowing things up" talk makes me nervous. I realize with how things stand now, something needs to be done because clearly with this group of players, its not working. That said, I really don't like the idea of shipping out either Spezz or Fish. I especially don't like this concept of simply getting rid of Fish because of his lousy contract- just plain stupid. As mentioned by somebody on here already, Fish brings a lot to this organization that we don't necessarily hear about. Even without all that extra stuff, and considering his bad year, I still would not trade the guy. This type of player is hard to come by. He's considered one of the hardest hitters in the league yet is still very well respected by everyone in the league- very few of those. Rewind back to the SCF run and watch Fisher specifically and you won't want to get rid of this guy.

We're all crying because Fisher isn't putting up points this year but don't let me hear the crying when we trade him for a prospect that has no idea what he's doing in the post season and has no one to learn from (with Spezza and Fisher gone, don't expect to see the post season while Alfie is still in a sens uni).

Vandelay wrote: don't expect to see the post season while Alfie is still in a sens uni.

That may be accurate.

davetherave wrote:

Vandelay wrote: don't expect to see the post season while Alfie is still in a sens uni.

That may be accurate.

Hold the phone. We've got a coach that will hold the players accountable now!

Now, if I could get past the fact that he's got one more game coached than I do at the NHL level. This is insulting to the fans, even as a stop-gap for a new head coach. What's worse is that we are now the laughing stock of the league. Someone was saying that this move was because Melnyk was already paying two guys not to coach this team. Does this mean we aren't going to get a real NHL head coach for another two years?

Between Emery, Paddock and Hartsburg, I wonder how much money Eugene is paying people to not be part of his team. It's probably more than the Islanders are paying Yashin to go back to Russia, albeit for not as long.

Hem, one of Bryan Murray's stated reasons for firing Hartsburg was that he was concerned about the players losing their trade value.

Safe to say that the Senators did nothing last night to improve that value.

davetherave wrote:Hem, one of Bryan Murray's stated reasons for firing Hartsburg was that he was concerned about the players losing their trade value.

Safe to say that the Senators did nothing last night to improve that value.

So how does hiring a guy with no experience help? It just reeks of a bad knee jerk move, with no planning for the after affects. In other words, par for the course of Murray's tenure as GM here. His trades have blown up in his face, his FA signings weren't great (Auld was a nice pickup, Smith was redundant, and Ruutu only serves to give the Sens haters more fuel it seems.)

Trade value means dick if you aren't actually trading anyone. Last I checked, Murray has been inactive, for whatever reason.

hemlock wrote:

davetherave wrote:Hem, one of Bryan Murray's stated reasons for firing Hartsburg was that he was concerned about the players losing their trade value.

Safe to say that the Senators did nothing last night to improve that value.

So how does hiring a guy with no experience help? It just reeks of a bad knee jerk move, with no planning for the after affects. In other words, par for the course of Murray's tenure as GM here. His trades have blown up in his face, his FA signings weren't great (Auld was a nice pickup, Smith was redundant, and Ruutu only serves to give the Sens haters more fuel it seems.)

Trade value means dick if you aren't actually trading anyone. Last I checked, Murray has been inactive, for whatever reason.

What GM has been active? It's been said that Murray has been one of the most active GM's working the phones. But alas, there are no deals to be made that will benefit the Sens...up to this point.

Snuh wrote:

hemlock wrote:

davetherave wrote:Hem, one of Bryan Murray's stated reasons for firing Hartsburg was that he was concerned about the players losing their trade value.

Safe to say that the Senators did nothing last night to improve that value.

So how does hiring a guy with no experience help? It just reeks of a bad knee jerk move, with no planning for the after affects. In other words, par for the course of Murray's tenure as GM here. His trades have blown up in his face, his FA signings weren't great (Auld was a nice pickup, Smith was redundant, and Ruutu only serves to give the Sens haters more fuel it seems.)

Trade value means dick if you aren't actually trading anyone. Last I checked, Murray has been inactive, for whatever reason.

What GM has been active? It's been said that Murray has been one of the most active GM's working the phones. But alas, there are no deals to be made that will benefit the Sens...up to this point.

Right, so if no deals are being made, why does trade value matter?

Saying that Hartsburg was dropping players' trade value is a cop-out. Accountability is the buzzword this season for this team. Why should the players have any when the GM doesn't?

I betcha that the reason we have Clouston as head coach, is Melnyk wouldn't let Murray hire a "name". Don't tell me a Quinn or a Tortorella wouldn't come mid season. Bull Dung. Give them a proper contract, they will come.

No IMO Murray is gone before the draft, and the new GM has the right to install his own coaching staff.

I see one of Heatley or Spezza gone at the trade deadline, where value will be highest. The other will be gone at the draft.

For those who feel that this will have a detrimental effect on scoring, I do not agree. I think a team free of coach's favourites will play a team game, and offence will be generated by committee.

Spezza and Heatley need to go not because they are not good players (they are both elite players) and not because they cannot put up points (they both are generally in the top 25 in scoring every year), but because of how the other, perhaps lesser players are basically force fed a Spezza-Heatley el supremo diet and they quite frankly resent it. With the two of them gone, watch a guy like Fisher flourish and bloom, as well as Vermette. I think Neil might be gone, regrettably.

Mojo wrote:

Acrobat wrote:If Spezza goes, Heater stays and moves to centre, and we move Fisher to wing (Alfie on the other), it could work. And save 8M.
And get a decent player and pick.

EDIT: recall that Heatley had played centre before, he has quick hands, so would good on the face-off, and is big enough to be effective in front of the net (when he is in the mood...)

So you would move Heatley from his natural position to play centre and Fisher from his natural position to play wing? The obvious answer of having Fisher centre a line with Alfie and Heatley didn't occur to you?

Except that Fisher sucks at centre, and seemed to do better at wing; Fisher has also been more successful this year on the wing (for the limited time he has been there). Fisher is also better at digging the puck out of the corners. On the other hand, Heater has faster hands, so would do better job of face-offs, and he's the one I want taking the one-timers when the puck is centred from Fisher or Alfie. Put Heater on wing, and he's being fed mainly from Fisher only, at centre, he's being fed by both.

Acrobat wrote:

Mojo wrote:

Acrobat wrote:If Spezza goes, Heater stays and moves to centre, and we move Fisher to wing (Alfie on the other), it could work. And save 8M.
And get a decent player and pick.

EDIT: recall that Heatley had played centre before, he has quick hands, so would good on the face-off, and is big enough to be effective in front of the net (when he is in the mood...)

So you would move Heatley from his natural position to play centre and Fisher from his natural position to play wing? The obvious answer of having Fisher centre a line with Alfie and Heatley didn't occur to you?

Except that Fisher sucks at centre, and seemed to do better at wing; Fisher has also been more successful this year on the wing (for the limited time he has been there). Fisher is also better at digging the puck out of the corners. On the other hand, Heater has faster hands, so would do better job of face-offs, and he's the one I want taking the one-timers when the puck is centred from Fisher or Alfie. Put Heater on wing, and he's being fed mainly from Fisher only, at centre, he's being fed by both.

I take your point, but I don't personally agree. When the big three were playing well together in years past, Alfie got plenty of assists off of Heatley's goals. The two wingers can easily work together. Also, I don't recall Heatley ever being very good at face offs.

If Spezza goes to any of those teams you listed columbus,atlanta,or NYI i hope he goes to columbus be a great match with him and rick nash..and maybe they can even make the playoffs for there 1st time in history..i would love to see that happen 8) . and i hope he does get traded from ottawa cuz this season he doesnt seem to like it there in ottawa doesnt seem like hes trying as hard as usaul..but i think its better for him to move on to another team..but if any team gets him like ATL,NYI,or even Columbus who are they gonna give to get him becz he doesnt come free. and he can be a dianamic player at times. and hes usaully pretty good and a good playmaker so i mean i dont see who columbus or NYI or ATL could give to get him..but i hope he gets Traded and soon!!!

bravenash55 wrote:If Spezza goes to any of those teams you listed columbus,atlanta,or NYI i hope he goes to columbus be a great match with him and rick nash..and maybe they can even make the playoffs for there 1st time in history..i would love to see that happen 8) . and i hope he does get traded from ottawa cuz this season he doesnt seem to like it there in ottawa doesnt seem like hes trying as hard as usaul..but i think its better for him to move on to another team..but if any team gets him like ATL,NYI,or even Columbus who are they gonna give to get him becz he doesnt come free. and he can be a dianamic player at times. and hes usaully pretty good and a good playmaker so i mean i dont see who columbus or NYI or ATL could give to get him..but i hope he gets Traded and soon!!!

I hope he doesn't.

His trade value isn't at it's highest right now, and going forward he's our best player.

I'd sooner deal Heatley.

LOL parker sounding all smart lol!!!!

Nice! Some Capitals representation. Welcome. Don't let the doom and gloom get you down lol.

Eklund is reporting a bigger move by the Sens. Well Kevin Lee at www.sportstalkbuzz.com beat him to it.

Here is a link to the story. I hope I am able to post it. Sorry if I wasn't.

http://sportstalkbuzz.com/2009/02/20/sens-ible-ice-chips-sens-make-trade-with-a-bigger-move-to-come-could-it-be-spezza-for-eric-staal/

In the other thread, I told you why I'm not holding my breath about this one, but hypothetically, I don't think it's a great deal for either team:

-Staal is an assistant captain for the Hurricances and just signed to a massive deal. While that makes him less likely to be dealt by the Hurricanes, his upwards of $8 million per year salary is pretty unpalatable for the Sens

-Staal isn't exactly that much more physical than Spezza if you look at their respective hit counts. Spezza also has more take-aways.

-I'm not convinced that Staal is on the same level offensively as Spezza. Yeah, he had that one great season of 100 points, but that was on 16+% shooting, which career-wise would seem an anomaly. That was also on a Cup-winning team.

asq2 wrote:In the other thread, I told you why I'm not holding my breath about this one, but hypothetically, I don't think it's a great deal for either team:

-Staal is an assistant captain for the Hurricances and just signed to a massive deal. While that makes him less likely to be dealt by the Hurricanes, his upwards of $8 million per year salary is pretty unpalatable for the Sens

-Staal isn't exactly that much more physical than Spezza if you look at their respective hit counts. Spezza also has more take-aways.

-I'm not convinced that Staal is on the same level offensively as Spezza. Yeah, he had that one great season of 100 points, but that was on 16+% shooting, which career-wise would seem an anomaly. That was also on a Cup-winning team.

Oh lets see, leadership, accountability, not all about himself and his stats.....I could keep going. Spezza is none of these!

JeffJo wrote:

asq2 wrote:In the other thread, I told you why I'm not holding my breath about this one, but hypothetically, I don't think it's a great deal for either team:

-Staal is an assistant captain for the Hurricances and just signed to a massive deal. While that makes him less likely to be dealt by the Hurricanes, his upwards of $8 million per year salary is pretty unpalatable for the Sens

-Staal isn't exactly that much more physical than Spezza if you look at their respective hit counts. Spezza also has more take-aways.

-I'm not convinced that Staal is on the same level offensively as Spezza. Yeah, he had that one great season of 100 points, but that was on 16+% shooting, which career-wise would seem an anomaly. That was also on a Cup-winning team.

Oh lets see, leadership, accountability, not all about himself and his stats.....I could keep going. Spezza is none of these!

It's difficult to say something like that unless you know him personally. Obviously there are horror stories, but it's not like Eric Staal has never been in the spot-light for the wrong reasons.