Senators: The Rise And Fall

The Citizen's Allen Panzeri has done an extensive analysis of the Senators which appeared as a very long feature article in The Citizen last Saturday.

From the introduction:

Senators: The rise and fall
At the time, many of the player transactions deserved a thumbs-up. But some didn't turn out so well for the team, and management must take its share of the blame for the decline from Stanley Cup finalists to 'Tavares Cup' contenders, writes Allen Panzeri.

"Bryan Murray has been waking up in the middle of the night recently, wondering what went wrong with his hockey team.

"He's never had a team like this, not in his almost 30 years in the NHL. It's a mess, and is now on its fourth coach -- including himself -- in a little more than a calendar year.

"For many fans, the Ottawa Senators' general manager is the one who should have been fired last Sunday night, not Craig Hartsburg.

"Sleepless nights? Too bad.

"Murray, after all, is the one who has presided over the team's decline. It's been as steep as it's been swift.

"Only weeks before he ascended to the general manager's chair, replacing John Muckler, Murray was coaching it in the 2007 Stanley Cup final.

"Today, the team is deep in the Eastern Conference, a few points from the basement. Its only salvation this season might be to finish low enough to get a shot at one of the top two draft picks next summer, John Tavares or Victor Hedman."



The article is seven web pages long, so I invite all of the forum members to check it out at the link below:
http://www.faceoff.com/hockey/teams/ottawa-senators/story.html?id=1263403&p=1

As many of you seem to have followed the Sens closely since their rebirth in Ottawa, I am sure you will have some pointed comments regarding Panzeri's perspectives...as well as conclusions of your own.

Thanks Dave. It was certainly an in-depth read, that's for sure.

I blame Muckler for a lot of it, but the real culprit is the salaries. We couldn't fit Redden and Chara in, so a (bad) decision was forced. Gerber's salary, while seemingly huge, was about market value. Someone would have paid. Right up until the ridiculous deal to retain Fisher, nothing more than a deluxe "energy" player. Again, market value.

I voted none of the above, because I truly believe it's a culmination of Sens management (Mlakar et al), past GM'ing and current (although Jury's still out on Murray's complete tenure), players, salaries, post-lock-out and a bunch of other factors that 1)I can't completely remember; and 2) whatever they were, they were not included in this poll.

Despite all these negatives, one area Ottawa may be sitting pretty in is cap space. While a bunch of other teams will be scrambling to give themselves breathing room, Murray thus far seems to have managed to give the Sens quite a bit of breathing room. Now, what he does with it and how he chooses to use it to it's best potential remains to be seen, but I'll be watching him closely. haha

I said all of the above as I'm a firm believer in the theory that this is a case of a whole bunch of things going wrong, bad decisions and what not all happening at the same time creating a death spiral of sorts that the team has been in for at least a year. No easy solutions, no quick acquisitions. Getting out of this will take time and effort across the board - management and players.

Panzeri is usually pretty thorough, and for the most past, seems to stay away from the cliches and drivel.

I thought this was a solid piece of work, whether one agrees or not with the viewpoints expressed.

As for the Senators, I have to lay this at the feet or Uncle Eugene. He's committed, he's passionate, he's generous. Maybe TOO generous.

Muckler didn't stock the farm system. Too many Russian players (and, hey, I was born in Moscow) that never amounted to anything much, too many other duds. As a result we've had to plug holes with serviceable, yet unspectacular players that still earned more than the league minimum, sometimes much more (Schaefer).

Who knows, maybe if the team had 5-6 players on entry-level contracts they could have afforded to keep both Chara and Redden, at least long enough to realize which one was the correct choice.

wprager wrote:Muckler didn't stock the farm system. Too many Russian players (and, hey, I was born in Moscow) that never amounted to anything much, too many other duds. As a result we've had to plug holes with serviceable, yet unspectacular players that still earned more than the league minimum, sometimes much more (Schaefer).

Who knows, maybe if the team had 5-6 players on entry-level contracts they could have afforded to keep both Chara and Redden, at least long enough to realize which one was the correct choice.

That's something I was thinking about the other day.

Right now, Igor Mirnov, Jakub Klepis and Martin Havlat (or a suitable return) should be providing secondary scoring. Maybe toss Eaves into the picture too. Mathieu Chouinard should be providing us with star goaltending (I still maintain the third time would've been the charm), and perhaps Redden should still be here as our #1.

A lot of things that we couldn't have expected went wrong. But we haven't reacted properly.

I think, too, that the pressure to win in the playoffs and the Anaheim series has led us toward more and more "heart and grit" players, but we've completely forgotten that you need skill to get there in the first place.

asq2 wrote:

wprager wrote:Muckler didn't stock the farm system. Too many Russian players (and, hey, I was born in Moscow) that never amounted to anything much, too many other duds. As a result we've had to plug holes with serviceable, yet unspectacular players that still earned more than the league minimum, sometimes much more (Schaefer).

Who knows, maybe if the team had 5-6 players on entry-level contracts they could have afforded to keep both Chara and Redden, at least long enough to realize which one was the correct choice.

That's something I was thinking about the other day.

Right now, Igor Mirnov, Jakub Klepis and Martin Havlat (or a suitable return) should be providing secondary scoring. Maybe toss Eaves into the picture too. Mathieu Chouinard should be providing us with star goaltending (I still maintain the third time would've been the charm), and perhaps Redden should still be here as our #1.

A lot of things that we couldn't have expected went wrong. But we haven't reacted properly.

I think, too, that the pressure to win in the playoffs and the Anaheim series has led us toward more and more "heart and grit" players, but we've completely forgotten that you need skill to get there in the first place.

Thing is, I don't see us having all that much grit either.

wprager wrote:

asq2 wrote:

wprager wrote:Muckler didn't stock the farm system. Too many Russian players (and, hey, I was born in Moscow) that never amounted to anything much, too many other duds. As a result we've had to plug holes with serviceable, yet unspectacular players that still earned more than the league minimum, sometimes much more (Schaefer).

Who knows, maybe if the team had 5-6 players on entry-level contracts they could have afforded to keep both Chara and Redden, at least long enough to realize which one was the correct choice.

That's something I was thinking about the other day.

Right now, Igor Mirnov, Jakub Klepis and Martin Havlat (or a suitable return) should be providing secondary scoring. Maybe toss Eaves into the picture too. Mathieu Chouinard should be providing us with star goaltending (I still maintain the third time would've been the charm), and perhaps Redden should still be here as our #1.

A lot of things that we couldn't have expected went wrong. But we haven't reacted properly.

I think, too, that the pressure to win in the playoffs and the Anaheim series has led us toward more and more "heart and grit" players, but we've completely forgotten that you need skill to get there in the first place.

Thing is, I don't see us having all that much grit either.

Guys like Fisher, Alfredsson, Neil, Foligno, Bass, Schubert, Donovan, Ruutu, Winchester etc. should be providing some grit up front (not to say that not everyone should), and on defence Volchenkov, Phillips and Smith should as well.

Unfortunately, we can't catch the opposition to hit them.

It was all in the system. They were playing a system to compensate for their weaknesses instead of capitalizing on their strengths.

So Cash, who in your opinion bears the responsiblity for 'the system'--and the weaknesses and strengths you to which you allude?

davetherave wrote:So Cash, who in your opinion bears the responsiblity for 'the system'--and the weaknesses and strengths you to which you allude?

I'd say the Coach first for not implenting a good system to fit this team. And also, the gm, he hired the coach and new whay type of style he was gonna use.

Letting Chara walk was the start of the decline. Sure the franchise had enough momentum to get to the cup final but we let him walk for nothing, Redden walk for nothing. These were issues brought on by the CBA. The team finally gets an owner with deep pockets and boom salary cap!!!

So I personally blame the CBA, which Goodenow should have been appluaded for from the players. The lowest paid guy gets $450,00, for a plug. The top paid guy can get 20% of the team's salary so everyone who thinks they are an MVP candidate believes that number should be their number. If you are just a tier below you want 3/4 of that. Average means 1/2. Teams are paying middling players $3.5M. This CBA was the worst negotiated deal in the history of negotiations and the players got the right to opt out of it?! Obviously they did not. The NHL will not die from this deal but I am sure that some teams will go by the wayside because of it.

Chara was certainly the beginning of the end.

Maybe the Sens Org just needs a complete Revamp within the next 3-5 years and then see where things stand...