"No Relation" Still With Senators Organization

YaHoo (amongst others) reports that Mike "No Relation" Brodeur has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators organization.

(This isn't really earth-shattering news; it is just an excuse for me to giggle. I just like referring to him as "No Relation" Brodeur. I like that nickname better than "Not Martin", which currently seems to be the most prevalent.)

Officiating

Read this. Read it now.

5 Things To Be Happy About From 2009-2010

Well summer has come to Ottawa. The weather is nice and my kids have a brand new play structure in the back yard to play on. Sure, it might be nicer to be continuing down the playoffs towards a Stanley Cup, but really I don't mind so much. In any case, here's my list of things to be happy about from this just finished season.

Playoffs

This team wasn't supposed to make the playoffs at all, or at the most, scrabble in at the tail end of the position 6-7-8 logjam of mediocrity that the East features so much of. Instead, we finished 5th, and made the defending Stanley Cup champions earn their round 1 victory.

As for the round 1 itself, considering that we were running without minute-munching defenseman Kuba, defense-coverage-magnet Kovalev, or either of the "parts" we got in exchange for Heatley -- the fact that we still made Pittsburgh earn their round 1 victory is an achievement in itself. And standing tall, fighting through to a triple-overtime win in game 5 to bring the series back home for game 6, granting team owner Melnyk an unexpected playoff gate -- I think that put this all together and this year was a definite success.

Secondary Scoring

...as in, we had plenty this year.

This year the team had credible threats on all four lines most of the year. Instead of past years where the top line had to do it all, we got a good year from Fisher, quality production from Michalek, and a streaky set of performances from Kovalev.

And I forget how many times the grinder line of Neil-Kelly-Rutuu came up with a big goal to either take the game or to swing the momentum back in Ottawa's favor.

Having such productive lines gave opposing coaches fits, as they'd have to pick which lines to cover closely and which to risk against.

Jason Spezza's New-Found Defensive Discipline

Spezza has shown more willingness to get back after the opposition gets going. He's more willing to get in and grind in his own zone, rather than just floating around waiting for the outlet pass to happen (since lets face it we pay Kovalev a lot of money to do that). I like this new Spezza, and I hope that it continues.

Overall it would be nice if there was more in terms of point production, but lets face it we as fans will always say that. Rumor is that the no-trade clause kicks in this July 1st, and I sincerely hope he isn't traded ahead of that.

Erik Karlsson

At the beginning of the year I said I would like to see him sent down to Bingo in order to get his game together. Turns out that the braintrust at the team came to the same conclusion, and down he went, where he played very good hockey, ending up running the power play down there. Having proved he had the basic hockey skills to do the job, the time came for him to get his NHL-level experience and make his NHL-level rookie mistakes.

Which he did, costing the team several goals at times; but his offensive senses are wonderful, and once he has settled in through the next year or two we can hope that he can develop into something special.

Daniel Alfredsson

What more can be said of Alfredsson that hasn't already been said before? He played his 1000th game as an Ottawa Senator. He brought his A-game every night, playing at both ends. He played top line or shut down. He ran the power play and penalty kill special teams. He played hurt, he played hard, he played with heart.

He is without a doubt the heart and soul of this team.

The one thing I want to mention specifically is his comments after he was injured in Pittsburgh earlier in the year. While the commentators were on the TV baying for blood (followed by much of the blog-o-sphere the next time the two teams met), Alfredsson himself said that the play was a clean, legal hit and it was his own fault for putting himself in a vulnerable position. Now that's class.

Unfortunately the clock is running down on Alfredsson. We say this every year, but it is a fact of life that years of playing hockey will eventually catch up with him and he will have to stop. No one, not even Alfredsson, can continue to do this forever. We can only hope that before that happens the team can get him the Stanley Cup ring he so richly deserves. (And hey, it'd be nice for the rest of us to have the Stanley Cup here in Ottawa.)

Bonus: The Continuing Disaster That Is The Toronto Maple Leafs

The Leafs continue to suck, and that's never a bad thing. What's so bewildering is that given the brain trust in charge of them, why are they so bad? It boggles the mind.

I would still like to see the Leafs and the Senators fighting for top spot in the conference -- or even the Leafs-Senators games being competitive affairs -- but in the absence of that I'll settle for the status quo.

Look at this picture

Round two, 2010:


Two things leaped out at me.

First: the only top-four seed in the east that beat their opposition in round one was... Pittsburgh.

Second: the seed numbers from the east that failed to get through are the seed numbers in the west that succeeded.

The second factiod means precisely nothing.

The first one confirms that the East really is drowning in mediocrity.

Drat

Just found out that a local sports radio show has the same name as this 'blog. Which I am sure would make most people think I'm a copy cat. Of course since the radio show probably had the name first, I doubt anyone would believe my cries of ignorance -- not sure I would either, hearing the facts of the matter. So my guess is that sometime over the summer, this 'blog will change its name again.

Fortunately, there's A) some time to figure this out and B) no one other than me reading, so it isn't the huge issue it might otherwise have been.

Made Them Earn It

Well considering where we were at the beginning of the year, the fact that we took the defending champions to six and made them earn the win, dragging them through overtime twice -- with the officials staying out of it for the most part -- well I am disappointed but I did expect this.

Now we relax until the cup is dealt with in May (or June?...) and then it is planning for next year.

Here's hoping that the team can build on this and do even better next year.

Sens force game 6

Well THAT... that was unbelievable. First time in a long time I've watched a game end-to-end, and first time ever I've stuck with the OT. Most of the time I bail out halfway through OT1 because it is getting late.

Putting LeClaire in tonight was a no-lose decision for Clouston tonight. Everyone (me included, I'll admit) thought that tonight was going to be it, the last game of the season. If LeClaire lost, well the series was over anyways. If they win, everyone's happy. LeClaire played like he was out to prove something, and I think he did. He got a LOT of help from the guys in front of him, and that meant he didn't have to carry the whole effort on his back.

I thought the Senators were outclassed in periods 2 and 3, like they were just waiting for opportunity to be handed to them. Fortunately for them it was handed to them, permitting them to tie the game.

Through OT1 and OT2 I thought that Pittsburgh looked more affected by being tired, with the Senators seemingly able to take the game to the Penguins end almost at will. My theory was that as the teams got tired, the speed factor that the Penguins could bring dropped off much faster than Ottawa's output did. In OT3 the Penguins came back hard, with Ottawa looking more like they were getting run around in their own end. However even though the Penguins were pressing, I didn't think many of the chances were truly dangerous. The Senators hung tough and stayed disciplined and kept the opportunities to a minimum. They still were able to press when the opportunities to go the other way presented themselves, and that resulted in the game winning goal.

So congratulations to the Senators for forcing a game 6 to bring the series back to Ottawa for Saturday. Honestly I still don't think the team can win the series, but I'll happily be wrong again. If the Senators make Pittsburgh earn the win then I'll be satisfied with the end to this year.

Trivia: one commenter on the "Live Blog" thing I was participating in during the OT periods (since my PVR caught up to live TV for once) said that before tonight, the Senators had never won a playoff game when their opponents had 3 wins in the series.

LeClaire sets a franchise record for the number of saves made in a playoff game by an Ottawa Senators goalie with 58 56 stops.