Last season was a rude awakening for the Senators franchise and their fan base, they didn’t have a good enough team to qualify for the playoffs, and they may not qualify this season either. There isn’t much depth on this team, from offense to defense and the most important position of all, goaltending. With the loss of Dany Heatley via trade to San Jose, the Senators have gotten much weaker, due to the fact they had to settle in that deal, and pick up two weak forwards.
Those two forwards are Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek. Cheechoo if he still had that scoring touch he displayed in 2006 when he scored 56 goals, this trade could’ve been even. Since that monster season which also landed him a long term big money contract, Cheechoo hasn’t been very durable, as injuries have limited his playing time. His goal scoring totals have dropped from that 56 in 2006 to 37, 23, and a rock bottom 12 last season. If Cheechoo doesn’t score at least thirty goals, then the San Jose Sharks easily win that trade. As for Michalek, he has been a good point producer since his rookie season four years ago, and will add some depth to Ottawa’s weak scoring.
Ottawa’s scoring is weak because they really only have two consistent scorers in their lineup, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. Even they had subpar seasons last year when they tallied a mid range seventy points each. For Ottawa’s offense to be somewhat better, they need Alfredsson and Spezza to each score more than eighty points.
In a desperate move, the Senators went out and signed free agent forward Alex Kovalev who looks to be in the twilight of his career, and that was very evident last season in Montreal. With the Canadiens he only scored 65 points compared to a fluke of a 2008 season when he scored 84 points. During parts of last season, Kovalev was obsolete and drifted in and out of hockey games. So it is tough to say whether Kovalev is adding scoring depth or just another body to this weak roster.
For the Senators who played here last season, mainly one of them, Mike Fisher had a horrible season when he scored just 13 times in 78 games. He is usually a lock to score twenty, but even that may be a tough task to complete, because of the players that surround him, they aren’t very good.
Speaking of which, Chris Neil should’ve been axed a few years ago, but this franchise for some reason likes to keep idiot players on board that shit talk throughout a game. Neil cannot play at the NHL level, and never could. The list continues with players that can’t play and have made this Senators offense weak with Christoph Schubert, Jarko Ruutu, Shean Donovan, and Chris Kelly. For Kelly, he was given enough time to produce and develop with this franchise, and has failed. This will probably be a do or die season for him, and must vastly improve on his 23 points from last season.
One player that seems to be coming along at a nice pace is Nick Foligno, who scored 17 goals and added 15 assists in 81 games played. Hitting the twenty goal mark should be within reach for this 21 year old.
Defense, an area where the Senators were stacked just three years ago, but are now thin, are going to struggle this season. The only two players on this roster that can actually play some good defense, by hitting, blocking shots, and play smart are Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov. Filip Kuba has proven to be a liability when on the ice, but the forty points he scored last season have won him another year with this team.
Filling out the rest of the defense are Alexandre Picard and Chris Campoli. Both have shown promise, and should only get better. There are still a few kinks they have to work out in each others’ game, as they were both double figure minus players. 22 year old Brian Lee will probably get a long look this season by the Ottawa brass to see if they have a player or not. If not, they could always call up their first round draft pick Erik Karlsson. In Sweden, he plays a very solid two way game, with good awareness and an excellent first pass out of the zone.
Goaltending, this is an area that is absolutely going to kill the Senators. They don’t have a legit number one goalie yet, as Brian Elliott and Pascal Leclaire will probably play to decide that in training camp. In 27 games last season, Elliott impressed with 16 wins and a 2.77 GAA. The Ottawa brass is hoping that Leclaire will be their number one goalie after they paid a bit to acquire him in a trade from Columbus. Unfortunately he was injured and has yet to play a game with the Senators. Injuries have hurt his playing time in his career so far, but when healthy and he proved this in 2008 he can play. His numbers weren’t that bad from that year when he won 24 games in 57 starts, posted nine shut-outs, had a 2.25 GAA, and a .919 save percentage. The potential is there for Leclaire to regain that form.
OVERALL--> THIS OTTAWA TEAM IS WEAK ALL AROUND, UNTIL A FEW PLAYERS CAN PROVE OTHERWISE. LIKE ON OFFENSE, OTTAWA ONLY HAS TWO LEGIT SCORERS IN ALFREDSSON AND SPEZZA, MAYBE A THIRD IN KOVALEV OR CHEECHOO. THE DEFENSE ONLY HAS TWO GOOD DEFENDERS, MAYBE FOUR IF PICARD AND CAMPOLI IMPROVE THEIR GAMES. GOALTENDING IS STILL UNPROVEN WITH ELLIOTT, AND COULD BE SETTELED IF LECLAIRE COULD START A FULL AND HEALTHY SEASON.
POSITIVE--> ALFREDSSON AND SPEZZA ARE STILL AROUND, AND THE GROWTH OF NICK FOLIGNO.
NEGATIVE--> BARELY ANY DEPTH ON THIS TEAM THROUGHOUT THE LINEUP.
X-FACTOR--> IT HAS TO BE ALFREDSSON AND SPEZZA. WITHOUT THESE TWO THE SENATORS WOUD REALLY BE LOST. THOSE TWO CAN DO ALL THEY WANT, BUT THIS IS NOT A PLAYOFF TEAM.
SLEEPER PICK--> CHRIS CAMPOLI SHOULD HAVE A GOOD CONSISTENT DEFENSIVE SEASON.
PREDICTION--> THE OTTAWA SENATORS WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, AND FINISH 10-12 IN THE EAST.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.
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