Blogs Off The Posts

First, let me apologize on behalf of all of at this end that comments weren’t “approved” earlier.
As I told you earlier, if it was up to me nothing would need to be approved. Whatever you want to say is good with me.
Hopefully we get this thing straightened out before you all lose interest in this blog all together.
Anyway, I’m headed to the rink soon and I think the focus from my part has to be on trade deadline, which is in six more days. Specifically, Filip Kuba. He’s now a plus-18, I see. 22nd best in the league. What a great season he’s having, right? Or is he just the benefactor of playing with Erik Karlsson. I think for the most part, it’s the latter.
Kuba is playing better than he did last season, granted, but I still think what he’s done personally so far has been over-rated.
Only five players had a worse minus than his minus-26 last year, so that part of his game had to get better.
His offensive numbers are decent – five goals, 17 assists – but not great, considering the power play time he gets. And considering he’s the blue line partner of a guy who has 57 points.
I wonder what kind of numbers Mark Borowiecki would have in Kuba’s place.
Is Kuba going fetch for the Senators enough in a trade that makes dealing him worth the risk of disrupting any chemistry? Or the hit in depth?
That’s the question.
I think they have to let him finish the season in a Senators jersey and let him walk as a UFA. Re-signing him, I believe, is not an option.
They couldn’t find anybody to take him off their hands before this season, his contract season, began. Next year, if he’s here, I would predict they’d be wanting to unload him again.

About to head over to the rink for the morning skate and thinking that – unlike last night’s game in Tampa – tonight’s battle with the Florida Panthers should be a pretty good one.
The Lightning are not a playoff contender. They have a couple of great players, but no depth. Their coach, I think, is far too intense. We waited about 45 minutes for Guy Boucher to give his media briefing after the morning skate yesterday. Finally, a few of us gave up and headed down to the Senators room. As we were going, we saw Boucher stomp out of his office toward the interview room. He looked like he was about to explode. Like he needed to get something off his chest. Obviously, we did the about-face to go see what he had to say. The Coles notes version: Ryan Malone was returning to the lineup and that his team would go with six defenceman against the Senators. In other words, very little.
Guess that scowl is normal for Boucher. The Montreal press will love him when he coaches the Habs.
Anyway, I didn’t realize Jason Spezza has now scored in each of his last seven visits to Tampa. That and many, many other gems popped up as the Ottawa media – Sylvain St-Laurent, Kenny Warren, Gord Wilson, Dean Brown, Denis “Five” Potvin, Dave Schreiber, Senators videoguy Chris Skinner and myself traveled from Tampa to Sunrise after the game in a limo. The trip was about 3 1/2 hours. We had a high time.
Normally, we would have been on the Senators charter, with the players, but because it’s the Dads Trip, there was no room.
The Senators need to keep their fathers around. They are now 4-0-1 in games played on the Dads Trip. They also beat Boston and Montreal the first year and Minnesota the second year before losing in overtime to Colorado.
Winning tonight would put them six points up on Toronto and seven ahead of the ninth place Washington Capitals. The Senators become the first NHL team to reach 60 games tonight. They have the weekend off and would obviously like to have as comfortable a cushion as possible from which to watch others try to catch them.

Chris Phillips will play his 1,000th.
Mike Fisher will return with the Predators.
Craig Anderson will get a well-deserved rest.
Alex Auld will get his first start since Dec. 30th.
Yup, it’s a big night at Scotiabank Place.
Most of all the Senators need to end a seven-game losing skid.
I spoke with GM Bryan Murray today. He said he’s not going to be a buyer at the deadline at this stage. If he wants a player, he has to give up a top prospect and first round pick. That’s not going to happen.
“There’s peaks and valleys,” said Murray. “But, we’re not going to give up what is a possible very good future player and a pick for a rental. We’re just not doing that. We may have to tolerate a bit at the deadline but that’s what we’re going to do.
“If the right deal ever came along, and we were able to do something, I’m not saying we wouldn’t step up. My intent is not to sacrifice something we really like going forward.”
Makes sense to me.
My guess would be a lot of teams are after Mark Stone.

Two days off can really refresh a guy – even if one of them is Super Bowl Sunday.
With clear eyes again, I see something I did not realize. It’s the only number 14 the St. Louis Blues have. The one under the loss column. Only one other team in the entire NHL has suffered defeat in regulation time more often than St. Louis.
Yes, the Blues have been the toughest out in the Western Conference so far this season. So yes, the Senators will have their work cut out for them if they’re going to end their losing streak at six tonight.
And they’ll have to go through an all-star goalie to do it.
Goalies coming back to face their old team usually come up big. Especially when they want to prove they’re better than the old team – and the old team’s fans – thought they were. Senators players who speak in defence of Brian Elliott’s play here now didn’t play such great defence in front of him when he wore the same color jersey as they did. That, and he was as bad as we said and you saw. Not all his fault, though. Elliott should have been a backup goalie for Ottawa, but was forced into a more important role because of all the injuries to Pascal Leclaire.
Clearly, he wasn’t ready for it.
Personally, I don’t think Elliott, who has lacked confidence on the “slippery” Scotiabank Place ice in the past, will be the difference tonight. I don’t think he’ll be one of the three stars, especially if the fans get on him and the Senators players get to him.
James Reimer’s success against Ottawa Saturday had a lot to do with the fact nobody was in his face. Nobody was around to swat at the rebounds he did give up. That’s why I think guys like Nick Foligno and Chris Neil and Milan Michalek will be key for the Senators tonight. They were the players doing the dirty work in front of the net when the team was having success.
Also, Jason Spezza will benefit from having Colin Greening on his line again. The fastest forward on the team, Greening hustles back to do a lot of the down low work in the defensive zone, allowing Spezza to both cheat up high a little and save some energy for his play at the other end of the ice.
If Craig Anderson plays tonight, I see the Senators snapping out of their slump in what would qualify as an upset. If Alex Auld is in net, all bets are off.

Not a super Sunday for everyone.
The loss Saturday night at Scotiabank Place was hard to stomach and hard to figure out.
The first question: What happened?
The Senators just didn’t get the job done. They played well in the first 10 minutes. Then they completely fell apart. The Senators didn’t react well to being down. Sure they had lots of shots on James Reimer but Glenn Healy and I were watching a different game because the Senators didn’t have many scoring chances.
So, what now?
Get back on track. Make you stay in the playoff hunt.
It would appear the Boston Bruins are going to do the Senators a favour by beating the Washington Capitals today.
That will keep the Caps three points back of Ottawa and sitting at No. 9 in the East.
My personal feeling is the Winnipeg Jets are too far back to make a push. That’s just me.
The Senators didn’t expect to make the playoffs at the start of the season. Now they are expected to make the post-season. If you expected coach Paul MacLean to cancel the day off Sunday and hold a practice, you were wrong.
I didn’t either.
The Senators can get this turned around.
They can get back to playing the hockey that made them successful earlier this season.
They’ve got it in them. They just have to find it.

Every now and then hard work goes noticed.
Like this morning, for instance.
Senators coach Paul MacLean either listens to the Team 1200 at the start of his day or he’s a good guesser.
“You’re glad tomorrow’s Friday, eh?” he said. “Those early mornings and late nights are catching up to you.”
Don’t know about late nights, but I’ve had the good fortune to spend my A.M.’s with JR and Jungle all week. That means a 4:45 alarm. And that means by the time Senators practice rolls around, I could use a nap.
Being the consummate professional, though, I forge ahead. On Wednesday, I even asked 90 percent of the questions during MacLean’s press conference. Today, I didn’t do much interrogating at all. I think I had a couple of things I was going to throw his way, but they slipped my mind when the coach kept the media waiting about a half hour for the second day in a row.
I was tired. I lost focus. It happens. Just ask Craig Anderson.
Brilliant through the early part of January, Anderson has allowed 13 goals in his last 11 periods of work, by my count. The busiest goalie in the NHL, you have to wonder if he’s getting a little tired. Especially when he’s giving up goals from centre ice.
Even if he is, MacLean can’t give him a rest now. Alex Auld has generally been a huge disappointment this season. The Senators can’t afford to put him in for an important game, and at this stage, they’re all important.
So Anderson will play Friday. making his 16th straight start, and if you think he’s overworked, well, so are Bruce Garrioch and I. Your two Off The Post contributors love our jobs and would never complain, but sometimes we break down a bit.
Just like Anderson.
Right now, I’m babbling incoherently before I catch another four hours of shuteye and head to the radio station. Bruce has been in bed all day, battling a bug. Don’t worry, though. We’ll both be at tomorrow’s morning skate, then Mark Papousek’s guests on the Kanata Sports Club Hot Seat, before we go back to the rink to cover the Senators tackling the Islanders.
It will be the 1500th game in Senators modern-day history. I forgot to mention that in anything I wrote for the website and paper today, so you’re getting it here. Their record to date: 665-640-115-79.
Can’t believe they’ve played 1500 games. Seems like we’ve covered at least 3000.

BOSTON _ The Senators go back to work Tuesday.
The party is over. It was a great weekend.
Now, the chase for a playoff spot begins.
The Senators have a lot of work to do. They’re going to have to get to the 90-point mark to make the playoffs. They’ve played more games than everybody else but with 30 games left that pretty much means they have to have a .500 record.
They’ve done it all season. I don’t know why they can’t do it now. They just need to get their scoring back. They didn’t have that going into the break.
A tough start in Boston. They haven’t had a lot of success here but the road to the playoffs begin now.

The NHL All Star Fantasy Draft is the best addition to this weekend. It makes sense. It is fun. The players have fun with it. Everybody waits in anticipation to see who goes last.
The show should be done in an hour but that’s a story for another day. I thought Logan Couture took being selected last with class. He’ll drive home in a new car. He talked about all the ribbing he was getting from teammate Joe Thornton.
It has certainly helped to raise Couture’s profile.
I wouldn’t have been upset if either Alfredsson or Chara decided to make a trade. That would have been fun. It would have been neat if they swapped a Canuck or Leaf.
Fun is what the All Star weekend is all about.
The game isn’t going to be hockey. It’s going to be a lot of scoring. But if the league wants to kick off the weekend the right way they’ve found a winner with the Fantasy Draft. It works and it is fun.

I read the Brian Elliott piece in our paper with great interest.
First things first, he deserves to be here. He is having an all-star season. He has been one of the best goalies in the league.
He still doesn’t get what happened in Ottawa.
That’s OK neither do many fans.
You would think Elliott was run out of town by the media which couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s the greatest myth in sports.
He’d have people believe that. He believes it himself. He proved it with this quote given to Robert Tychowski of the Edmonton Sun.
“Obviously, the Canadian media is pretty harsh on goalies and in Ottawa it’s been kind of a focal point for them in years past. They like to throw people under the bus. I try not to think about it too much. I never really read into any of it. The guys know how you are in the locker room and that’s all that really matters,” said Elliott.
Yes, the guys in the locker room now know they’ve got a goalie in Craig Anderson that can stop the puck. They don’t have an excuse maker behind the bench or in the net that won’t take any responsibility when the team loses.
Let’s look at Elliott’s numbers when he was dealt again: 13-19-8, .894 save-percentage and a 3.19 GAA.
Those speak for themselves. I know, I know, it wasn’t his fault. It never was when he was here. His quotes speak volumes to the fact that he doesn’t accept the blame either.
He never did while he was here. Why would he now?
Have a great all-star weekend. It’s going to be fun.

GLENDALE – This is not breaking news or anything, but do you know who’s really tough? Chris Neil, that’s who.
Just had a chat with him outside the hotel, before heading to the rink, and he doesn’t have a scratch on his face. That’s amazing, given the high speed collision he had with Kyle Clifford last night. Was it an accident? Probably. Clifford wasn’t out to get him. But he did raise his stick just before contact, catching Neil right in the mouth and on the side of his head.
Neil was sore this morning, but no, he doesn’t have a mark on him, and of course he’ll be in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Coyotes.
Meanwhile, Jason Spezza wound up taking seven stitches above the right eye from the puck that hit him, coming off the back mesh, during the pre-game warmup. As I wrote in the paper, Spezza spoke to Le Droit’s Marc Brassard, Sportsnet’s Ian Mendes and I earlier in the day about why he doesn’t wear a helmet in the warmup and how, one time five years ago, he took a shot off a crossbar that ricocheted back and hit him in the face, cutting him.
I knew when he was clipped by the puck Monday, five years later, that he was going to blame me for jinxing him.
“Hey Jason, we’re gonna need you when you’re done,” I said to him at the rink this morning, as he was headed outside to kick the soccer ball around with some teammates.
“No chance,” he said, joking. “I’m not talking to you $%$^&*(*$& guys. You want to talk to me, let’s talk about scoring goals. Then maybe I will.”
I have a feeling he gets a couple tonight. I also think the Senators will snap out of their two-game losing streak to wind up with a 3-2 record on this road trip. If they lose to Phoenix, which I don’t think is a very good team, it will raise a very good question: that is, are the Senators finally falling back to earth?
Personally, I think they are where they’ll end up, somewhere around fifth or sixth in the conference. I’ve said from the start of the season they’ll make the playoffs, but in no way is it as cut and dry as the ridiculous story I read in the other Ottawa paper a couple of days ago.
The Citizen guy wrote that if they don’t get 34 points in their final 32 games, it would be a collapse comparable to the Boston Red Sox fold. That’s just goofy. Real goofy. The Senators will still need to play well to get to the post-season tournament, the standings are tight and there are going to be teams making a big push down the stretch. But barring injuries to key guys, I think Paul MacLean will get them there.