You might be right.

My thought was the Rangers might want to make a play on DeBrincat this year (rather than Kane) and sort it out next summer. Rangers have the goaltending and defense to make a serious Cup run. But, they don't have the firepower to keep up with the leading contenders.

But, I am certain that they do not know how they can fit Lafreniere into their plans for next year. I believe he is the chip they will offering if they try to do something before the deadline.
- spatso

one option, if OTT wants to improve at 2 positions is to trade Batherson to NYR for Laf, Schneider and a 1st, OTT gets a top 4 RD, improves their bottom 6 greatly and can keep cat

one option, if OTT wants to improve at 2 positions is to trade Batherson to NYR for Laf, Schneider and a 1st, OTT gets a top 4 RD, improves their bottom 6 greatly and can keep cat
- Mithos

No way does NYR do that deal for just Batherson. But for the Debrinicat and something? Maybe...

Sens have to get back what they paid for Debrinicat. And he is worth only that until the trade deadline next year. Then it's the obligatory 1st rd, prospect, player.

With Hovart getting 8 x 8.5, no way does Debrinicat sign for less. I don't think he signs for less than $9 mill a year. And at that price, I wonder if the Sens can afford him. Than money is better spent on Sandersons next deal.

I get why the Sens traded for him...it was a value deal. Not overly expensive. And it added value to the team for the impending sale.

No way does NYR do that deal for just Batherson. But for the Debrinicat and something? Maybe...

Sens have to get back what they paid for Debrinicat. And he is worth only that until the trade deadline next year. Then it's the obligatory 1st rd, prospect, player.
- GrimmdaGoalie

I wouldn’t trade Batherson anyways the kid can play on any line and has a great contract 🫣

With Hovart getting 8 x 8.5, no way does Debrinicat sign for less. I don't think he signs for less than $9 mill a year. And at that price, I wonder if the Sens can afford him. Than money is better spent on Sandersons next deal.

I get why the Sens traded for him...it was a value deal. Not overly expensive. And it added value to the team for the impending sale.
- GrimmdaGoalie

I don't think $1m one way or the other will make any great difference. The cap is quickly moving up and should hit $96m soon enough. So, $1m more is a little over 1% on the cap. The issue is not paying DeBrincat $9m. The Sens can fit him into their cap. The only question that really matters is if DeBrincat is the right guy for a team that hopes to make a run in the playoffs.

I am still undecided. But, I think we will know after the next 30 games.

From Mendes Mailbag: Since Nikita Zaitsev has returned to Ottawa after his AHL demotion, the Senators are 11-3-2 with him in the lineup. And not only that, Zaitsev is the only regular Ottawa defenceman to not have a minus rating in that window.

From Mendes Mailbag: Since Nikita Zaitsev has returned to Ottawa after his AHL demotion, the Senators are 11-3-2 with him in the lineup. And not only that, Zaitsev is the only regular Ottawa defenceman to not have a minus rating in that window.
- david22

Interesting. I am not a Zaitsev fan but I always thought some fans were way too keen to scapegoat him. I like the old fashioned plus/minus. I think contemporary anayitics make it far more complex than it needs to be. If all your top 6 and top 4 are minus players...pretty good chance you will miss the playoffs.

I assume it's scouting/trade related for Mann.

However, speaking of gambling, I right there with you. I am so sick of all the gambling ads during games. It's borderline irresponsible. It's like putting a bar in the pocket of an alcoholic. It's bad enough to have the gambling ads during the game but to have live odds and stats to support the said odds can be very dangerous.

It's creating this weird dynamic where are watching the game because of the gambling lines rather than the love of the sport. There will be people in the sports getting tripped up now that pretty much anyone can do it so easily in real time.

I do think there is a place for gambling for sports. It's always been there. Just get it away from the broadcasts in my opinion.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

I'm glad I'm not the only person who's more than a bit shocked at the extent of the intrusion of sports gambling into televised broadcasts. They literally can't go a full segment without bringing up some kind of random probability stats, or some bizarre mid-game opportunity for additional betting like which team scores next, the updated over/under, etc. There was even a segment on TSN recently about how LeBron James is on the cusp of setting the all-time NBA scoring record, and they immediately started posting odds on which game it would occur. You couldn't have cheapened the magnitude of the achievement more if you tried. Plus, as you noted, it's completely inappropriate for the underage population (which is a critical part of their viewing demographic), and outright dangerous for anyone with even a minor gambling problem.

Just one more small step on the inevitable path towards "Idiocracy".

It's nice to see a Sens blog that doesn't feature the writer agreeing with himself via a fake second account OR linking to a GoFundMe to beg for money.

Things are looking up for 2023

Couple random posts I saw on twitter:

- Tim Stützle (from ages 21-28) is making $150k less than Bo Horvat (from ages 28-35).

- Since Nikita Zaitzev has returned to Ottawa after his AHL demotion, the Senators are 11-3-2 with him in the lineup... he is the only regular Ottawa D to not have a minus rating in that time (even).

Just one more small step on the inevitable path towards "Idiocracy".
- khawk

It's bizarre that we ban cigarette ads, severely restrict and curb alcohol ads, and then open the floodgates to this gambling BS. We know booze and smokes kill us - gambling is far, far more insidious.

Gambling is and always has been a tax on the poor. It is wealth distribution in the wrong direction. It predates on working class hopes of get rich quick fantasy and easy money, hyping and promoting the very few winners without acknowledging the crippling debt and misery it causes to families and society at large. It's a toxic and sickening shift. The NHL should be ashamed of itself for aligning itself with this absolute nonsense.

"Sources say I'm told"!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!! When you need to smear someone to distract people from your incompetence find some ambitious little fool covering your market and feed her the completely unsubstantiated lie and watch her blind ambition kick in as she races to print with her scoop without giving the slightest thought to the damage she will be doing to a good man's career. Then of course more of the sports talking heads jump right in and give legs to the rumour saying things like "Will Troy Mann now be able to find another job anywhere?"

That incompetent, Dorion, threw Mann under the bus to try and save his job and then he and Bowness feed the media a meaningless word salad to non explain everything away. How I want these guys shown the door by the new owners!

Worst case the Sens go on their season end run giving themselves a poorer draft pick and Dorion points to that run telling the new owners that he fixed the problem by fixing the leak and whatever other nonsense he and Smith and Bowness can come up with and gets to keep his job. DJ and Bowness get to keep their jobs as well.

Hopefully they fail to remove Trent Mann from the equation so that new ownership will have the benefit of his input.

"Sources say I'm told"!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!! When you need to smear someone to distract people from your incompetence find some ambitious little fool covering your market and feed her the completely unsubstantiated lie and watch her blind ambition kick in as she races to print with her scoop without giving the slightest thought to the damage she will be doing to a good man's career. Then of course more of the sports talking heads jump right in and give legs to the rumour saying things like "Will Troy Mann now be able to find another job anywhere?"

That incompetent, Dorion, threw Mann under the bus to try and save his job and then he and Bowness feed the media a meaningless word salad to non explain everything away. How I want these guys shown the door by the new owners!

Worst case the Sens go on their season end run giving themselves a poorer draft pick and Dorion points to that run telling the new owners that he fixed the problem by fixing the leak and whatever other nonsense he and Smith and Bowness can come up with and gets to keep his job. DJ and Bowness get to keep their jobs as well.

Hopefully they fail to remove Trent Mann from the equation so that new ownership will have the benefit of his input.
- Whatisavailable

That was very good! Sort of a late night laxative. A wicked purge of demons. Perhaps aided by a brew or two?

Here is what I don't understand. Supposedly Mann secreted the advance scouting information from our Sens to the evil Jets. The only persons who might put that information into effective use would be the Winnipeg coaching staff headed up by Bowness (Dad). We remember Bowness (Son) as a toddler from when Bowness (Dad) was the first coach of the expansion Sens. When Bowness (Son), GM of the Belleville Sens got word of the information leak he fired Mann (Bother) coach of Belleville without discussing it with Mann (Brother) who is the Ottawa Assistant GM responsible for scouting and development. And, because of the impending sale of the team nobody was able to discuss the matter with the current registered owners of the team Melnyk (Sister) and Melnyk (Sister) or Melnyk (Mother) who is acting as a financial advisor to the Sisters.

After careful reflection on the entire matter, it leads me to believe that Dubois (Son) wil be traded from the Jets to the Sens in the off season and Dubois (Father) will be named head coach of the Sens. Kimell (Brother) and Kimell (Brother) were part of the Pittsburgh ownership group where Bowness (Son) came from. The Kimell brothers will combine with Andlaurer (Lead Bidder) to purchase the Sens. Andlauerer is currently a minority share holder of the Canadiens where Dubois (Son) will not go because he chooses Ottawa in order to play for Dubois (Father).

Bowness (Son) will be named as the new GM of the Sens replacing Dorion (Son). Dorion, as we all know is the son of the much loved Dorion (Father), a long time NHL super scout with Leafs. Every hockey story needs to try and make it about the Leafs.

That was very good! Sort of a late night laxative. A wicked purge of demons. Perhaps aided by a brew or two?

Here is what I don't understand. Supposedly Mann secreted the advance scouting information from our Sens to the evil Jets. The only persons who might put that information into effective use would be the Winnipeg coaching staff headed up by Bowness (Dad). We remember Bowness (Son) as a toddler from when Bowness (Dad) was the first coach of the expansion Sens. When Bowness (Son), GM of the Belleville Sens got word of the information leak he fired Mann (Bother) coach of Belleville without discussing it with Mann (Brother) who is the Ottawa Assistant GM responsible for scouting and development. And, because of the impending sale of the team nobody was able to discuss the matter with the current registered owners of the team Melnyk (Sister) and Melnyk (Sister) or Melnyk (Mother) who is acting as a financial advisor to the Sisters.

After careful reflection on the entire matter, it leads me to believe that Dubois (Son) wil be traded from the Jets to the Sens in the off season and Dubois (Father) will be named head coach of the Sens. Kimell (Brother) and Kimell (Brother) were part of the Pittsburgh ownership group where Bowness (Son) came from. The Kimell brothers will combine with Andlaurer (Lead Bidder) to purchase the Sens. Andlauerer is currently a minority share holder of the Canadiens where Dubois (Son) will not go because he chooses Ottawa in order to play for Dubois (Father).

Bowness (Son) will be named as the new GM of the Sens replacing Dorion (Son). Dorion, as we all know is the son of the much loved Dorion (Father), a long time NHL super scout with Leafs. Every hockey story needs to try and make it about the Leafs.
- spatso

WOW! Now that's quite the elaborate analysis and set of predictions! I'm going to save this and wait to see what unfolds and if you are right I will well and truly be blown away. You really have a man crush on for Dubois, don't you? More importantly you should be ashamed of spreading an unsubstantiated rumour that has not found any support from anyone in the hockey community outside of a couple of peripheral talking heads who have nothing better to do than gossip.

On a side note here's my comment with respect to the NHL All Star spectacle which is supposed to have as one of its objectives the recruitment of new fans for the game of hockey.

I can just picture it. One of these new fans takes their kid to see a hockey game and the kid looks up at his dad with tears streaming down his face and bawls "Where are the clowns?"

WOW! Now that's quite the elaborate analysis and set of predictions! I'm going to save this and wait to see what unfolds and if you are right I will well and truly be blown away. You really have a man crush on for Dubois, don't you? More importantly you should be ashamed of spreading an unsubstantiated rumour that has not found any support from anyone in the hockey community outside of a couple of peripheral talking heads who have nothing better to do than gossip.

On a side note here's my comment with respect to the NHL All Star spectacle which is supposed to have as one of its objectives the recruitment of new fans for the game of hockey.

I can just picture it. One of these new fans takes their kid to see a hockey game and the kid looks up at his dad with tears streaming down his face and bawls "Where are the clowns?"
- Whatisavailable

I see there is another report circulating saying that this is nothing more than Dorion and Bowness fabricating a crisis out of their own vulnerability with the impending change in ownership. I expect the new owners will come in and clean house regardless of the wave craziness currently going on in the front office.

Would Bettman allow Ottawa to do any major deals before the new ownership gets a chance to signal the direction they want follow?

Really exciting times and I feel very positive about it! I refuse to be dissuaded by the crazy making.

We got bumped off the main page already.

Crap.

We got bumped off the main page already.

Crap.
- Octavarium

yea!

How do we get back to the same thread then ?!

I book marked it last time. This time I've just gone into my history and found it. I suspect our "guest writer" will have something up before the next game.

We got bumped off the main page already.

Crap.
- Octavarium

I'll try to get a new piece uploaded by tomorrow, so that we're at least back on the main page before the weekend. Alternatively, we had discussed the idea of a rotation of guest writers - not sure if anyone else is ready in terms of written content, but if so I could help out with the submission process.

If nothing else, if we're going with a rotation of guest writers, we should probably try to figure out a potential schedule. The Senators February game schedule works out like this, and there are 4 distinct sets of back-to-back games. Maybe we could aim to have a new piece with game summaries/additional commentary after each game or pairs of back-to-back games? It would mean 6 blogs (A-F) over the next 3 weeks.

Blog A - Sat. Feb. 11 - EDM@OTT
Blog B - Mon. Feb. 13 - CGY@OTT
Blog B - Tue. Feb. 14 - OTT@NYI
Blog C - Fri. Feb. 17 - CHI@OTT
Blog D - Sun. Feb. 19 - STL@OTT
Blog D - Mon. Feb. 20 - OTT@BOS
Blog E - Fri. Feb. 24 - OTT@CAR
Blog E - Sat. Feb. 25 - OTT@MTL
Blog F - Mon. Feb. 27 - DET@OTT
Blog F - Tue. Feb. 28 - DET@OTT

March would be a whole different animal (15 games, just 2 are back-to-back, and I'm away on vacation for 2 of the weeks), but we may have resolved the writer issue by then. But let's at least start to get a sense of who's interested, and how we can slice up this pie.

I'll try to get a new piece uploaded by tomorrow, so that we're at least back on the main page before the weekend. Alternatively, we had discussed the idea of a rotation of guest writers - not sure if anyone else is ready in terms of written content, but if so I could help out with the submission process.

If nothing else, if we're going with a rotation of guest writers, we should probably try to figure out a potential schedule. The Senators February game schedule works out like this, and there are 4 distinct sets of back-to-back games. Maybe we could aim to have a new piece with game summaries/additional commentary after each game or pairs of back-to-back games? It would mean 6 blogs (A-F) over the next 3 weeks.

Blog A - Sat. Feb. 11 - EDM@OTT
Blog B - Mon. Feb. 13 - CGY@OTT
Blog B - Tue. Feb. 14 - OTT@NYI
Blog C - Fri. Feb. 17 - CHI@OTT
Blog D - Sun. Feb. 19 - STL@OTT
Blog D - Mon. Feb. 20 - OTT@BOS
Blog E - Fri. Feb. 24 - OTT@CAR
Blog E - Sat. Feb. 25 - OTT@MTL
Blog F - Mon. Feb. 27 - DET@OTT
Blog F - Tue. Feb. 28 - DET@OTT

March would be a whole different animal (15 games, just 2 are back-to-back, and I'm away on vacation for 2 of the weeks), but we may have resolved the writer issue by then. But let's at least start to get a sense of who's interested, and how we can slice up this pie.
- khawk

Shelf life of a blog seems to be about a week before getting knocked off the page. Look at us working hard for free to just keep good conversation going on a site that clearly has no motivation to improve.

Happy to try and do up some blogs. I don’t mind taking Blog D (will be attending the game in Kanata on the 19th).

Would just need some instruction on process to post.

Pencil me in for the Islanders.
There my first love after all.....and very old. Like me.
LOL