Senators Surprisingly acquire Mike Comrie from Islanders

Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray acquired centre Mike Comrie and defenseman Chris Campoli earlier today in exchange for veteran forward Dean McAmmond and San Jose's 2009 first-round draft pick, obtained from the Tampa Bay Lightning in August 2008.

Comrie, 28, has 20 points in 43 games for the Islanders this season. He played 41 games with the Senators in 2006-07, recording 25 points. Comrie, who is making $4 million this season, will be an unrestricted free agent at season's end.

Campoli, 24, is an offensive defenseman who is having a rough year in New York. In 51 games, Campoli has 17 points, but he also has a -20 plus-minus differential. Campoli, who only makes $633,333/year, is a very affordable defenseman.

McAmmond has seven points in 44 games with Ottawa. He has played on the Sens' fourth line for most of the season. He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. The 35-year-old forward has played 916 regular season games.

GM Bryan Murray decided to help his rookie coach by getting offensive help. With Captain Daniel Alfredsson rumored to be out for a few weeks because of a fractured jaw, Murray acted fast in replacing Alfie's offensive output. Comrie should fit nicely in Ottawa's new up-tempo forechecking style, while Campoli will help Ottawa's transition game.

GM Garth Snow still has plenty of veteran players to trade before the trade deadline, such as Guerin, Weight, and Witt. Nice job getting a first-rounder for Comrie and an underachieving Campoli.

I do believe, however, that it's too little too late for Ottawa to clinch a playoff berth. The Senators are currently 13 points back from the eight seed occupied by the Sabres. They do have two games in hand.

The Senators will visit the sinking Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon in a very important Northeast division matchup.

Rookie goaltender Brian Elliott will be in goal.

The Sens GM story

First off, I'm glad to join this site as the Sens blogger and I hope all of you enjoy my blogs.

But I'll stop wasting your time on to the blog-

Well the Sens are four points out of last place in the league with 32 points and looks like they will contend with the Thrashers, Lightning and Islanders for the battle of Tavares and Hedman.

This time last year there was lots of talk of fans wanting the Leafs to tank so they can draft Stamkos or Doughty, well they ended up with Schenn, who has worked out great for them so far. But my point is leafs nation was split between cheering for a playoff berth and cheering for the leafs to tank. So my question is whats the feeling in Sens Nation?

Myself, even as a longtime Sens fan, I can only hope for a major shake-up for this organization, every game I cheer for a Sens win, but I am realistic. This team needs to have an infusion of youth and new talent.

While I truly believe Hartsburg and his staff is the right team for the job, I think it might be time to let Murray go.

Right now there is tons of talk around the SBP that Melnyk and Murray aren't seeing eye to eye.

There is huge talk that Melnyk won't let Murray make a trade, and on the other side there's talk that Melnyk is pressuring Murray to make a move now. So either way Murray and Melnyk aren`t on the same page and something has to give. Obviously Melnyk isn`t going anywhere and that Murray has fallen out of grace in Melnyk`s eyes.

So it really is a matter of time before Murray is on the outside looking in. Talk to anyone working in SBP, Sens organization and Kanata and they will tell you one of the 2 situations.

There is a chance Murray stays on till the end of the year, but my assumption is a new GM will be in place before the draft. So who is a possible replacement? Well there are several that come to mind that would be a great fit.

Pat Quinn - I'm not a big fan of Quinn based on his history in Toronto, and while I do discredit his international achievements because its really hard to lose on international ice with the mass talent available in Canada and he would have lost if not for the inexperience of the Russian Kids and coaching staff. But if history shows anything the winning world junior coaches go to the NHL pretty quick i.e. Sutter and Hartsburg. Quinn has the numbers and experience to reshape a broken Sens Club

Pat Burns - Based solely on the rumour that he's itching to get back into the NHL, while he has more experience coaching, he may have enough knowledge from the sidelines to rebuild. He is a great hockey mind and he may be just what the Sens Army needs.

Doug MacLean - The man who commanded the ship in Columbus during the early years and was fired when Columbus couldn't get the job done. While he isn't a trade wizard, he is a great hockey mind and very talented when draft day comes around.

Jim Rutherford - Is available when this season ends, like MacLean, Rutherford has great hockey sense and was the runner-up for the Toronto gig. What better way to show the world Toronto made the wrong decision by leading their rival against them.

Steve Yzerman - While I doubt he's on the list, I figured I should put him on the list because he is a future GM.

Jay Feaster - The odd man out in Tampa, he's been through the same situation in Tampa as Ottawa is in now, unfortunately he got the axe before he could finish his plans. The plus to Feaster is he had a plan in place to fix Tampa, so he could make it work in Ottawa.

Ken Holland - Now before Red Wing fans harp on me, this is only based off of Holland being in Ottawa for the WJC and meeting casually with Melnyk during that time.
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So what are your thoughts on the situation in Ottawa? Is tanking for the best? What have heard Ottawa fans? Who would you like to see running Ottawa?

Time to part ways with Hartsburg

When Bryan Murray hired Craig Hartsburg this summer as the Senators' new head coach, he was pretty confident Hartsburg would turn the Senators around after a horrendous finish last season.

29 games into the 2008-09 season, the Senators are sitting at the bottom on the Eastern Conference, only five points in front of bottom-dweller Tampa Bay Lightning after losing 4-1 to the 13th place Atlanta Thrashers on home ice.

GM Bryan Murray signed Hartsburg to a three-year contract last June to replace John Paddock who had been fired in February. After a torrid start under Paddock, the Senators stumbled, leading to his firing at the end of February. Murray, who is not known as being a patient general manager, finished the season behind the bench.

This season, the Senators have had troubles scoring goals, averaging only 2.3 goals/game after finishing 2nd overall offensively last season. Secondary scoring has been a problem all season, as Mike Fisher (3 g, 6 a, 9 points), Antoine Vermette (2 g, 3 a, 5 points) and Nick Foligno (4 g, 4 a, 8 points) haven't been able to get going as they are in a season-long slump. The top pairing of Anton Volchenkov (-10) and Chris Phillips (-12) have been the Sens worst defensive pairing this season despite being a defensive force during the past few years.

Bryan Murray, because of the salary cap, hasn't been able to add a puck-moving defenseman nor a veteran forward to help boost his anemic offense.

And since Bryan Murray will not fire himself because of his inability to make a trade, Craig Hartsburg is the likely scapegoat if the players don't turn things around. They don't seem enticed to play for Hartsburg as their past showings have been dreadful being 1-3-1 in their last five games during which they only managed seven goals while allowing 15 goals.

The recent call-ups of Brian Lee and Ilya Zubov haven't done anything to save this sinking ship.
The Pizza line is not producing anymore. Heatley is pointless in his last four games (-4), Spezza is also pointless in his last four games (-3), while captain Alfredsson only has one goal, an empty netter, during that span.

The Senators still have three games to play before the Christmas hiatus, visiting the Devils and the Flyers, two hot teams, and receiving the Stars, a team on the rise lately.

Should his team cannot manage to earn four points out of six, look for Bryan Murray to pull the trigger and let Craig Hartsburg go after Christmas.

Laviolette fired; Hartsburg might be next

The Carolina Hurricanes have just announced that they have fired head coach Peter Laviolette, who led the team to the 2006 Stanley Cup championship. They have replaced him with former Hurricanes and Maple Leafs head coach Paul Maurice.

Sources say Maurice will remain on as head coach at least until the end of the season, at which point the position will be re-evaluated leaving the Hurricanes the freedom to head in a different direction, or sign Maurice to a long term contract.

The Hurricanes missed the playoffs the last two seasons and are 12-11-2 this season after Sunday's 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The team has called a press conference to announce the news...

The next NHL head coach that might be shown the door is Senators' head coach Craig Hartsburg, and that might be very soon as the Senators are struggling to avoid the league's basement. Tonight the Sens face the Atlanta Thrashers, the only team keeping them from being dead last in the Eastern Conference. A loss against the Thrashers, who lost 5-4 to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, could be the last nail in Hartsburg's coffin.

As I previously stated in a previous blog, Hartsburg is on a short leash since the beginning of November. Ottawa went 4-5-3 in 12 games, scoring only 23 goals (1.92 goals/game). A loss against the cellar-dwelling Thrashers might force GM Bryan Murray to make a coaching change to sparkplug his hapless team.

Senators beat Leafs in shootout

OTTAWA (AP)—The Ottawa Senators kept it simple in a shootout against Vesa Toskala and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Rather than trying to deke the goalie, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson beat Toskala with shots to give Ottawa a 2-1 victory on Thursday night in a game overshadowed by the Maple Leafs reaching a deal with former Anaheim GM Brian Burke.

Spezza scored on the Senators’ first attempt.

“He plays a little deeper than most guys so that was kind of my reasoning behind shooting,” Spezza said.

Alfredsson scored on Ottawa’s third attempt to give the Senators their second straight victory.

“Toskala stood on his head but Auldie’s just been rock solid for us,” Spezza said. “He hasn’t allowed too many goals, his numbers are great, he’s playing with a lot of confidence and he seems to be a guy who’s really seeing the puck well and playing really well for us right now.”

Mike Fisher returned to the Senators’ lineup and opened the scoring early in the first. Kulemin drew Toronto even moments later.

Toskala had a great game as he stopped 34 shots to help the Maple Leafs earn a standings point despite extending their losing streak to five (0-3-2).

Ottawa outshot Toronto 35-26 overall, including a 5-0 margin in overtime as Toskala came up with a pair of big stops on Fisher in the final seconds of the extra period.

The Maple Leafs ended a team-record 17-game stretch without being outshot.

The Senators hadn’t played since their 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday ended a 0-4-2 skid.

Fisher, who missed two games because of a knee injury, got credit for his third goal of the season 3:54 in when his centering pass toward Shean Donovan went into the net off Toronto defenseman Tomas Kaberle’s skate.

Kulemin tied it 59 seconds later when he tapped in Mikhail Grabovski’s pass through the crease for his fourth goal.

Ottawa left wing Dany Heatley showed his frustration after Toskala stopped his slap shot 12 minutes into the middle period when he skated over to the left side and swung his stick, slamming it hard against the boards.

“It was a pretty good chance and I didn’t really get all of it,” Heatley said.

Jason Smith and Dominic Moore dropped the gloves at the end of the second period.

Notes

Maple Leafs RW Andre Deveaux made his NHL debut. Deveaux, recalled from Toronto of the AHL on Wednesday, had six goals and two assists in 13 games with the Marlies this season. … Donovan left the game in the third period because of an upper-body injury. He didn’t return.