The Ottawa Senators have not started the way general manager Bryan Murray and the fans of Ottawa had expected and anticipated after an improved end to their 2009-10 season. To the date the Senators sit 24th in the league, through 7 games they are 2-5-1. The signing of Sergei Gonachar was namely the turnaround the fans were excited about, but not even he has had an impactful season. Though he sits third on the team in points (4 assists), the results level the team is searching for has not been sufficient.
Seemingly the only players playing great this year have been Alfredsson and Leclaire. Captain Daniel Alfredsson, who has 4 goals and 4 assists through 7 games, tallied his 1,000 point Friday in a must-win victory over the Sabres. The other strong performer would be goaltender Pascal Leclaire, who went down with a groin injury on the 17th, and has yet to get back onto the ice.
"It's up to all of us, this is a team," Murray told reporters. "It's not the coaches or players only, it's me doing anything I can."
Bryan Murray well have already had enough, as he has admitted to changing things up in terms of the roster for something that will get his team wins. This is not the first time the word ‘trade’ has come out of his mouth.
"I've talked to a number of people, as I said," Murray said. "I talked to (Minnesota Wild general manager) Chuck Fletcher for a long time yesterday and said, 'can I help you, you help me' type of thing, so we're talking to management of other teams, trying to find if there is a need and possibility of making a move."
"That's not always a solution, but maybe it sends a little message to our players," Murray said.
The team has made a move (though not a trade) by sending defenseman Zack Smith to Binghamton of the AHL and calling up defenseman David Hale. Murray has admitted to the fact that the blueline is of most concern, not really having got the job done in front of their goaltenders.
"I think that we have a couple of young guys on the blueline who have really struggled to play their game and I think that it has become contagious," Murray said. "I can't say that one of our ‘D' have played to where I thought they would be."
Murray was also quick to fire off on Alex Kovalev, having cited the difference between his descent pre-season showing and the regular one in which he has been relegated to an assists and a -4 rating.
"Not very good," Murray told reporters on Wednesday when asked about the Russian sniper’s play thus far. "It looks like his skating isn't where it was last year. I think there's lingering effects maybe from the surgery he had. I'm hoping that's part of it and, as time goes on, he gets going."
After his signing of two years worth 10 million in July of 2009, Kovalev has only tallied 18 goals and 32 assists for 50 points through 84 total games, with a -12 rating.
In practice last week, Kovalev had even been shuffled down to the fourth line with Jesse Winchester and Ryan Shannon. 37 year-old Kovalev is fully aware of his lack of production through the season so far, but isn’t on board with all of Bob Murrays assessment of his play."Last year, people were talking about me not skating, either, so I don't know where is the truth," Kovalev said. "Last year or this year? I'm skating better than last year. Me, personally, that's the way I feel."
"I'm working and trying to get better," Kovalev said. "It's not always working the way you want, but I'm going to just keep trying and things will start working. It's the same thing for our team. "There's ups and downs during the season. Hopefully, that down part is happening now."
While it’s not impossible he turns it on, the fact of the matter is Kovalev hasn’t been Kovalev for a while now. In order to get this team in gear a trade is most likely the best answer.
Jason Spezza has taken enough heat in Ottawa in recent years mainly for his defensive flaws. The Senators are guilty of having too many offensively minded forwards, and not enough defensively minded forwards. There are only six players on this roster that do not have a minus rating.
Kovalev’s 5 million cap hit won’t make dealing the veteran to just any team an easy task, which between the cap factor and the performance factor, the Sens may have to sweeten the deal. Although there likely aren’t too many untouchables through the roster, names likely Chris Campoli, Chris Kelly, and Jarkko Rututu come to mind.
The Senators have a strange feel to them this season, but with a little re-tooling the Sens could be turned around into an obvious playoff-making club this season and Murray knows it. Stay tuned to see if Murray puts his words into action.
- Kendall Grubbs
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