With the Senators continuing to pile up points, it was inevitable that the Euge would be making another Fan 590 radio appearance. So grab your Kool-Aid, and grab your Barbados rum, and mix yourself a Huge Euge so you can fully enjoy the crazy shit that went down when he joined Bob McCown and John Shannon today on Prime Time Sports.

Below is a transcription of what was said, but if you want to listen to the interview itself, you can: watch it above; listen to the whole thing on the Fan 590 website; or you can stream it at the bottom of this post.

As always, my comments will be in bold.

I think it's safe to say that if David Dziurzynski had not been knocked out March 6 vs Toronto, Kaspars Daugavins would not have been waived yesterday. But instead we saw a reactionary trade for Matt Kassian, and a useful depth player waived and then claimed by a superior team.

AJ Jakubec suggested yesterday afternoon the waiving stemmed from a complaint about playing time:

Kaspars Daugavins wasn't happy as a healthy scratch and those sentiments were expressed to the Sens brass. He'll get plenty of ice in Bingo.

— AJ Jakubec (@AJonSports) March 26, 2013

Prior to the Kassian trade, Daugavins played in 17/26 games, since the trade he'd played in 2/7.

Essentially Daugavins was being scratched for a guy who plays 5 minutes a night and seldom sees the ice in the third period.

Now Kaspars is not a noted scorer in the NHL, but he is a a great penalty killer (2:07 shorthanded TOI per game, only Condra among forwards is higher) and was performing well at even-strength as this player usage chart shows.

Putting up 14 shots at home is never going to help you with a metric dependent on shot attempts. So while last night's game was particularly poor and not really representative, the trend of the graph is clear.

With Karlsson the Senators were taking 53.0% of the shot attempts in score close situations, the past 19 games without Karlsson they've been taking 47.5%. League wide they've fallen from 7th to 18th.

Replace an Erik Karlsson with an Eric Gryba and your team is going to have the puck a lot less.

I'm not predicting doom and gloom for the team, they're comfortably in a playoff position and their schedule down the stretch isn't exactly filled with world beaters. That MacLean has held things together with this roster and continued to bank points is a huge credit to him, and the goaltending.

But once they're in the postseason I'd certainly like their chances better if they were the team more than not putting up the most shots. A healthy Spezza will help in this department (obvious statement is obvious), so we just have to hope he's Spezza when he returns...and not something else. I'd be cool with similar form to Havlat after he missed the bulk of the 05/06 season.

#Sens to place Kaspars Daugavins on waivers today

— Jay Grossman (@Jay_Grossman) March 26, 2013

For those of you who are familiar with our podcasts, you'll know that Jay Grossman is Kaspars Daugavins' agent.

The timing of the news is some level isn't that surprising considering Daugavins essentially played one of his best games of the season last week versus the Bruins and was subsequently scratched for the past two games that followed. 

It's no secret that Ottawa has battled injuries all season and other callups have proven themselves to be NHL-calibre players. At some point you knew that the numbers game would get congested in Ottawa. I mean, Spezza and Michalek are sidelined and the Senators still have 14 forwards (including the Dogman) who have demonstrated that they can play or fill a specific role. 

Being a fourth line/penalty killing specialist who was on an inexpensive one-way deal, Daugavins could possibly be on the outside looking in. Whether it was now or weeks or months, Daugavins, despite how well-liked he was by teammates or the fans, was eventually going to fall victim to the number's game. Fortunately for him, he proved that he could be an effective depth guy/placeholder in the interim. 

I sincerely hope that he land on his feet and that another organization throws him a bone.

Having participated in yesterday’s charitable NHL All-Star alumni vs Montreal Canadiens alumni game, former Senator Alexei Kovalev expressed difficulty coming to terms with the realization that his NHL career is over.

Maybe like the rest of us, he is surprised that it didn’t end at the conclusion of the 2010/11 season.

Alas, Kovalev seems to be caught up second guessing his career decisions.

“At this point, you can say I made a bad decision going to Ottawa instead of staying in Montreal (after the 2008-09 season, where he signed a two-year deal with the Senators as a free agent on July 6, 2009),” he said. “Maybe I would still be playing here.”

Yes, you should have stayed in Montreal – that same organization that forced you to sit during the 08/09 season when your play left something to be desired. Instead, you chased the money that offseason to Ottawa, an organization that was desperately trying to spin some positive PR in the wake of Heatley's trade demand.

All this really shouldn't be surprising, as Kovalev's comments two days after signing in Ottawa were something less than enthusiastic:

"I didn't really have any options, choices."

Indeed.