As the 2009 Hall of Fame class was formally inducted into hockey's shrine yesterday, I'm sure I wasn't alone in wondering how different things could have been for Steve Yzerman, the Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators had former Detroit GM Jimmy Devellano pulled the trigger on an infamous deal that never happened.

According to legend, on February 26th, 1996, Detroit's VP and GM, Jimmy Devellano and Ottawa's GM, Pierre Gauthier agreed in principle to a trade that would have seen Chris Osgood and Steve Yzerman dealt to the Senators in exchange for Alexei Yashin, Damian Rhodes and Ottawa's first round picks in 1996 and 1997.

Over the years, there's been a lot of speculation as to why Devellano backed out on the trade. Some theorize that owner, Mike Illitch, vetoed the deal because Yzerman was one of his favorites. Another theory is that Devellano backed out because he only wanted to put a scare into Yzerman using the threat of a trade. At the time, it was well publicized that Head Coach Scotty Bowman was having issues getting Stevie Y to commit to the defensive side of the game. By publicly displaying the possibility that he could be moved, the threat of a trade left Yzerman quite impressionable. Imagine having to be faced with the daunting task of turning a his hometown team, a perennial losing franchise, into a contender.

However, the question remains...what if the Yzerman deal actually occurred?

On the surface, the Jason Spezza, Zdeno Chara and Bill Muckalt for Alexei Yashin fleacejob never happened. Without the 1996 and 1997 first rounders, Marian Hossa and Chris Phillips never would have played for the Senators either. No Hossa. No Heatley. No Milan Michalek. No Jonathan Cheechoo. (Huzzah!) And no 2010 second round pick.

In other words, without Chara and Phillips, the conversation concerning the best Senators defenceman ever would have been limited to Wade Redden, Norm MacIver and Steve Duchesne. Yikes. If that wasn't bad enough, imagine having to go through the rest of your existence as a Sens fan without being able to reference Bill Muckalt's goalless 2001-02 season?

Conversely, had Steve Yzerman been dealt to Ottawa, maybe he never would have made the team sacrifice and developed a solid two-way game. More importantly, without Jason Spezza, fans never would have heard their peers draw parallels between their respective careers.

With the Red Wings, Yzerman won three Stanley Cups (1997, 1998 and 2002). I think it's safe to say that by adding Rhodes and Yashin, these Cup victories never happen. Without three Stanley Cups, Yzerman's legacy is irrevocably altered. Maybe it could have been that he had salvaged Alexandre Daigle's career? While that would have garnered the respect of pundits everywhere, Yzerman wouldn't have received a ring for that. Maybe the key to the City but definitely nothing as cool as a Stanley Cup ring. More importantly, my website would be without a sweet punchline for its banner.

Had Yzerman arrived in Ottawa, I don't think there's any question that management would have immediately given him the captaincy. (Along the same lines as the Canucks giving Mark Messier the honours when he signed there as a free agent.) Now, assuming that Yzerman retired after the 2005-06 campaign, Daniel Alfredsson would only be enjoying only his fourth season of captaincy. Weird.

But what about Osgood? Had he come to Ottawa, there's no question that playing behind the safety blanket of the Detroit Red Wings, his career numbers would no longer be skewed and writers would not be discussing the merits of whether or not Osgood is a Hall of Famer. However, with Chris Osgood enjoying the prime of his career in Ottawa, the Senators never would have had the need for Patrick Lalime so those infamous Joe Nieuwendyk goals never would have happened. It'd be quite the tradeoff, striking the Nieuwendyk goals off of the pages of the franchise's history book but having to endure years of looking at Chris Osgood's ugly bucket helmet. Would it be worth it?

In retrospect, it's fun to discuss what could have been had Yzerman been dealt here. Sure, maybe Ottawa would never have developed its label as a playoff choker.  Or maybe Yzerman would have wilted under the hometown pressure and bombed like Mark Messier did for the Canucks. The only real conclusive thing that I can say is that had Stevie Y played here, he'd have a better chance at succeeding Bryan Murray as GM.

Senators 4, Oilers 3

Poor Ladislav Smid. Had Heatley not vetoed a trade to Edmonton, Smid might never have contracted the swine flu. In a game that will likely be billed as the Battle of the Diminished Heatley Returns (TM), Cogliano, Penner, Smid and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers arrive in Ottawa with some significant injuries and an abysmal road record (2-5-0). Even though they are coming off a victory that handed the Colorado Avalanche their first home loss, the Oilers will still be without stars Ales Hemsky and Sheldon Souray. In order for Ottawa to win, they have to play a more disciplined game and for everyone's sake, I hope that Cheechoo and Michalek outshine their counterparts so that we're spared from some more revisionist anti-Heatley commentary.

To view the rest of the Ottawa Citizen's panel predictions, click here.

Bryan Murray Looking to Deal:

“We have to make a tweak if we can,” Murray said Monday before heading to Toronto, where the National Hockey League’s 30 general managers are meeting this week to discuss head shots, rule changes, equipment standards and maybe a deal or two.

“Very definitely, we have to find a way to get at least one more player here,” he said, acknowledging that player would probably be another forward. “I’m certainly going to investigate as we go forward here to see if there’s anything more we can do, and at some point we’ll figure out if we need to make a change.” ~ courtesy of James Gordon, The Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa's forward ranks are already congested as is. God help us if Bryan Murray acquires another forward and buries Shean Donovan a little deeper down the depth chart. If there's a deal to be made, hopefully it involves a situation in which Bryan Murray can upgrade Jonathan Cheechoo. Unfortunately, based on the standings right now, the only team that's out of the playoff race are the Carolina Hurricanes. I'm not sure if old, expensive players like Rod Brind'Amour ($3.6M cap hit for this and next season) or Ray Whitney ($3.55 for just this year, but protected by a NTC) are appealing to Sens fans. However, if Carolina's not asking for much and Ottawa can move Cheechoo or Kelly's contract, maybe it's something worth considering.

Watch Out For Oilers Fans

One of Silver Seven Sens' sister sites doesn't understand why Sens fans would take issue with Dustin Penner thinking that Sens fans would prefer the Edmonton deal to the San Jose Heatley deal and are redirecting traffic here to check it out. Thanks for the hits fellas.

If it wasn't easy enough to dislike Dustin Penner after his Anaheim Ducks beat the Senators in the 2007 Cup Finals, it might be a little easier to hate on the guy after he dropped these lines to some Edmonton journalists...

“There’s really not much to say about the situation,” Penner said. “I don’t think there’ll be much for you guys to write about when we get there.”

Not unless he has another breakout game showing to Ottawa fans what they missed out on.

“I guess that would be good,” he said. “But with the way the season has gone so far, I think they might be thinking that anyway.”~ Sun Media

Dustin Penner is one smug fuck. The way he's been talking, you'd think he was always this fit and productive. Truth is, sans these past 17 games, he's done sweet fuck all for the Oilers and was generally regarded as an overweight salary dump in the prospective Heatley deal. (Well, unless you're pro-Bryan Murray and consider him a genius for having the foresight to try and acquire the previously struggling Penner.)

Dustin, you may think you're hot shit right now and granted, you're playing pretty well. Truth is, I'd rather have Milan Michalek because he's a better player and a little bit less of a douche.

Oh, and if someone would casually remind Jonathan Cheechoo that tomorrow night would be a really good time to start producing, that'd be awesome.

If you're going to the Sens game tomorrow, do the guys a favour and support the San Jose return. Michalek's Anonymous unite!

A recent Ken Warren piece for the Ottawa Citizen had a headline that read, Alfredsson misses practice as Volchenkov has injury setback. A headline that at first glance, would have Sens fans collectively yelling profanities at their computer screens. Here's the gist of the article:

Daniel Alfredsson missed Ottawa Senators practice on Monday, but coach Cory Clouston says it was only for “maintenance," meaning the captain is expected to be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s game at Scotiabank Place against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Senators, who blew a 2-0 lead before dropping a 3-2 decision to the New Jersey Devils Saturday, will be without defenceman Anton Volchenkov for the fifth straight game.

Volchenkov is out with an elbow injury and skated on his own Tuesday. Clouston, however, suggested his recovery could be longer than originally expected because he was experiencing difficulty shooting.

Note to Clouston, Volchenkov experiences difficulty shooting the puck even when he's healthy. If his ability to shoot is the barometer, maybe he's closer to a return than some are giving him credit for.

Kovalev Fantasy News

Apparently I'm not the only one who's noticed that Kovalev's not shooting enough. ESPN's fantasy hockey guru, Sean Allen, noticed that Alexei Kovalev is not fitting in with the Ottawa Senators. He is on pace for just 129 shots on goal this season after averaging more than 200 as a Montreal Canadien. Yes, I do think he is droppable in shallow leagues.

A blown 2-goal lead, undisciplined play, and a deflating game-tying goal allowed by Pascal Leclaire were the lowlights of a game that Ottawa had dominated for the better portion of the first two periods. Last night's loss was the kind of game that drives most fans nuts and drives sensationalist fans to post drivel using interweb forums, newspaper comment spaces, and or start masquerading as Leafs fans.

There's been a distinct trend with the way the Senators have played lately, win one game, piss away the next game or two. It's been this way since the Nashville and Boston games and fans are ready and willing to lay the blame anywhere. To assist in my point making, I'm going to reference the Have Your Say comment thread over at the Ottawa Sun's website to gauge the response to last night's loss to the New Jersey Devils. As always, my comments will be in bold.

Why oh why do they keep making Shean Donovan a healthy scratch? He's the only one on the team who plays at full potential all the time. He adds energy to the team when they need it the most. ~ Mike in Nepean

I may be going out on a whim when I say this, but it likely has something to do with Donovan having the least amount of talent on the team.

Bryan Murray and his GM wanna be nephew are responsible for destroying this team. I am lost for words lately about the Sens, once a power house, no more. Murray is building the team for a cup run in 2017, not now or any time soon. Yah, Mucklar gave away high end draft picks, but built the team to win then not 5 years later. Bad move by Melnyk to fire Mucklar. Should of kept Murray as the coach and the rest is hstory. Murray and side kick Bob must pay for the Kovalev signing, this will go down as the worst Sens signing or NHL signing in history. And not signing Mike Comrie for a million bucks still disturbs me. Fire Murray now before he destroys the team any further. ~ Bob the short-sighted fucking idiot

Bob's at a loss for words, consonents and vowels. He's also a short-sighted fucking idiot who can't see the irreparable damage that John Muckler created during his tenure here. Muckler didn't build the Senators to win. He sat on a roster that was assembled by his predecessor, Marshall Johnston and got lucky.

Can everybody just RELAX!! The first half of last night's game, the Sens looked fantastic (except, of course, for Kovalev); yes this team needs to ratchet up the intensity and learn how to close out a game, but this is also a team that has 4 effective lines and a better D than they are credited with. Kovalev? I said it was a mistake when they signed him, but in my most pessimistic moment even I didn't imagine he would be this bad...he's embarrassing himself and, more importantly, he's embarrassing the organization. Sit him down for a week...do something...do anything! ~ John

Everybody relax! It's not the team's fault. It's only Alexei Kovalev's fault that the team isn't playing well! It's his fault that the third and fourth line pluggers took some undisciplined penalties and it's his fault that Leclaire let in a soft equalizer. But of course, we should have known that Kovalev would be mediocre through 14 games because John predicted it! Pat yourself on the back John. You deserve it, you all knowing SOB. (Editor's note: Would people fuck off with this Kovalev was a bad signing shit until the season's at least half over. Granted, he's not playing very well right now. However, we knew what he was when he signed here. 50-60 points and some half assed efforts. Considering the shitty free agent classes last summer and this upcoming summer, there's not that much inherent risk in signing Kovalev if he reaches his projected point totals. Besides, Ottawa's not exactly brimming with offensive prospects, and secondary scoring was an issue last year. Imagine if Murray never signed Kovalev and the team had to cope by rolling Cheechoo and Shannon on the second line every night? Fans would be fucking outraged.)

The reality is Ottawa clearly has a toxic relationship with the NHL officials and its hurting us. We need to start showing a lot more respect even when we disagree with the calls. Ottawa should immediately create a new team policy that only the coach, captain, and assistant captains will speak to the refs and linesmen about the officiating. No more arm waving, pained looks, or yells from the bench. They need to show respect. Refs are human and they have big egos. The few players we allow to talk to the refs must always do so in a calm respectful manner. The bruised egos of the refs from our whining is costing us a 60/40 disadvantage in PP vs PK. We are being called by the letter of the law and the visitor gets the benefit of the doubt. ~ Benjamin

Benjamin, your 60/40 disadvantage in PP vs PK statistic is the most unsubstantiated thing I've read on the Sun's website since Evgeni Malkin was rumoured to be dealt to the Los Angeles Kings.

I didn't think leclaire was going to be a savior but I thought he might be able to hold on to a two goal lead. He let in two goals last night that should have been stopped had he concentrated a bit more. I think we made a mistake by letting Alex Auld get away to bring in a goalie who was a flash in the pan for one year. Is this another nail in the coffin for Brian Murray? (Ed. note: It's amazing how many locals don't know how to spell Bryan Murray.) The sens keep working on the power-play in practice and are not getting much success during game time, they should be practicing what it takes to hold on to a lead (review tapes of games when Martin was coaching) we didn't lose many after we had a lead in the second period. Getting p-off now, Ray. ~ Ray Routhier

Okay, isn't it a bit naive to assume that Pascal Leclaire will be a savior when Ottawa's defence is characterized by three #3 defencemen and three 6th d-men? How do you even evaluate Leclaire properly when Kuba and Volchenkov have already missed significant time due to injury? Or better yet, how do you favour Alex Auld over a "flash in the pan" Leclaire? The only footnote in Auld's career was that he was dealt in the infamously lopsided Roberto Luongo trade.

Sign Brendan Shanahan. Bottom Line. He'll bring ACCOUNTABILTY, GRIT, AND DETERMINATION. Something this team lacks. Plus the two stanley cup rings, leadership, and pure heart to the locker room. Why the Sens are sitting on the fence on this guy is beyond me. He's the Gary Roberts type player we always try and look for mid season. Well he's sitting at home Murray, call him. And he'll light a fire under Kovalev's ass. Kovalev is the worst signing in Sens history. Murray baffles me, we could of signed Comrie for 1.1 mil and he passed on him too. You are ruining this team with quality, good guy, home town players. So frustrated right now, I feel like starting a protest outside SBP Place. ~ Todd

Please don't sign Shanahan Bryan Murray. He's old, slow and more one-dimensional than Alexei Kovalev. The game's passed him by. I don't know who Martin Gerber is, because I'm a sensationalist fan and I've deemed that through fourteen games, Kovalev is the worst. Give me a good ol' Canadian lad instead, like Mike Comrie because I'm a revisionist and think that Comrie is the bomb.

I'm not going to say that the Senators didn't deserve any of the penalties that they received, as that would be an outright lie. However, my gripe is with the consistency of the officiating. There were numerous occurences of New Jersey Devils players taking liberties with Senators players. I watched as New Jersey players were able to clutch, grab and interefere with Senators players who didn't even have the puck. If they are going to call those hooking, holding and interference penalties on the Senators, then they should be calling them on the Devils too. This season has been a complete joke, as far as the officiating is concerned. ~ Morris Levy

That last comment should read, Morris Levy smartest Sun reader ever.

Mario, what are you talking about?

I read through these comments and they're all pretty reasonable.
Here's a solution:

If you can't handle an UNMODERATED FORUM, don't read it! There are a ton of moderated arenas out there, such as hfboards, sensnetwork.com, the6thsens, forumice where you can get your hockey discussions on.

I know you mean well, but with Team 1200 (especially the afternoon show) basically with their lips connected to the organization's backsides and with Garrioch the only one in print media daring to challenge common perception, I welcome free flow of opinions, however irate and silly. ~ Steve in North Gower

A free plug on the Ottawa Sun website? Thanks Steve in North Gower! (Ed. note: In the future, please don't encourage dumb Ottawa Sun readers like Ray, Bob and Todd to visit this site. They may be overwhelmed.)

Lack of discipline tied to a lack of focus leads to another home loss.
It's often been whispered that the players run the show in the Ottawa Senators organization and nowhere was that more evident than last night.

Neil attacks a New Jersey player that was getting ready for a faceoff, an extremely selfish and show-boating move.
A marginal Carkner puts the team down a defenseman early on the game, leading to subsequent penalty trouble.

Clouston, the man-boy, will sit on his hands through it all. He is afraid, timid and unable to stand up to the Senatorium Country Club dressing room. Meanwhile, Murray looks confused that the low-talent pluggers and overpaid Kovalev and Cheechoo don't produce.

Will be a struggle to make the playoffs... ~ Greg

I'm with Greg. That early Matt Carkner penalty opened the floodgates to undisciplined play. (Ed. note: Sarcasm was intended here. Lots of it.)

According to Erin Valois of the National Post, Dany Heatley's McDonald's trading cards feature Dany not in a Sharks uniform, but a Senators one. By buggering up Heatley's photos, it's a nice homage to ruin his trade card value man when his trade value was reduced to nothing this past summer. I can only imagine the disappointment of some fat, disillusioned San Jose fan who spends his allowance buying 15 Big Macs a week only to find out that his favorite player isn't featured in a Sharks jersey.

"Chris Neil Isn't the Cleanest Player."

“He’s not the cleanest player,” said Downie (who admitted he didn’t see the hit), “and he’s always preaching about dirtiness every time we play them, calling players gutless. Then he does something like that. He’s got to look in the mirror.”

“I’m not even going to take that on,” said Neil. “Every time we drop the gloves, he says ‘I don’t want to fight.’ At least he showed up (Thursday night).”

Of the hit, Neil said: “I was coming in to take the boards away and had some good jump. He bobbled the puck at the last second and I don’t think he saw me coming at all. It was a shoulder right in his chest. He’s eight feet tall, so it’s not like you could hit him in the head.” ~ Chris Stevenson, The Ottawa Sun

Good on Chris Neil for not taking his miscommunication with Steve Downie to the next level. This is reason #201 why I could never be a professional hockey player. Emotions would get the better of me. If I were Neil and had to respond to that question, I would have been too tempted to respond with the use of flash cards, or sign language. (For the record, Downie's partially deaf in his right ear.)

Winchester In, Shannon and Donovan Out

It will be interesting to see how Winchester is utilized by Clouston tonight. There's no question that Ottawa needs to be more successful on faceoffs and the return of Winchester and Spezza should help. With Shannon and Donovan back out of the lineup, it may be time to put Jonathan Cheechoo on healthy scratch notice.

Conveniently, I was listen to Over the Edge yesterday for the first time in weeks and Glenn Kulka was mentioning how when Cheechoo was in his prime, he was doing more than just scoring, he had a good work ethic and prided himself on being a bit of a physical presence. It's a fair point, however, it's worth considering that Cheechoo's injuries have hampered his skating ability to the point wherein he makes Shaun Van Allen look like Scott Niedermayer.

It's too bad, Cheechoo is a person and story that I want to root for. There's no question he could be an effective player but his skating ability is so debilitating that he can no longer keep up with the play or be effective in his puck pursuit.

Game Prediction

I was out and away from the computer yesterday and was unable to get my game prediction in to James Gordon of the Ottawa Citizen in time for today's prediction panel. Regardless, here's what I'm feeling...

3-2 Ottawa

When's the last time the Senators played a team that wasn't from the Southeast Division? Between days off and numerous games against the Tampa Lightning, the thought of playing a new opponent is refreshing. (Even if it is the Devils.) Speaking of the Devils, they played and beat the Isles last night 2-1. Even though Brodeur will likely play, the Devils aren't a high scoring team and I like how the Senators are anxious to play more and get on a bit of a roll. Brodeur keeps it close but Ottawa should win this one.

Bruce Garrioch Slings Mud At Someone

Volchenkov's agent says reports of contract talks are "a total frabication." ~ SunGarrioch

You mean these reports?

Senators 2, Lightning 1

For already the third time this season, these two teams will meet. Besides a game featuring two offensive stars who are struggling to find their touches (Kovalev, Lecavalier), there's still some bad blood brewing from the last meeting. In fact, the only thing that I'd be willing to guarantee is that either Matt Carkner or Chris Neil will engage in some post-fight showboating. Since the first two meetings were blowout victories (with each team having won a game), I think that a tightly contested game is probably overdue here. Volchenkov and Spezza are still on the shelf, so Pascal Leclaire needs to have a bounce back game after recently seeing his save percentage dip below .900.

Line Combos:

According to TSN's Brent Wallace, here are the lines at practice.

Michalek - Spezza - Alfie

Shannon - Fisher - Kovalev

Foligno - Regin - Neil

Ruutu - Kelly - Cheechoo

While it's great that Spezza's skating at practice and might play tonight, it a quote like this that makes you say yeeeeeesh.

“It’s a matter of whether more time off is going to help,” he said. “If they think that more time off would cure me, then I’ll take more time off and make sure I’m 100%. I don’t know how much better it’s going to get. It might get better by playing and getting stronger that way, we’ll see.”

Alfredsson Isn't a Hypochondriac

The Senators captain's inclination is not to get vaccinated, and for now he says he isn't close to changing his mind.

But a letter he just received from the Swedish Olympic Committee could sway him.

"They said they would like everyone to have the vaccine before the Olympics," Alfredsson said on Wednesday. ~ Allen Panzeri, The Ottawa Citizen

Live Game Blog:

If you're interested in checking out or participating in a live game blog of tonight's game, then come back here tonight. Bring the wit, bring the humour. Thanks to Dany Heatley Speedwagon of Scarlett Ice for hosting.

After Ottawa had started the season at a torrid pace, recent losses to Tampa and Atlanta have helped return the Senators back to the middle of the Eastern Conference standings. While there's an old adage in sports that says good teams are able to overcome long odds and find ways to win, Ottawa's been unable to overcome the concurrent absences of their best defenceman, center and goalie.

Fortunately for the organization, Pascal Leclaire has already returned to the lineup after his bout with the flu and Jason Spezza has returned back to practice with the club. Anton Volchenkov will be out for another ten to fourteen days, but the prognosis is a lot better than the originally projected four to six weeks. As each of these players makes their way back into the lineup, I reason that the Senators can return to the levels of success that they had achieved early on.

Why?

Because of Cory Clouston's system.By employing an aggressive forechecking system that encourages puck pursuit, the Senators' forwards are doing an exceptional job of pressuring the puck early, forcing defencemen into making poor reads and decisions that often result in turnovers in the neutral zone. The proof is in the giveaway and takeaway numbers exhibited by the Ottawa forwards.

Here's a list of the forwards and their numbers. The first number will indicate their number of giveaways and the second number will represent their takeaways. All stats are courtesy of NHL.com.

• Daniel Alfredsson: 8, 11
• Jonathan Cheechoo: 5, 5
• Mike Fisher: 4, 7
• Nick Foligno: 1, 10
• Chris Kelly: 4, 3
• Alexei Kovalev: 8, 2
• Milan Michalek: 1, 9
• Chris Neil: 1, 6
• Jarkko Ruutu: 0, 5
• Jason Spezza: 9, 12
• Shean Donovan: 1, 0
• Peter Regin: 3, 4
• Ryan Shannon: 1, 3
• Total: 46 Giveaways, 77 Takeaways

I'm not saying these statistics are the be all and end all of defensive statistics, however, I think there's a lot to be said for the aforementioned results. Albeit, it's still early but there is some statistical progression that's reflective of Jason Spezza's improvement as a defensive player. By comparison, in 2007-08, he had 96 giveways and 44 takeaways. And in 2008-09, he had a ratio of 81-73. If he keeps up his current pace, he'll have his first positive turnover differential ever as a player.

While Kovalev's struggles to find his offensive niche, he'll have to do a little bit more on the defensive side of the puck to rid himself of his stereotypical Russian image. Mind you, he wasn't brought in here to reduce the number of goals scored against the club.

Michalek and Foligno are beasts who have combined for 20 takeaways and 2 giveaways.

Regardless of how much Gord Wilson smatters Chris Kelly's hockey IQ, Kelly has to improve. For a checking line center pulling down the kind of coin that he does, he needs to be more consistent and drastically improve upon his 38% success rate on faceoffs.

Now if only Clouston could fix the power play...