So Eugene Melnyk has joined Twitter (@melnykeugene). The Ottawa Senators organization has confirmed Melnyk's presence on the social networking tool, but I won't believe it's truly him until Twitter's forensic investigators validate his presence themselves.

It's a great day for those who always looking forward to hearing what the Sens' unabashed owner has to say. And now that he has the freedom and access to a completely uncensored medium, he introduced himself to the Twittersphere by writing: 

I’m finally on Twitter - thanks for the push guys! #PeskySens open tonight, can’t wait! #GoSensGo!

— Eugene Melnyk (@MelnykEugene) May 2, 2013

How PG.

Now whether it's really him sending out tweets or some button pushing lackey whose existence and purpose it is to translate Euge's ramblings into some coherent and politically correct 140-characters or less blurbs, we'll never know...

...Unless! 

Here are your top ten ways to validate whether it's really Eugene Melnyk operating his Twitter account: 

1. His second Tweet is, "I must be the only person in the world who believes this is going to end well."
2. He uses Twitter to aggressively push his nasal spray orgasm drug.
3. He forgot to turn off his email notifications informing of his new Twitter followers and openly complains about this somehow being Matt Cooke's fault.
4. CIT Financial Ltd keeps sending him tweets thanking him for repaying their clients.
5. Alfie has blocked him.
6. After every loss, he feels compelled to send pep tweets to his players.
7. He keeps Tweeting @fadoobobcat asking when he can come back on his program.
8. A #hotdogsareimportant hashtag starts trending in Ottawa.
9. After every embarrassing interview he gives on the Fan 590, he tweets, "Remember the time I saved this franchise from bankruptcy and brought the Eagles to town?" 
10. He keeps sending "You should have been a Senator" tweets to @GaryRobertsHPT.

To kick off the week following Sunday's win over the Boston Bruins, Senators GM Bryan Murray made an appearance on yesterday afternoon's edition of The Drive.

During the course of the interview, Murray discussed a variety of topics including: Spezza's health, avoiding the Penguins, Chris Neil's fight with Milan Lucic, and their first-round playoff opponents.I

if you wish to listen to the full interview you can do so here, or via streaming the embedded audio below.

As always, my thoughts in bold.

When one victory meant the difference in facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs versus either the Boston Bruins or the Montreal Canadiens, the Sens concluded their 2013 shortened season by coming away with a much needed regulation win.

That’s not meant to underscore the threat that either the Habs or Bruins pose to Ottawa’s chances of advancing to the next round, it’s simply an assessment of how much better the Penguins are relative to the rest of the Eastern Conference. (As an aside, facing Montreal is a nice change of pace from years past. Not only do the Habs/Sens matchups lack the vitriol that we’ve grown accustomed to with our cities in close geographic proximity, I’m sick of seeing the Penguins every second year; even if this Montreal matchup just delays meeting the Pens until the second round.)

This is just quick post, but here's two examples of Pageau using the boards to buy himself time and space.

First is from his NHL debut at Philadelphia, out protecting a one-goal lead in the dying minutes:

Denis's on the home team, but that sounded a genuine "WOW" to me, pretty sure I said the same thing watching it live. As a coach you couldn't ask for more ruthless efficiency in that situation.

Second is the last game at Washington:

The boards are your friend. A quick chip, curl and pass back to the point creates a pretty dangerous Gonchar one-timer.

These are small things in the grand scheme of a game, but a less intelligent player might of been stripped of the puck in the defensive zone or turned it over at the offensive blue-line trying to deke the defender. 

Did I mention he's crushing the possession game, playing tough minutes, over 50% on faceoffs, and starts in the defensive zone more than anyone else on team?

Kid is good.

In the aftermath of Monday night’s loss to the Penguins, Sun columnist Don Brennan concluded a column by asking the question,“Is the honeymoon with Cory Conacher over already?”

I have no idea what prompted Brennan to pose the query, it could have been a word quota, but a glance at Conacher’s numbers from Monday -- 12:48 in ice-time, one shot, two hits and a giveaway -- were nothing to write home about.

Taken one step further, Conacher has had 2 goals and 4 points in the 9 games that followed his trade from Tampa Bay. During this stretch of time, he’s averaging about 13:34 in ice-time per game and the diminutive forward is thirteenth on the team in shots on goal with 14.

On the surface, these numbers are modest, but he is tied for the team lead in goals and points during this period.

A more apt question could have been, “what the hell do people expect?”

Much was made at the time of the trade of how there were some points of concern at the time of his acquisition.

Having tallied 5 goals and 12 points, Conacher scored on approximately 41.7% of his shots through the first 7 games of the season. There’s no question Conacher benefited like other players on two-way contracts from spending the early portion of the year in the AHL while other NHL players were locked out. Spending a significant portion of the early season flanking Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis probably didn't hurt either.

Here’s a breakdown down Conacher’s into rookie season into three sections: first seven games, remainder of season in Tampa and then his time with Ottawa:

Erik Karlsson will play tonight against the Washington Capitals. #TheReturn

— Ottawa Senators (@NHL_Sens) April 25, 2013

71 days after a 70% laceration of his Achilles and #65 is back in the lineup somewhow.

Are we invigorated, hopeful, concerned, awed, and slaves to a cult of personality?

Yes all those things, listed here in song form.

a) Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack

Maybe this mid-90's R&B classic captures your mood?