It has taken 20 less games for Cory Clouston to win the same number of games that Craig Hartsburg won in 48. That sums up the senators season. This team would have made the playoff if they had played the entire season like they played under CC. As the season winds down. I am more elated than disappointed at the state of things to come.
Say what one may, Eric Karlsson will play with the senators next season and on top of that if we are able to get a top notch forward in free agency or other means I think we'll be back in business next season. If O'Brien or Weirloch can fill that place for us than we won't have to delve in the expensive free agency. We still need to keep the core intact for this team. Murray, Melnyk or anyone else who will make those decisions should not get driven away by the constant criticism of Heatley and Spezza.
It would be great if Heatley is still able to get to the 40 goal mark this season.
He and his Slovakian Twin have roughly the same number of points thats not too bad for a guy playing on a team not making the playoffs.
And we'll finish ahead of the leaves, how good is that?
The Last one:
First of all, salut to the Toronto maple laffs. They have a good group of players there and an excellent coach. Given the minimum resources they had this season and that they are a more than 10 million away from the salary cap, its just amazing how well they have done. If Burke wants to make the playoffs next year itself by getting a few good players then they will be an extremely competitive team.
The two goals that the sens got were just fortunate chances unlike the laffs goals which were all excellent plays. It looked like they gave away the goals on purpose. Leaves seemed eager to get a few goals in early and after that for some reason they eased their foot of the accelerator wilfully. I think this is the reason why they have defeated several top teams this year and then lost against bad teams. And if it is not any clearer I would like to say that they have thrown away games this year just to be able to stay in the running for a high draft pick. And then once again they got a goal early in the 3rd period.
Here is a thought that makes me twist and turn in my sleep: What if Bowmeester signs with the laffs? They have more than enough money to throw at him and Burke likes to go after players like him. Also, I think there is a good chance pronger might end up there too. Bowmeester, Pronger, Schenn, Gustavsson, Toskala DAMN!
Hopefully, Murray will get things done in the off season for us too.
I hate to say this but for the sake of the few true fans they have best of luck to the ego centric Canadiens for the playoff. They didn't finish at 7th as I thought they would, but hey atleast they made it.
A thought:
In order for a team to qualify for the playoffs it has to have atleast a .500 record after adding the Regular time losses and over time losses.
For sens this win-loss record is: 34-44
Sabres: 38-40
Panthers: 38-40
Rangers on 8th spot: 40-39
Apply this on the Western conference and it seems to be that only the 8th place spot is open there as the ducks are 41-39. So they need to win only 1 out of the remaining 3 games to qualify for the playoffs. While to get the 8th place either the predators or the blues will have to win 2 out of 3 remaining games.
2)
I think this applies to last year's standings but not the one before that because it depends on how poorly do the bottom dwellers do.
In 06-07 the B D's really sucked (especially in the western conference) so the number of points required to make the playoffs were higher. This year a larger number of teams were in the running for a longer time so the .500 rule applies.
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