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Sadly, there isn’t too much to talk about this week, but I did my best to have a few thoughts for this weeks Think Tank:
Ramping up the coach hiring process
According to Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa’s search for a new head coach has heated up this week:
“While league sources confirmed Wednesday Dorion has received permission to speak with Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach Jacques Martin, the indications are the Senators also plan to sit down with Providence coach Nate Leaman, who is considered by some to be one of the top bench bosses outside the NHL.
The belief is the Senators want to speak with five or six candidates before deciding on whether to do a second round of interviews. Former St. Louis coach Mike Yeo was a finalist when the Senators hired Boucher in 2016, while Montreal assistant Dominque Ducharme has also been mentioned as a possibility.”
Garrioch seems to think that Leaman could be a good fit:
“The 46-year-old Leaman won a national championship with the Friars in 2015 and recently took his team to the Frozen Four held at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo earlier this month. Those who know Leaman believe he might be a good fit for the Senators because the organization is young and he’s coming from the college ranks.
The young players like and respect him. Leaman has been behind the bench for eight seasons with Providence and also helped build up the Union program for eight seasons before moving to the Friars. He is 314-228-73 in 16 seasons behind NCAA benches.”
Leaman is certainly an interesting name, and he just might be the right kind of coach to help in a rebuild. If anything, I’d be more inclined to give him a shot instead of going back to the old well with Marc Crawford, Mike Yeo, or Jacques Martin, just because they might strike gold with Leaman, whereas the aforementioned three probably have a higher floor but lower ceiling. I’m sure we will be hearing much more buzz around Leaman over the next few weeks, especially because if Garrioch mentioned him, there’s a pretty good chance that he is well-liked within the organization.
Upsets galore
Wow. I’m sure you’ve read this already (or figured it out), but all four division winners are out after the first round, with the wildcards advancing to the second round. In fact, the only higher seeds to advance were the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders, and the Islanders weren’t even really treated as the higher seed coming into the series anyway. The playoffs have been so unpredictable, and my bracket can attest to that since I somehow only predicted 2/8 series correctly---the Blues and the Hurricanes.
Now what we’ve got left is only two teams I’d say (Sharks and Bruins) who we frequently see deep in the playoffs, and the rest are quite unfamiliar, besides perhaps the Blues to an extent. The upsets have made things interesting, and I have no idea how to predict the rest of the series because I’ve lost any confidence I previously had in my picks.
Witnessing greatness
With all of these upsets, we’re seeing something truly amazing this year. The top seeds from each Conference have
never simultaneously been eliminated in the first round, let alone the other two division winners. It’s not just the upsets that have made things incredibly entertaining, although that is certainly a big reason why. But the games have been so great too, with game 7 between the Sharks and Golden Knights being the ultimate example of that. I was unfortunately out of the house for the third period and overtime during that game, but that is a game that will be talked about for years, and probably even decades. The fact that it was a game 7 makes it so much better, plus Ottawa fans will always remember Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson in the middle of that battle. That series was outstanding from beginning to end.
Even in the two sweeps, the games had plenty of action and intrigue, so it’s not as if any series has really been boring. Sometimes the later rounds disappoint after a great first round, so that might happen this year again. However, if that does happen, 2019 will still be one for the ages, as it will be remembered for some great comebacks, upsets, and overall entertaining games. As a fan without a rooting interest, it has been all I can ask for, and then some.
The new Ottawa Senators
The Toronto Maple Leafs are incredibly talented. They are a good team and they have a great foundation built for the future with their young talent and their smart front office. But it’s hard not to look at some of the parallels to the Ottawa Senators of the early 2000s. The 2012-13 team was obviously a completely different team than it is today, but the Leafs have still lost to the Bruins three times in the span of seven seasons, and they have yet to get to the second round since 2004. The Senators obviously lost to the Leafs four times during the height of their powers, and I can’t help but wonder if Toronto will lose one more time to Boston during this era.
Based on the talent on their roster, they’re clearly better than some of the teams left in the playoffs, but much like the Senators in the early 2000s, they just haven’t been able to get the job done. They’ve only been in this window for three years so it’s not like it has been forever, but there is already a lot of frustration within the fanbase, and rightfully so. Hell, with all the top seeds out and their roster getting more expensive, this might’ve been their best chance to win the Cup. Toronto will be good for a long time, but I do find it interesting how they are becoming similar to the old Senators by failing to meet expectations in the playoffs.
Mr. Game 7
Who else but Justin Williams was going to be getting a point on the series-clinching OT goal for Carolina? He now has an NHL record 15 points in 9 career game 7s, which is incomprehensibly clutch, especially for someone who isn’t even a superstar. That’s hard to fathom for Senators fans just because...Ottawa has literally never won a game 7 matchup. They are 0-6 in those games, which of course has led to a lot of heartbreak, which I don’t need to educate the readers on. Ottawa could definitely use one of their own “Mr. Game 7s” to help them get over that hump.
Sens at the Worlds
The World Hockey Championships in Slovakia begin on May 10th, we know that at least two Senators will be playing in the tournament:
It looks like official rosters still haven’t been announced, although Thomas Chabot should be on Team Canada if he is healthy enough:
Other than that, it’s unclear if others will be joining, and I’m sure we will hear more news on that in the next few days now that the first round of the playoffs is over. However, Jean-Gabriel Pageau was on Team Canada last year, plus Filip Gustavsson and soon-to-be-UFA Magnus Paajarvi were on Team Sweden, so there’s a chance that they will play in the tournament once again. I would also assume that Rudolfs Balcers will be representing Team Latvia if he wants to, as he played for them last year while putting up 6 points in 8 games. At least there will be a few Senators to follow during this tournament.
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