Syndication13 Aug 2008 - 08:50:15 am
Cap'n' Clutch's Intro Post
Hello all,
Those of you that know me will know that I'm awfully optimistic about the Sens at times so this blog will come as no surprise to some. First of all I want to thank Jamvan for helping me get this up at all because he gave me the link where we could start the forum. I also want to thank him for navigating through the design limitations on the blog page as well. I think it looks great but feel free to comment. I would also like to thank Cronenbergfan for his first post and all his work in Rumour Chat. BTW, I asked him to write a blog yesterday morning when the site was ready and within the hour it was already up and ready so, big thank you for that. I want to also thank 504Heater for bringing an infusion of fresh perspective since being away for a week at a Cottage (Lucky SOB) and also to all three for their insightful comments and great conversation starting Topics. So that's us, the GMCentral Braintrust. Now a big thank you to all the members and visitors of our site for making this an instant success story because without you guys there is no site (I know it's a cliche). And before I forget, a thank you goes to the links we've added and a special mention to Spector's Hockey for adding GMCentral as a link and to HockeyBums for allowing Cronenbergfan to plug our site on HockeyBums.
OK, now that the thank you's are over onto the positive spin. Please go easy on me it's my first time LOL. Seriously though I'm writing from the perspective of a Fan that never played competitive Hockey so keep that in mind.
A lot of changes have occured with the Sens since last season and I will attempt to address many of them in this blog today. 1 - New Head Coach and new Assistant Coach - This was an absolute neccessity and although the two of them don't have a tonne of NHL experience, their World Junior records are amazing and will be a great asset when dealing with the influx of youth that I expect to see this season. I think it's safe to say that the pressure of coaching the Junior Canadian team is extremely intense and should stand them in good stead when handling the pressure that comes with coaching in Ottawa. I have also heard that these two have tremendous Defensive systems and will undoubtedly hold this team accountable.
2 - Redden, McGratton, Corvo & Emery are all gone and some new faces are in - I will start with Redden; he was a shell of his former self and I won't get into the speculation as to why but, suffice is to that he really was more of a liability on this team than an asset and this will allow some other players an opportunity. McGratton was brought in initially for muscle and to intimidate but it was quickly assertained that he was not reliable defensively and hardly played the last half of the season, his spot will definitely be a blessing for some young up and comer. Emery is a tough one for me because I loved his in your face attitude but he just took it too far and his game went down the tubes as well. He had that strut and attitude the the Sens never really had before. He was an issue and it's been written about enough so I won't get into it except to say he really needed to go and there's a reason he needs to prove himself in Russia. The addition of Auld will be great, as many have pointed out, Gerber does better when he knows he's number 1. Now onto Corvo this one is even more difficult to put a positive spin on actually. I will simply default to the fact that he really didn't want to be here and Murray is filling this locker room with team players like Ruutu, Donovan and Smith. Ruutu is that true agitator that everyone hates if he's not on your team and I can't wait to see him bother other teams. Donovan was one of our better players last spring and truly wants to be here after taking a massive cut in pay to remain. Smith, all I hear are good things about this guy and if Murray can get Mesz back in the fold I can only see good things from those two and the development of Mesz as an all around player should be amazing this season.
That's about it for now. I don't want to go into too much detail about each player here as there may be blogs about that in the future;)
Those of you that know me will know that I'm awfully optimistic about the Sens at times so this blog will come as no surprise to some. First of all I want to thank Jamvan for helping me get this up at all because he gave me the link where we could start the forum. I also want to thank him for navigating through the design limitations on the blog page as well. I think it looks great but feel free to comment. I would also like to thank Cronenbergfan for his first post and all his work in Rumour Chat. BTW, I asked him to write a blog yesterday morning when the site was ready and within the hour it was already up and ready so, big thank you for that. I want to also thank 504Heater for bringing an infusion of fresh perspective since being away for a week at a Cottage (Lucky SOB) and also to all three for their insightful comments and great conversation starting Topics. So that's us, the GMCentral Braintrust. Now a big thank you to all the members and visitors of our site for making this an instant success story because without you guys there is no site (I know it's a cliche). And before I forget, a thank you goes to the links we've added and a special mention to Spector's Hockey for adding GMCentral as a link and to HockeyBums for allowing Cronenbergfan to plug our site on HockeyBums.
OK, now that the thank you's are over onto the positive spin. Please go easy on me it's my first time LOL. Seriously though I'm writing from the perspective of a Fan that never played competitive Hockey so keep that in mind.
A lot of changes have occured with the Sens since last season and I will attempt to address many of them in this blog today. 1 - New Head Coach and new Assistant Coach - This was an absolute neccessity and although the two of them don't have a tonne of NHL experience, their World Junior records are amazing and will be a great asset when dealing with the influx of youth that I expect to see this season. I think it's safe to say that the pressure of coaching the Junior Canadian team is extremely intense and should stand them in good stead when handling the pressure that comes with coaching in Ottawa. I have also heard that these two have tremendous Defensive systems and will undoubtedly hold this team accountable.
2 - Redden, McGratton, Corvo & Emery are all gone and some new faces are in - I will start with Redden; he was a shell of his former self and I won't get into the speculation as to why but, suffice is to that he really was more of a liability on this team than an asset and this will allow some other players an opportunity. McGratton was brought in initially for muscle and to intimidate but it was quickly assertained that he was not reliable defensively and hardly played the last half of the season, his spot will definitely be a blessing for some young up and comer. Emery is a tough one for me because I loved his in your face attitude but he just took it too far and his game went down the tubes as well. He had that strut and attitude the the Sens never really had before. He was an issue and it's been written about enough so I won't get into it except to say he really needed to go and there's a reason he needs to prove himself in Russia. The addition of Auld will be great, as many have pointed out, Gerber does better when he knows he's number 1. Now onto Corvo this one is even more difficult to put a positive spin on actually. I will simply default to the fact that he really didn't want to be here and Murray is filling this locker room with team players like Ruutu, Donovan and Smith. Ruutu is that true agitator that everyone hates if he's not on your team and I can't wait to see him bother other teams. Donovan was one of our better players last spring and truly wants to be here after taking a massive cut in pay to remain. Smith, all I hear are good things about this guy and if Murray can get Mesz back in the fold I can only see good things from those two and the development of Mesz as an all around player should be amazing this season.
That's about it for now. I don't want to go into too much detail about each player here as there may be blogs about that in the future;)