Playoffs!!!1!...?
0 Comments Published by Dany Heatley Speedwagon on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 10:52 PM.
So I wake up today and the Sens and Leafs are tied for 8th in the standings. Can anyone help me out here? Are the Senators overachieiving or are the Toronto Maple Leafs failing miserably? (remember when they were first place in the league? Fun times!) For a team picked by most to be the cellar dwellers of the East this season (with the exception of the Winnipeg franchise formerly known as the Atlanta Thrashers) I'm nothing short of surprised with what I've seen out of the Senators so far. While 8th place and a potential first round matchup where the Senators would look like a punching bag to whoever the top team is in the east isn't an enviable position, it should be considered a measure of success given the expectations for this team to start the year.So of course now that the Senators are barely clinging to relevance in the playoff race a mere 2/5ths of the way into the season it's only logical they start making trades to further position themselves for a first round playoff curbstomping. Enter Kyle Turris.
The aquisition of Kyle Turris brings promise for both the present and future. There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding the potential of this kid despite the fact he's got a very short resume. I'm going to go on record and say I don't know what to expect out of KT, but I hope he can solidify himself in the top half of the lineup. Much like the Filatov experiment I don't see a large amount of downside to this trade. Yes, Rundblad was a big piece to give up (along with a 2nd round pick) but to get a player who's proven he belongs in the NHL (with the potential to excel in the future) you need to give up some assets. It's fairly low risk and potentially high reward. Rundblad was the 3rd best young defenceman in the Senators system and with Cowen and Karlsson looking to be the future on the blueline, his greatest value to the Sens might have been as a piece in this trade rather than as a second line D-man. Finding guys to round out your D beyond the top pairing isn't hard. You grooming your own top guys and use the trade market and free agency to fill the gaps.
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