Sportsnet Hates Me

To be fair, I haven't exactly been very nice to them either. I submitted a response to a report on their site that the Senators might be looking at signing Yanic Perreault to beef up their depth down the middle. There were reports swirling around ever since the offseason that the Sens were interested in a couple of veterans, the most prominent names being tossed around being Perreault and Greg Johnson. Sportsnet has a screened comment process and decided not to publish my comment I submitted in response to some Leafs fans who had somehow managed to turn a report about the Senators into being about them. I wasn't rude or anything, just trying to be logical but I guess Sportsnet decided they would rather publish comments about how someone is going to punch the next person who bashes the Leafs. Which, sure, okay...but I have a blog, in fact I have two, so there. Nyah. My comment was in response to one Leafs fans who posted this comment:

Now let me point this out. If the Leafs were looking at Perrault [sic], we would have Sens fans, Oilers fans, and every other imaginable fan pointing out the fact that the leafs are going after another player who is in the late stages of their career and how all the leafs are is a bunch of overpaid old guys on their last legs. But instead I'll say to Sens fans, that he'll be a good pick-up, not just on the draw, but a decent goal scorer as well. Good on you guys if you get him, he'll help your team. Now if only people would stop bashing the Leafs if they show interest in players such as Leetch. Too much to ask for?

The commenter makes a good point and my response is that people will end up saying that because it's exactly what the Leafs have done before with their free agent signings and it hasn't worked out for them. The Leafs have in the past signed guys for more money than they're worth seeing as how most of them were on the downhill of their careers. Not alot of those signings paid off in the end, so if the Leafs management took that risk again, they'd just end up looking like they enjoy torturing themselves.

Some things the Senators lacked last season was depth at centre and veteran presence. The Senators were one of the youngest teams last season, second only to San Jose and the average was probably given a boost thanks to Old Man Hasek being on the team. 'No Panic Yanic' had the highest faceoff percentage last season and would take some pressure off of Jason Spezza at centre. The need for a second line centre didn't seem imminent when Mike Fisher had a monster preseason, but Perreault would provide more offensive upside than Fisher, with Alexei Kaigorodov still needing time to get into the Senators Groove (TM) [actually I think the whole entire team needs to get back into the Groove] .

There are risks for whenever you sign a veteran. Perreault is recovering from off-season surgery and is already 35-years-old, so if the Sens end up signing him and one of his screws fall out, his salary will still count against the cap.

Sens are up against the Avalanche tomorrow. They steam-rolled the Leafs tonight...but let's hope the streak ends there. Actually, they can beat Montreal if they want, but Jordi might kick my arse. Gerber will be in net for the Senators but no word yet on who will start for the Avs. I'm thinking it might be Budaj again since they want Theodore to be nice and refreshed for his prodigal return to Montreal. Or because he's playing like he forgot what a puck looks like.