It's over. It's finally freaking over. Another shitshow of a season is done and dusted for the Sens.
July 1st is over, the craziness has settled for now and thus begins a very boring two and a bit months.
As sad as I am that I don't get to watch or keep an eye on my (albeit begrudgingly) favourite hockey team until September, there is somehow a sense of relief. No longer do we have a feeling of dread knowing that each game we play will probably be horrendous- well, at least not for the foreseeable future.
Overview
Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse after the 2017/18 season, the Sens decided to trade almost all of their good players, finish even lower than before, and cock up a deal that would've got us a downtown arena.
The Belleville Sens season was also over in April, after they failed to reach the Calder cup playoffs. They lost to Rochester, and because Cleveland destroyed Toronto, we watched the Monsters leapfrog Belleville in the standings and nab that last coveted playoff spot. It was a disappointing end to the AHL team's season, but at least there's been improvement down in Belleville, and a slight sense of optimism for the future when it comes to our young stars.
And now, as I write this, the whole NHL season is over, with the St Louis Blues defeating the Boston Bruins in order to lift their first ever Stanley Cup, and we are cruising into a nice slow summer.
After a miserable season in Ottawa, we were at least saved when we escaped the embarrassment of potentially trading away the first overall pick. It was announced at the draft lottery this year that once again the Sens had landed the fourth overall pick, meaning Colorado wouldn't be coming out of 2018/19 with a playoff run AND Jack Hughes.
The main hope for 2019/20 is that at least it once again can't get any worse, although I'm personally not holding my breath for that one.
Hopefully we can get a fresh start with a new coach, some new personnel, and maybe crack on with this rebuild thing we are allegedly doing. We have just chosen our players from the 2019 draft and while I am not going to pretend to have any knowledge regarding prospects, I will say that from what I have heard and read, it certainly appears to have been... interesting. For more info regarding this check out Episode 51 of the Cost Per Pointcast, where Trevor and Colin breakdown the picks.
Anyway, back to the main point of this post- is that I want to briefly sum up the season with some thoughts about the season, and to remind you it wasn't all bad. I think.
2018/19: The bad
The roster changing and being shaped from whatever it was to whatever the hell it is now was arguably the most stress-inducing part of the season. It began with when we shipped away Mike Hoffman in summer, after a scandal that could only happen to the Senators. After this, we traded Erik Karlsson.
ERIK GODDAMN KARLSSON.
THIS IS THE NHL.
THIS IS THE BIG LEAGUES.
WE'RE IN THE GODDAMN BIG LEAGUES OF HOCKEY AND ERIK KARLSSON IS A GENERATIONAL TALENT THAT THE LIKES OF WHICH NOONE HAS EVER SEEN SINCE MAYBE BEFORE BOBBY GODDAMN ORR... and we traded him.
For a bag of pucks- sorry, for six assets.
The first season without our captain was not fun. After being traded right before the start of training camp, the team had to adjust to not having a captain, and fans had to adjust also losing yet another franchise star pushed away by poor ownership, management and a lack of money within the organisation. It really spoke volumes about just how skint Melnyk is, and the direction in which the organisation was going to go- and it didn't get any better. Losing Duchene, Dzingel and Stone was also a very low point. The only takeaways from those trades is at least we got an arguably better, or at least more justified return than what we got for Karlsson (we aren't going to talk about the return for Hoffman). It also showed us that no player was, nor is, safe. Even our supreme overlord Cody Ceci was scratched at the trade deadline just in case, and at the time of me writing this, he is now a Toranno Maple Leaf.
Another continuing issue this year has been that, once again, we have had to deal with the fact Pierre Dorion and Eugene Melynk won't stop talking. Despite fans begging and praying for them to, the two of them have been putting their feet in their mouths all season. We knew from the moment that the video with Borowiecki was released that this was going to be the case. The "days without an Ottawa Senators scandal" counter struggles to get above 5 as it is let alone with Dorion and Melnyk around. I just wish we could just enjoy some peace and quiet for once.
Sens fans are like the old woman of the family who watches her annoying sons leave her house after overstaying their welcome, finally breathing a sigh of relief- until the doorbell rings a few minutes later and one of them has bloody forgotten something and wants to talk about that as well.
I have already covered the rage inducing interview from Dorion post trade draft, so I won't go into that too much again. Although he has since apologised for some of his comments, a lot of what he has said has left a bad taste in fans mouths, including my own, and has really highlighted the disconnect between himself and fans. It has also highlighted how he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer sometimes. In terms of our good buddy Eugene, I'll be writing a post about his adventures shortly, and will deep dive some recent interviews with the man known as Mr Melnyk
Know what else really sucked? Somehow being worse than last season. After finishing 30th many thought it wasnt going to get any worse, and yet nope. We finished dead last, played like horseshit most games, and cemented ourselves as such a laughing stock that even the fucking Simpsons took the piss out of us recently. The one game I unfortunately remember vividly was the 9-2 loss to the Sabres, which was an afternoon game. I was so happy because it meant that I, being 5 hours ahead of Buffalo, could watch it at a sensible time, and yet I spent the whole evening explaining to my housemate why I had a face like fucking thunder. It's pretty awkward having to explain to people what team you support, and how they are a shit team. What is often even harder to explain is how no matter what they are still YOUR shit team- and nobody else is allowed to call them shit but you.
2018/19: The good
So, let's salvage some good things, or at least attempt to.
No, we didn't have any point per game players or any 100 point stars, but not all hope is lost for this team. Here is a look at the top points scorers this year for current Sens (data from the NHL site):
Chabot- in 70 games played, 14 goals and 41 assists for 55 points
Tierney- in 81 games played, 9 goals and 39 assists for 48 points
Tkachuk- in 71 games played, 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points
Ryan- in 78 games played, 15 goals and 27 assists for 42 points
White- in 71 games played, 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points
Thomas Chabot has the potential to be a new franchise player for the Sens (that's if we dont trade him as well)- he is often breathtaking to watch. I could watch him break Leafs players ankles for hours on end and never get bored.
Chris Tierney and Bobby Ryan have had quietly good seasons, with the former having a mountain of assists to his name and the latter doing nicely because he didn't break his fucking hands for once.
Colin White really stepped up his game this year, and didn't seem to lose too much drive and motivation after the loss of Mark Stone.
One of these players especially however, has been a shining light in the doom and gloom of this all.
Brady Tkachuk, my demonic son. I was originally disappointed when we drafted him over Zadina but boy oh boy was I wrong. He has been exactly what the Sens have needed this season, but don't get me wrong- he's still a player who I would probably hate if he were on any other team.
But he's on our team. He may be a little shit, but HE'S OUR LITTLE SHIT. He takes up more space in the opponents net than their goalie does and he seems to have a good balance of scrappy but not stupid. After seeing a hit on Mark Stone from Justin Abdelkader, he immediately came to his housemate and mentors defense, getting into his first fight. when questioned about it he simply stated that it was his way of paying his rent. His mic'd up performance at the Sens skills competition was heart-warming (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAFl2_c1Do), and he has been in at least two floss-offs, the first with Colin White, and the second with a young fan that challenged him. He has perfected the ability to simultaneously be a bundle of joyous energy and also a little fucking shit, and I am living for it.
This year, our record against the Leafs was also pretty fucking spectacular. We went 3 and 1 against them, and the game we lost we were only one goal down. Noted Leaf killer (or bud buster) Magnus Paajarvi was also seemingly on fire, with two goals on February 2nd, two goals on March 16th and a goal & an assist on March 30th.
In the home games, the CTC was filled with Leafs fans who find it easier and cheaper to trek all the way to Kanata (something us Sens fans hate doing at the best of times) than to go to their own arena. Despite the swarm of blue, perhaps the best highlight of the Battles of Ontario this year was when in one game after the Sens scored, our DJ decided to play You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates.
Which is the Leafs goal song.
Top troll award of the season.
Speaking of trolling and piss-taking, social media surrounding the Sens has been on fire this season. From the shitposting and hot takes of the Sens twitter community to the wonderfully weird world of the Ottawa Senators official twitter account (run by our lord and saviour Craig Medaglia), this year has at least been entertaining. The memes have been incredible- if you don't follow @Capital_Gains65 @mannyelk or @Gerv_Rebrand in particular on twitter dot com then you my lovely readers are missing out. The sarcastic, witty demeanor of most Sens fans (and some other hockey analysts/writers), along with the banter that has been shared within the community has partly saved this season for me- mainly because if we don't laugh we'll cry I guess.
This brings me nicely to one shoutout in particular, perhaps the saviour of the season.
Craig Medaglia.
Please take a bow my good man.
From the Road Trippin videos to Sens play, Craig's hard work and creativity has really brightened up a dreadful season. I want to give special mention to the Jingle All the Way video, which really showed off some of the players personalities and was hilarious throughout. I know that Craig has struggled at times with mental health and the stress of work, so the fact he has done so well is a real testament to how great he is.
A high point for me personally was being given the opportunity to go on my first ever podcast!I was lucky enough to be invited on The Third Line Plug Senscast, a show recorded between Duncan/Calgary by Tay and Tim. I've been listening to them since last year when I was seeking podcasts to listen to and now I feel so honoured that I've been let loose on the end of season review episode! Not going to lie, I was nervous at times but having listened to the guys so much it felt like just chatting to friends I've known in real life for ages!
You can listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/thirdlineplugsenscast/season-2-episode-26-what-a-season
Last, but certainly not least, one last thing to remind you all of.
We got a dog.
And no matter what anyone says, Rookie is a good boy.
Looking to the future
As of this piece, the Sens have just acquired half of the bloody Leafs, and I'm curious to see if they'll do anything else in the offseason. Things might get better next season, and even if they don't, at least we'll all be able to laugh about it.
Last year we hit rock bottom and dragged ourselves through the mud without completely drowning. Now we just have to towards the (not Nick) shore, and hope a boat doesn't hit us in the meantime.
P.S. The 67's are fucking incredible and hopefully next year will bring the J Ross Robinson Cup to Ottawa.
P.P.S. Special thanks to Brian5or6 for the beautiful rant.
https://twitter.com/brian5or6/status/1040557125414477824
P.P.P.S. Poppy and Beata started a podcast called This Amelnykan Life, and they write fanfic about Spartcat shagging Gritty. It's glorious.
July 1st is over, the craziness has settled for now and thus begins a very boring two and a bit months.
As sad as I am that I don't get to watch or keep an eye on my (albeit begrudgingly) favourite hockey team until September, there is somehow a sense of relief. No longer do we have a feeling of dread knowing that each game we play will probably be horrendous- well, at least not for the foreseeable future.
Overview
Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse after the 2017/18 season, the Sens decided to trade almost all of their good players, finish even lower than before, and cock up a deal that would've got us a downtown arena.
The Belleville Sens season was also over in April, after they failed to reach the Calder cup playoffs. They lost to Rochester, and because Cleveland destroyed Toronto, we watched the Monsters leapfrog Belleville in the standings and nab that last coveted playoff spot. It was a disappointing end to the AHL team's season, but at least there's been improvement down in Belleville, and a slight sense of optimism for the future when it comes to our young stars.
And now, as I write this, the whole NHL season is over, with the St Louis Blues defeating the Boston Bruins in order to lift their first ever Stanley Cup, and we are cruising into a nice slow summer.
After a miserable season in Ottawa, we were at least saved when we escaped the embarrassment of potentially trading away the first overall pick. It was announced at the draft lottery this year that once again the Sens had landed the fourth overall pick, meaning Colorado wouldn't be coming out of 2018/19 with a playoff run AND Jack Hughes.
The main hope for 2019/20 is that at least it once again can't get any worse, although I'm personally not holding my breath for that one.
Hopefully we can get a fresh start with a new coach, some new personnel, and maybe crack on with this rebuild thing we are allegedly doing. We have just chosen our players from the 2019 draft and while I am not going to pretend to have any knowledge regarding prospects, I will say that from what I have heard and read, it certainly appears to have been... interesting. For more info regarding this check out Episode 51 of the Cost Per Pointcast, where Trevor and Colin breakdown the picks.
Anyway, back to the main point of this post- is that I want to briefly sum up the season with some thoughts about the season, and to remind you it wasn't all bad. I think.
2018/19: The bad
The roster changing and being shaped from whatever it was to whatever the hell it is now was arguably the most stress-inducing part of the season. It began with when we shipped away Mike Hoffman in summer, after a scandal that could only happen to the Senators. After this, we traded Erik Karlsson.
ERIK GODDAMN KARLSSON.
THIS IS THE NHL.
THIS IS THE BIG LEAGUES.
WE'RE IN THE GODDAMN BIG LEAGUES OF HOCKEY AND ERIK KARLSSON IS A GENERATIONAL TALENT THAT THE LIKES OF WHICH NOONE HAS EVER SEEN SINCE MAYBE BEFORE BOBBY GODDAMN ORR... and we traded him.
For a bag of pucks- sorry, for six assets.
The first season without our captain was not fun. After being traded right before the start of training camp, the team had to adjust to not having a captain, and fans had to adjust also losing yet another franchise star pushed away by poor ownership, management and a lack of money within the organisation. It really spoke volumes about just how skint Melnyk is, and the direction in which the organisation was going to go- and it didn't get any better. Losing Duchene, Dzingel and Stone was also a very low point. The only takeaways from those trades is at least we got an arguably better, or at least more justified return than what we got for Karlsson (we aren't going to talk about the return for Hoffman). It also showed us that no player was, nor is, safe. Even our supreme overlord Cody Ceci was scratched at the trade deadline just in case, and at the time of me writing this, he is now a Toranno Maple Leaf.
Another continuing issue this year has been that, once again, we have had to deal with the fact Pierre Dorion and Eugene Melynk won't stop talking. Despite fans begging and praying for them to, the two of them have been putting their feet in their mouths all season. We knew from the moment that the video with Borowiecki was released that this was going to be the case. The "days without an Ottawa Senators scandal" counter struggles to get above 5 as it is let alone with Dorion and Melnyk around. I just wish we could just enjoy some peace and quiet for once.
Sens fans are like the old woman of the family who watches her annoying sons leave her house after overstaying their welcome, finally breathing a sigh of relief- until the doorbell rings a few minutes later and one of them has bloody forgotten something and wants to talk about that as well.
I have already covered the rage inducing interview from Dorion post trade draft, so I won't go into that too much again. Although he has since apologised for some of his comments, a lot of what he has said has left a bad taste in fans mouths, including my own, and has really highlighted the disconnect between himself and fans. It has also highlighted how he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer sometimes. In terms of our good buddy Eugene, I'll be writing a post about his adventures shortly, and will deep dive some recent interviews with the man known as Mr Melnyk
Know what else really sucked? Somehow being worse than last season. After finishing 30th many thought it wasnt going to get any worse, and yet nope. We finished dead last, played like horseshit most games, and cemented ourselves as such a laughing stock that even the fucking Simpsons took the piss out of us recently. The one game I unfortunately remember vividly was the 9-2 loss to the Sabres, which was an afternoon game. I was so happy because it meant that I, being 5 hours ahead of Buffalo, could watch it at a sensible time, and yet I spent the whole evening explaining to my housemate why I had a face like fucking thunder. It's pretty awkward having to explain to people what team you support, and how they are a shit team. What is often even harder to explain is how no matter what they are still YOUR shit team- and nobody else is allowed to call them shit but you.
2018/19: The good
So, let's salvage some good things, or at least attempt to.
No, we didn't have any point per game players or any 100 point stars, but not all hope is lost for this team. Here is a look at the top points scorers this year for current Sens (data from the NHL site):
Chabot- in 70 games played, 14 goals and 41 assists for 55 points
Tierney- in 81 games played, 9 goals and 39 assists for 48 points
Tkachuk- in 71 games played, 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points
Ryan- in 78 games played, 15 goals and 27 assists for 42 points
White- in 71 games played, 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points
Thomas Chabot has the potential to be a new franchise player for the Sens (that's if we dont trade him as well)- he is often breathtaking to watch. I could watch him break Leafs players ankles for hours on end and never get bored.
Chris Tierney and Bobby Ryan have had quietly good seasons, with the former having a mountain of assists to his name and the latter doing nicely because he didn't break his fucking hands for once.
Colin White really stepped up his game this year, and didn't seem to lose too much drive and motivation after the loss of Mark Stone.
One of these players especially however, has been a shining light in the doom and gloom of this all.
Brady Tkachuk, my demonic son. I was originally disappointed when we drafted him over Zadina but boy oh boy was I wrong. He has been exactly what the Sens have needed this season, but don't get me wrong- he's still a player who I would probably hate if he were on any other team.
But he's on our team. He may be a little shit, but HE'S OUR LITTLE SHIT. He takes up more space in the opponents net than their goalie does and he seems to have a good balance of scrappy but not stupid. After seeing a hit on Mark Stone from Justin Abdelkader, he immediately came to his housemate and mentors defense, getting into his first fight. when questioned about it he simply stated that it was his way of paying his rent. His mic'd up performance at the Sens skills competition was heart-warming (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAFl2_c1Do), and he has been in at least two floss-offs, the first with Colin White, and the second with a young fan that challenged him. He has perfected the ability to simultaneously be a bundle of joyous energy and also a little fucking shit, and I am living for it.
This year, our record against the Leafs was also pretty fucking spectacular. We went 3 and 1 against them, and the game we lost we were only one goal down. Noted Leaf killer (or bud buster) Magnus Paajarvi was also seemingly on fire, with two goals on February 2nd, two goals on March 16th and a goal & an assist on March 30th.
In the home games, the CTC was filled with Leafs fans who find it easier and cheaper to trek all the way to Kanata (something us Sens fans hate doing at the best of times) than to go to their own arena. Despite the swarm of blue, perhaps the best highlight of the Battles of Ontario this year was when in one game after the Sens scored, our DJ decided to play You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates.
Which is the Leafs goal song.
Top troll award of the season.
Speaking of trolling and piss-taking, social media surrounding the Sens has been on fire this season. From the shitposting and hot takes of the Sens twitter community to the wonderfully weird world of the Ottawa Senators official twitter account (run by our lord and saviour Craig Medaglia), this year has at least been entertaining. The memes have been incredible- if you don't follow @Capital_Gains65 @mannyelk or @Gerv_Rebrand in particular on twitter dot com then you my lovely readers are missing out. The sarcastic, witty demeanor of most Sens fans (and some other hockey analysts/writers), along with the banter that has been shared within the community has partly saved this season for me- mainly because if we don't laugh we'll cry I guess.
This brings me nicely to one shoutout in particular, perhaps the saviour of the season.
Craig Medaglia.
Please take a bow my good man.
From the Road Trippin videos to Sens play, Craig's hard work and creativity has really brightened up a dreadful season. I want to give special mention to the Jingle All the Way video, which really showed off some of the players personalities and was hilarious throughout. I know that Craig has struggled at times with mental health and the stress of work, so the fact he has done so well is a real testament to how great he is.
A high point for me personally was being given the opportunity to go on my first ever podcast!I was lucky enough to be invited on The Third Line Plug Senscast, a show recorded between Duncan/Calgary by Tay and Tim. I've been listening to them since last year when I was seeking podcasts to listen to and now I feel so honoured that I've been let loose on the end of season review episode! Not going to lie, I was nervous at times but having listened to the guys so much it felt like just chatting to friends I've known in real life for ages!
You can listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/thirdlineplugsenscast/season-2-episode-26-what-a-season
Last, but certainly not least, one last thing to remind you all of.
We got a dog.
And no matter what anyone says, Rookie is a good boy.
Looking to the future
As of this piece, the Sens have just acquired half of the bloody Leafs, and I'm curious to see if they'll do anything else in the offseason. Things might get better next season, and even if they don't, at least we'll all be able to laugh about it.
Last year we hit rock bottom and dragged ourselves through the mud without completely drowning. Now we just have to towards the (not Nick) shore, and hope a boat doesn't hit us in the meantime.
P.S. The 67's are fucking incredible and hopefully next year will bring the J Ross Robinson Cup to Ottawa.
P.P.S. Special thanks to Brian5or6 for the beautiful rant.
https://twitter.com/brian5or6/status/1040557125414477824
P.P.P.S. Poppy and Beata started a podcast called This Amelnykan Life, and they write fanfic about Spartcat shagging Gritty. It's glorious.
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