He sure doesn’t seem to like Senators fans though:
Mike Comrie is headed back to the Ottawa Senators and he’s bringing a puck-moving defenceman with him.
The Sens acquired Comrie and Chris Campoli from the New York Islanders on Friday in exchange for Dean McAmmond and a first-round draft pick.
Campoli possesses the offensive skill that Ottawa has been seeking for its defence. The 24-year-old had spent his entire career in Long Island and is under contract through next season at a reasonable $675,000 (all figures U.S.).
Comrie is currently earning $4 million and will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. He spent a couple months with the Senators in 2007 and was part of the team that reached the Stanley Cup final.
The first round pick (San Jose’s) will fall somewhere between 21 and 30, I’d imagine. It seems an awful lot to give up for Campoli and a few months of Mike Comrie though. Chris Campoli may possess offensive skill but it doesn’t seem to net him an awful lot of points and he’s been seeing respectable PP time as well as playing softer minutes. The Isles are a terrible team but I’m not sure that even that warrants bestowing the label of offensive defenceman on a guy who’s putting up offensive numbers comparable to Steve Staios in his prime. They get three years of him and he’s an NHLer but I’m not sure that you can’t find guys like him on the scrap heap come the summer.
As for trading futures for today when you’re 13 points out of a playoff spot? Melnyk probably ought to have fired the GM when he did the coach. It’s just crazy.
Most importantly though, I’m going to be at the Oilers-Sens game on March 5. I’m hoping that it’s Ryan Smyth’s first game back in the fold. I’ll settle though, for the chance to boo Mike Comrie along with the rest of the Edmontonian diaspora.
Jesus does love you Ty, its true. Don’t you forget it.
Bryan Murray is, well, I don’t even know what to say.
I guess the key is Campoli. If he becomes a player then its a good trade. If not then they just traded a first rounder for fuck all.
13 points out, 25 games left, two teams ahead of them, and two games in hand. If we assumed that FLA, BUF, CAR, PIT, and OTT were all of equal skill, what are the odds of OTT making the playoffs?
As for them all actually being equal in skill, I’ll tell you what - as brutal as Ottawa’s season has been, you can make a case for the Senators being the best team in that lot. Their ES shot ratio is better than all of those other teams except Carolina, and their special teams appear better than all of them. The Sens have suffered from brutal percentages all season.
Here’s how the ES corsi’s stack up when the game is tied:
CAR 169 (clearly the best of these bottom feeders at ES)
OTT 7 (in the black mind you)
BUF -50 (seem to be getting worse as the season wears on)
FLA -155 (wtf?! I know Vokoun is sick, but this team is running hotter than the sun. bet against them.)
PIT -195 (I don’t think they’re a particularly good team, but they do seem able to persistently outperform their shot ratio via good shooting percentage)
Here are their respective STR’s (STR is my fancy acronym for Special Teams Ratio - the ratio of [SF/60 at 5-on-4] divided by [SA/60 at 4-on-5]):
OTT 1.08 (excellent)
BUF .91 (whatev)
PIT .88 (”we miss you Gonchar and Hossa”)
CAR .85 (note to coach: tell team to stay out of the box, and see if the refs will let you decline PP’s)
FLA .81 (LOL)
And here is my handicapping of the goalies:
They’re all the same. (Ok, Vokoun might be a little better.)
Yeah, I agree that the Sens are a decent team.
Not necessarily above average — they do, after all, play in the East. But definitely better than their record would suggest.
Unfortunately, their chances of making the playoffs are remote — 3.9%, by my reckoning.
In light of that, I think that the Sens come out on the losing side of the deal here.
If Murray turns around and flips Comrie for picks and prospects at the deadline, then I will respect him as an evil genius. Otherwise, a desperate man trying to save his job.
Sunny - I kind of agree with you about the Sens. I don’t think that they’re a bad team by any stretch. Still though, 13 points is 13 points and, games in hand or not, I can’t see how they’re anything but screwed.
This talk of flipping Comrie is nice but I’m pretty sure that they’re actually trying to make the playoffs.
Most importantly though, I’m going to be at the Oilers-Sens game on March 5. I’m hoping that it’s Ryan Smyth’s first game back in the fold. I’ll settle though, for the chance to boo Mike Comrie along with the rest of the Edmontonian diaspora.
We booed the crap out of him the last time the Oilers were here (2007). I think there were about 1000 Oil fans there that night, maybe more, and the booing of Comrie was so noticeable that they remarked about it on Ottawa tv. Good times.