Get your bone on! The Senators are up 1-0 in their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and there's a new 6th Sens Podcast available for your listening pleasure.
Joining us on the show this week is Brian Metzer: a credentialed media member who can also be heard on XM satellite radio as a Pittsburgh correspondant. He's the writer/editor of From the Point, a hockey blog touching not only on the Penguins, but also other NHL related news and he is also the Senior Penguins Blogger at Hockey Independent.
As always, you can subscribe/download/stream the episode or entire catalogue of episodes from Itunes. Or you can download the file by right-clicking and saving this file. Or you can simply stream the episode below. We hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, please leave us some feedback in the comment thread below. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the show.
Tracklist for the podcast: Tears For Fears Break It Down Again; Brian Metzer's selection of Danzig Twist of Cain; Husker Du Celebrated Summer; and Antiflag You'd Do the Same.
I never knew when the Michalek's Anonymous term was coined that it would have such a prevalent meaning before the season was done. So it goes with a warning: before proceeding with this piece, go grab yourself a stiff drink and then come back.
Ready?
Okay...
Bryan Murray revealed in an afternoon press conference that Milan Michalek will be out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. Within five minutes of the announcement, pundits like Bob McKenzie were already speculating via Twitter that Michalek's ACL was done when he crashed into net a few weeks ago. He just tried to play with it last night.
And worse, This will be Michalek's fourth knee reconstruction, if I'm not mistaken. Almost had leg amputated because of complications from one earlier. (Ed. note: Just to clarify, this will be Milan's 4th knee operation but all of his previous knee injuries were limited to his right knee.)
On the surface, it's heartbreaking news for Senators fans that Michalek's injury represents the second time a top six forward will have his season lost to a torn ACL. (Ed. note: Kovalev being the other.) And early last night, he looked like his old self -- inexplicably falling all over the ice. However, this news shouldn't really come as that much of a shock. To see Milan folded up and grimacing in pain on the bench and not take a regular shift in the third period, it didn't take a genius to surmise that he had re-injured his knee. But there's something to be said about the hearing the news from the GM that just adds to the finality of it all.
However, I'm not sure whether it's the deeper thought or the affects of alcohol but there is some reason for optimism here. As much as we want to fellate the depth and talent of guys like Kovalev and Michalek, the bottom line is that these guys didn't perform particularly well down the stretch. After starting the season on a torrid pace, Milan only scored 6 goals after December 19th and finished the season with a disappointing 34 points. And when Milan injured himself in Atlanta, Peter Regin was moved to the Senators first line and it paid dividends almost immediately.
Here's my point: He can be replaced for the second time in less than a month. Due to this recent injury, Nick Foligno's going to assume Michalek's spot on the second line with Matt Cullen and Mike Fisher and Ryan Shannon will draw into the lineup as a fourth line player. Although it ensures that Cory Clouston will have to roll three lines for the remainder of the playoffs, things aren't as bad as people are being lead to believe.
Because of the platform and his status as a player who's headed towards RFA on July 1st, there's no better opportunity for Foligno to demonstrate that he can be more than a third line player.
Will it happen? I don't know. At the very least, he's being replaced with a young, hungry player who scored 17 goals last season. Things could be worse. In the meantime, enjoy a stiff drink or two.
With the Stanley Cup Playoffs finally upon us, it's time for the first of what I hope will be many playoff previews for the Ottawa Senators this spring. Time to break it down!
...and a new episode of our podcast to boot. Since this was the last episode before the onset of the NHL playoffs, consider it a playoff primer podcast. For such a momentous occasion, it was only suitable that we had two of the best in Hockey Night in Canada's Jeff Marek and the Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy himself, Greg Wyshynski, join us to talk a little puck.
As always, you can subscribe/download/stream the episode or entire catalogue of episodes from Itunes. Or you can download the file by right-clicking and saving this file. Or you can simply stream the episode below. We hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, please leave us some feedback in the comment thread below. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the show.
Here's the tracklisting for the episode: Journey Separate Ways (World's Apart); The Wombats Lost in the Post; The Jam Beat Surrender; Franklin For Short Brother Bird; Free Energy All I Know; and Jeff Marek's choice of Tool's Vicarious.
Too bad it happened to his knee and not the gamesheet.
The Ottawa Sun is reporting that Alexei Kovalev is done for the year with a torn ACL in his left knee. This means a few things for the immediate future. Right away Senators fans can set aside all doubts that Kovalev will not show up in big playoff games. That's one less thing for everyone to discuss going into the playoffs. This also has ramifications for the (almost) annual playoff tradition of nit-picking, finger pointing and scapegoating which was sure to have Kovalev at the centre of it this year. The cynics and the news writers will have to find a new target this year because we won't be able to kick around ol' Alex anymore this year. Maybe not ever. It's certainly reasonable to assume this injury will represent a crossroads for his career. At age 37 overcoming such a severe injury will be no easy feet. As we saw with Jason Smith last season these things have a way of making one sit back and look at their options. *I'm the furthest thing from an authority on sports injuries so I called a friend in the medical profession to ask how bad a complete tear of the ACL was. After asking for a lamens terms explanation her response was "It's brutal, just absolutley brutal." I'm sure there's more than a few jaded fans angry at the aging enigma's mediocre season who have their fingers crossed that this is it for him. You gotta feel for the guy though, after all he's been through this season (you know things aren't great when you even have to address buying a gun) it would have been nice to see what he could do on a big stage when the games mattered most. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Game Preview Ottawa's Lap Dogs (44-26-10) vs. Daniel Alfredsson Love Fest PT I (44-31-6) Scotiabank Place, Kanata Ont. (aka in a city which does not use Cheese Whiz as a chaser for Broken Down Golf Cart shot. TV: You better be close to one tonight! Game time is 7p.m - "I went to a hockey game last night and a big ceremony broke out"
Games such as this one do not happen every night nor do they happen every year. The Senators will be playing in front of a spirited crowd who came because they heard it was giveaway t-shirt night. The Sens will be looking to celebrate Alfie’s big day with an inspired effort and then head into the playoffs on the right foot. We can forget the usual Ren and Stimpy dynamic the Sens have had with Buffalo this season and take in a defining night for the franchise.
For a player who had toiled in the minors for many years, it's great to see that Matt Carkner's perseverence eventually helped him get to hockey's highest level of competition. So it must be pretty rewarding for Carkner to find out that his dedication has been acknowledged by the writers of the Sun, Citizen and Le Droit as this year's Senators nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is an annual award under the trusteeship of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association and is given to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The winner is selected in a poll of all chapters of the PHWA at the end of the regular season.
A grant from the PHWA is awarded annually to the Bill Masterton Scholarship Fund, based in Bloomington, Minn., in the name of the Masterton Trophy winner.
The trophy was presented by the NHL Writers' Association in 1968 to commemorate the late William Masterton, a player for the Minnesota North Stars, who exhibited, to a high degree, the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Masterton died on Jan. 15, 1968, after an injury sustained during a hockey game. ~ NHL.com
I was perusing James Mirtle's list of recently revealed Masterton nominees over at The Globe & Mail to gauge Carkner's competition. As hard as I tried to get excited about Chris Drury's hard work and dedication despite commanding a $7.1 million cap hit, I couldn't help but wonder why someone hasn't created a reverse Masterton Trophy of sorts to the individual who best exemplifies the characteristics of selfishness, sore losing and general douchebaggery.
In all honesty, it makes for much more entertaining water cooler talk. The only problem is, my reverse Masteron Trophy needs a name.
Since the Masterton was awarded to the late William Masterton for his exemplary qualities, the reverse Masterton should be aptly named after someone who truly deserves it. I needed some due diligence. So I hit the Interwebs and within 10 seconds of research, I came upon a thread on the HFboards entitled Dirtiest player in NHL history. After a quick scan, I noticed that the obvious names like Bobby Clarke, Ulf Samuelsson, Claude Lemieux were getting thrown around.
Sure, each was a dirty player in their own respect but each one is too modern, too easily recognized and ultimately, too lame to have such a distinct honour bestowed upon them. (Ed. note: Case in point, Claude Lemieux's participation on Battle of the Blades. )
Just as I was beginning to lose faith in the thread and start anew using Google, one name leapt off the page and it wasn't just because of his fantastic hockey name.
According to the user with the handle Darryl Shilling,
Sprague Cleghorn makes Ulf Samuelsson look like a choir boy. :)
Cleghorn was the filthiest player ever. Kneeing, butt-ends, high sticks to the face, purposeful cutting with skate blades, ramming guys faces into the boards. He beat up Lionel Hitchman so viciously that Cleghorn's OWN manager suspended him over it. One night he beat the snot out of Newsy Lalonde (no pushover himself) so badly that people in attendance thought that Lalonde was dead, laying on the ice. This is a guy that had to be snuck into arenas to avoid angry mobs.
Cleghorn even beat his own wife with his crutches after he broke his leg in 1918. THAT's dirty. Samuelsson was well known for low hits, but didn't go nearly as a far as Cleghorn enjoyed going.
If there's any good side to a nutjob like Cleghorn, it's that he was a phenomenal offensive player. Most people have never heard of him, but he was truly great, though violent.
Success! Cleghorn exemplified piece of shit characteristics on and off the ice. Now that I had a name, I needed to learn as much as I could about him.
Here's what a Google image search revealed:
(Ed. note: In the above picture, Cleghorn's picture is on the bottom right.)
And here's what some guy who edited Wikipedia had to say about Cleghorn:
Born in the upscale Westmount area of Montreal, Cleghorn had a hall of fame career but was regarded as one of the dirtiest players of his era. He played on Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1920, 1921 and 1924.
In 1909–10, Cleghorn began his career with the New York Wanderers, becoming a professional with Renfrew of the National Hockey Association (NHA) the next season. He then played for the Montreal Wanderers for six seasons. In the NHL, he played defence for the Ottawa Senators from 1918 to 1920. In an attempt at league parity, the NHL transferred him to the Hamilton Tigers in December 1920, but Cleghorn refused to report. The Senators asked that he be allowed to return to their team. George Kennedy, owner of the Montreal Canadiens, threatened to have Ottawa thrown out of the league. Cleghorn eventually signed with Toronto, but was released in March after the St. Pats lost their play-off and he signed with Ottawa during the playoffs in time to be a member of the 1921 Stanley Cup-winning team.
The league transferred Cleghorn to Hamilton in 1921, and again he refused to go. Just before the start of the 1921–22 NHL season, Sprague was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Harry Mummery and Amos Arbour. He played four seasons in Montreal and after the 1924–25 NHL season, was purchased by the Boston Bruins for $5,000. Sprague played his final three seasons in the NHL with Boston (1925 to 1928). He then moved to the minor-league Newark Bulldogs (1928–29) as a player-coach. Later, he coached the CAHL Providence RedsMontreal Maroons (1931–32). He later coached the Pittsburgh Shamrocks of the International Hockey League (1935–36) and the Cornwall Cougars of the Quebec league (1947–48). (1930–31) and NHL
Even in an era of rough play, Cleghorn was notorious for being among the dirtiest of the lot, and ranked amongst the league leaders in penalty minutes for nine of the first ten seasons of the NHL's history. In 1923, Cleghorn hit Ottawa Senators player Lionel Hitchman in the head with his stick. Charged with aggravated assault, Cleghorn was found guilty and fined $50.
Hold on, it's time to consult the checklist here:
Charged with aggravated assault stemming from an on-ice incident. Bad on-ice behaviour. Check.
Hit wife with his crutches and refused to be transferred to other teams. Douchebag off of the ice. Check.
A Hockey Hall of Famer who predates most dirtiest player ever conversations. Check.
I think we have a winner for the reverse Masterton name rights and as a bonus, he played for the Ottawa Senators. Armed with this knowledge, I had to consult what possibly is the worst book ever written about the Ottawa Senators -- The Ottawa Senators: The Best Players and the Greatest Games authored by J. Alexander Poulton -- to see if there is any mention of Cleghorn. (Ed. note: This book can be purchased at Chapters for under $10. Upon completion, it should be used with kindling to start a fire.)
Fortunately, a few paragraphs were devoted to Cleghorn:
The 1921-22 regular season ... was a fairly uneventful season for the Senators, except for the brief reunion with Sprague Cleghorn. After the 1921 Cup victory, the Ottawa Senators unceremoniously dropped Cleghorn from their roster, preferring to go with younger talent such as King Clancy. A natural force on the ice, Cleghorn did not have to wait long before being picked up by the Montreal Canadiens where he was teamed up with his brother Odie, but Cleghorn still held a grudge against his former team. Cleghorn declared war on the Senators, and when they met again for the first time on February 1, 1922, he was out for blood.
Cleghorn did little to hide his contempt for his former club after the puck was dropped. He started by viciously checking Senators captain Eddie Gerard and then slashing him on the head, opening up a cut above Gerard's eye that required five stitches to close. A short while later, Cleghorn set his sights on Ottawa's top scorer, Cy Denneny, and gave him a nasty cut above the eye that spurted blood all over the ice. Not yet satisfied, Cleghorn set his sights on the Sens' Frank Nighbor. Cleghorn got his chance when Nighbor had the puck in the corner with his back to the play. Cleghorn rushed into the corner and slammed Nighbor down to the ice, landing on his elbow hard enough that Nighbor couldn't play the rest of the game. Cleghorn had single-handedly removed three of the Senators' best players from the match. Ottawa police on hand that night offered to arrest Cleghorn and make him spend the night in jail for his obvious assault on the Senators players, but the referees persuaded the police to let the NHL handle its own discipline. For his offences, Sprague Cleghorn received a match penalty, a warning from the league president Frank Calder and a $15 fine.
A match penalty, a warning and a $15 fine? Apparently the NHL's discipline committee hasn't changed much in the past 90 seasons.
Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Sprague Cleghorn Trophy, your reverse Masterton. Can I get some nominees please?
If you haven't heard, Saturday's Alfredsson 1000th game celebration will no longer be exclusive to the fans at ScotiaBank Place. No. According to the Ottawa Sun, Saturday will be Alfie Day in the nation's capital. An announcement is expected to be made by the mayor, Larry O'Brien, on Friday morning.
Here are a couple of things that should be done on Saturday:
Switch the flag atop the Parliament Buildings to a Swedish flag.
Some kind of furniture discount at Ikea.
At City Hall, Subway will donate free meatball subs to all those in attendance.
Dalhousie, the street that features the Swedish embassy, should be temporarily named to support number eleven. Plus, this measure would also help confuse a number of hos who frequent the Byward Market.
Don't expect the City of Ottawa to pony up and reward everyone with a commemorative t-shirt.
Pub Italia needs to add some Swedish beer to their infamous Beer Bible for consumption on this festive occasion.
If you have any other ideas for Saturday, leave them in the comments.
I just received an off the record tip via email. According to it, Jared Cowen will play make his regular season NHL debut against the Tampa Bay Lightning. God rumours are fun!
Update (6:30pm):
There has been some expressed concern that a year could be burned off Cowen's contract if he does play tomorrow. As far as I can tell, it can't based off of what I've read off of NHLSCAP.com:
A player’s ELC may be extended for three reasons: 1. If a player age 18 or 19 signs an SPC and does not play at least ten (10) NHL games in the first season, his contract will extend for one (1) year. 2. If a player age 18 signs an SPC and his contract is extended as above, and in the 2nd year does not play at least ten (10) NHL games, his contract will extend for one (1) additional year. 3. If a player fails to give his playing services called for under his SPC [except as a result of injury, illness, or disability] while in the Entry-Level System, his contract will extended while he fails to offer those services.
It's important to note that under the first stipulation by definition, NHL games isn't exclusive to the regular season. More than 10 games accrued during the regular season and playoffs will burn a year off of Jared Cowen's entry-level contract.
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