Hockey Trade Rumors

Don’t look now but the Ottawa Senators have beat the best team in hockey 2 of the last three games, throwing down a dominate performance on the 2nd night of back to back games and making Buffalo look like an ordinary team.Buffalo is a team that is starting to pat itself on the back. With so much cushion on the rest of the league and deep at every position, the Sabers just will not go to the wall with a team that is playing life or death hockey like the Sens have been the past 3 games. It’s obvious the Sabers are playing with danger, they are in the “Let’s Wait until the Games Actually Mean Something and Than We’ll Flick the Switch Mode” of hockey, like the Senators were last year, like the Canucks were last year, one team didn’t make the playoffs, and the other when they realized they were in a cage-match with an opponent that wasn’t backing down could not immediately flick the switch, and the Sens were dismissed in 5 games.

The Other debate we can talk about with the Sabers is that the team is not in the same physical condition as a team like Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary or New Jersey, and that on back to back nights and late in physical-pounding games, the Sabers look tired and start to make mistakes – only time will tell.

It’s no coincidence the Sens have turned things around for one reason…. Ray “Razor” Emery, the team’s early season MVP, Player of the Month Candidate and the Senators new starting goalie. It’s amazing what a difference Emery has made for the team, he’s kept them in games when the team has needed him to weather the storm, the Sens PK is a totally different animal with Razor in the net, and the team can play relaxed, knowing if they make a mistake – that Razor will be there to bail them out.

The Sens are only 6 points out of a play-off spot, and at the 1/4 mark of the season, the team looks like it has settled into its new defence-first -conservative hockey system that Coach Murray brought in this pre-season. They are FINALLY playing a 60 minute game and skating like a 5 man unit.

What to do with the man on the end of the bench? Martin Gerber and his $4 million dollar salary is starting to look like the Derian Hatcher cap-anchor on the Sens. It is almost impossible to see Gerber get a start until the Sens are in the 8 position in the conference, and how will the team play when he is in the net. It’s obvious that he will never be the clear cut #1 guy in Ottawa after his start this season, Ray Emery has taken the #1 job from him not only in his play, but the way his teammates respond to him, his commitment last year in the playoffs and how he handles the pressure of playing in a Canadian city. For the Sens to make the playoffs, they are going to need 60 solid goaltending starts, and Gerber will have to provide some quality goaltending for the team to get them into the playoffs. BUT if the Sens do make it, it will be Razor between the pipes and not Gerber. Should they trade Gerber and free-up some cash to bring in a #2 center and solidify the lines? Probably not this season. Emery has been a little injury prone the past 2 seasons, the team cannot just turn around and flip a free-agent signing like Phoenix does, it will hurt their reputation this summer if they did. And Gerber deserves a chance to come back and show the fans in Ottawa that he is a key part of the team. But it’s become obvious now, like it did last season in Carolina that Gerber is not a complete #1 goalie, and in only 20 games, he has lost his starting position. In my opinion he lost it after his 5th period of hockey in a Sens uniform when he let in soft goals to Toronto in the Sens home-opener and got booed out of the net, and replaced to the cheers of the Ottawa faithful by Razor in the 3rd period.

The Sens will need Gerber until April to fight to get into the playoffs, but after that they should (and will) shop him because they’ll have their #1 guy. Gerber deserves to start in the NHL and he’ll probably want out. But if the right deal came along before the trade deadline for a Rental playoff game breaker, say to Phoenix for free-agent Shane Doan, the Sens would bite. Muckler has come under the gun for not getting any proven players in his deadline deals, this season he’ll have to reverse that trend and get a guy that will make the team BETTER and not DEEPER.

Gerber’s days in Ottawa are numbered, the countdown begin!