A Return to Glory - The Ottawa Senators Rebuilding Dynasty (NHL 2011)

[SENS_AK27]

Hello Everyone,

After a long hiatus I am back in the dynasty writing business .... I will be starting up a dynasty with the Ottawa Senators as they rebuild into the powerhouse team they once were.

System: PS3
Difficulty: All-Star
Period Length: 8 Minutes
GM Difficulty: Hardest setting
Sliders: OBG's All Star Sliders (Naturally)

Format: Due to the lack of free time I once had I'll be starting out with brief posts on trades and 1 month team reports to keep you up on the league news and my teams development. I'll also be playing only 1 game a week as my intent is to play multiple seasons for maximum player development and I don't want to burn myself out. As I get into this again I might change my mind and go full immersion but that remains to be seen.

Thanks for reading.

[SENS_AK27]

August 25th, 2010

A weary eyed Bryan Murray steps up to the podium at the much anticipated Ottawa Senator press conference. To the shock of much of the assembled associated press Murray announced that he would step down as General Manager of the Senators but however will remain on the teams payroll as a special consultant, much as Scottie Bowman did for the Chicago Blackhawks. Murray had long faced criticism in Ottawa as both a coach and general manager and after a number of follies and missteps; including the Dany Heatley fiasco has finally decided to step away from the lime light and take a back seat.

Instead Murray went on to introduce the new interim General Manager, a brooding young man by the name of Guy Ladouche'. Guy was well known in hockey circles for single handedly rebuilding the Halifax Mooseheads from a group of under achieving, under sized players into the remarkable Cinderella story last season in the QMJHL; when Halifax with a team loaded with rookies made it all the league finals before being ousted in 7 games by Moncton.

As Murray introduced Ladouche' a round of cheers went up in the conference room. A soft spoken man, he went on to say he was taking this job seriously and wanted to prove that what happened in Halifax was not a fluke. Guy mentioned he would be assessing the talent on the team and will be meeting with his staff to work on contracts, and plugging in holes. He said he liked what he saw from the team last year but at this moment no one on the team should feel safe.

With that the conference ended and no one was allowed to ask questions as they ushered both Murray and Ladouche' out of the room.

[SENS_AK27]

August 31st, 2011

On the last day before the roster freeze went into affect, new interim GM Guy Ladouche' made some trades and dove into the free agency pool.

TRADES:

Ottawa acquired a 2011 1st Round Pick
Colorado acquires (RW) A.Kovalev and a 2012 2nd Round Pick

Ottawa acquired a 2011 1st Round Pick
Edmonton acquires (D) C.Campoli and a 2013 2nd Round Pick

Ottawa acquires (D) C.White
New Jersey acquires (C) C.Kelly


FREE AGENT SIGNINGS:

Ottawa signed (C) P.O'Sullivan to a 1 year Contract worth $1.025M
Ottawa signed (RW) R.Nilsson to a 2 year contract worth $0.975M



Now the speculation is that Kovalev was immediately on the chopping block after his performance last season with the team. He did not impress fans with his lazy work ethic and willingness to play only when he wanted to play. He definitely didn't fit into the mold as a Ladouche' type of player. It was interesting to see that Colorado was willing to give up a 1st rounder for him but I guess after last years playoff success they figure they need to win now be acquiring the right pieces.

Campoli to Edmonton seems like a good fit, he is a young skilled defenseman something that Edmonton needs and Ottawa has an abundance on. The question is, was he worth a 1st rounder?

Lastly, the Kelly for White trade seems fair. This summer Devils GM Lamerillo made no qualms that he wasn't happy with Colin White and was seriously entertaining offers all through the summer. I guess Kelly is the gritty center the team was looking for and was willing to make that trade.

So what do you think of the trades made so far? Or the free agent signings. Feel free to leave your comment on our website:

http://osatwork.com/forums/showthrea...post2042250229

What I plan on doing for this dynasty is having all discussion about my GM's player trades and signing going on in a separate topic, kind of like how ESPN and TSN has a comment section to their news articles, you can agree with the columnist or disagree with his comments as long as it's about anything going on in the game. Feel free to comment on the dynasty as a whole or how I am doing in this thread.

[SENS_AK27]

Current Line Information:

Line 1: M.Michalek (83) J.Spezza (88) R.Nilsson (80)
Line 2: N.Foligno (80) M.Fisher (83) D.Alfredsson (87)
Line 3: R.Shannon (77) P.O'Sullivan (83) C.Neil (81)
Line 4: J****utu (79) P.Regin (78) S.Donovan (77)

D1: C.Phillips (85) C.White (82)
D2: F.Kuba (81) S.Gonchar (85)
D3: E.Karlsson (79) M.Carkner (80)

Starter: C.Anderson (83)
Backup: P.LeClaire (82)

*When I started this franchise I didn't know I had already traded Elliott for Anderson so I'll leave that trade as is. Actual Ottawa players traded away this season are up on the trading block (Ruutu, Fisher)

[Dynasty]

Nice work so far. Do you plan on keeping spezza and alfredsson for the rebuild?

[SENS_AK27]

Definitely, Alfredsson will be a Senator for life. Spezza although expendable will probably stay on the roster unless I get a ridiculously good offer.

[SENS_AK27]

OCTOBER WRAP UP

After a surprising preseason where the Senators went 2-1-1 the expectations for the coming season were high. Although Anderson got the nod for the starting goaltender; LeClaire wasn't totally out of the picture having put in 2 solid performances. Although several youngsters impressed during preseason no one made the jump to the big club. Zack Smith, Cody Bass, and Corey Locke were the last to get sent down and will be on the bubble as a possible return to Ottawa was quite possible.

Speaking of bubbles popping, the season didn't get off quite how the Senators had hoped. They started the season with 3 straight losses, which saw them out scored 13-4. Both goaltenders, who looked so promising in preseason actually regressed and now there is panic in the nations capital. In the 1st regular season game Anderson was pulled after letting in 4 goals on 8 shots. LeClaire managed to stem the bleeding but the 4 quick goals were hard to come back from and the Sens lost to rival Buffalo 6-1.

At the end of October the Senators are currently 4-7 which has them 4th in the North Eastern Division and 12th in the Eastern Conference. Although the 4 wins are promising they all came at home, so Ottawa will have to learn to win on the road if they hope to make the playoffs this year. The biggest concern is still their goalkeeping. Out of those 7 losses 3 of them have been blowouts (6-1 Loss to Buffalo, 8-0 Loss to Pittsburgh, 5-1 Loss to Montreal), which will really test the mental toughness of this team.

The lack of scoring hasn't helped either, as the team has yet to win by more then 2 goals. Currently there are 8 players with a +/- of -5 or more.

THE GOOD:

M.Michalek (LW) GP:11 - G: 4 - A:8 - +/-: 2
On a team with so many negatives right now it's hard to find a bright spot, but one can look no further then the duo of Spezza and Michalek. The two have hooked up for 22 points in just 11 games and seem to have found some early season chemistry.
THE BAD:

R.Nilsson (RW) GP:9 - G: 0 - A:1 - +/-: -6
After Nilsson was signed to a 2 year contract, coach Cory Clouston had high expectations of the right winger, placing him on the top line with Spezza and Michalek. But after only registering 1 Assist in 9 games and was a minus 6, he was benched for Ottawa's past 2 games. Instead Clouston called up forward Corey Locke and shuffled his lines up.


THE UGLY:

C.Anderson (G) GP: 8 W: 4 GAA: 3.15 SV%: 89.0
P.LeClaire (G) GP: 3 W: 0 GAA: 4.41 SV%: 88.1

The goalie tandem of Anderson and LeClaire has been just terrible this year. Neither of these goalies is challenging each other to make them both approve. It can be debated that it's the system they are in, in which case on several occasions defensive lapses have left them high and dry with an odd-man breakbut at the end of the day it's their job to stop pucks and they should be posting better numbers then what they have.

If neither of these players are willing to compete for the position then maybe Ladouche' should put one or both up on the trade block and call up someone from the minors that is willing to put forth the effort.


THE FORECAST:

It is still way to early to write off this teams season and although they were off to a rough start there were signs of improvement with this team near the end of the month. Call it growing pains, call it time to gel but Ottawa looked pretty good in their last 2 games of the month with back to back wins at home against fellow bottom dwellers Florida (15th in EC) and Boston (13th in EC).

After Nilsson was benched, Locke has made is presence known as he scored a goal in his first game with the Sens and recorded an assist in his second. Clouston has seemed to find balance in a new system that he is trying to get his players to buy into.

As of October 31st the new line formations are as follows:

[devo22]

looks tough. Too bad that Nilsson and your goaltenders are giving you a hard time ... maybe the line shuffle will help. Had Foligno on the top line of another dynasty once, he should do fine there. Good luck in November.