Hammond not only kid carrying Senators on playoff run

[yave1964]

This is not an attempt to take anything at all away from the Hamburgler and his incredible run that has propelled the Senators smack into the middle of the playoff discussion, I just wanted to point out that the Senators are not a one trick pony.

  Veteraans Karlsson, Turris and Ryan are 1,2,3 in scoring on the team but right behind them are rookie Wingers Mark Stone (51 points, 3rd in rookie scoring) and Mike Hoffman (26 goals to lead the team). Zibinejad has finally tapped his enormous potential and has positioned himself nicely as a solid number two center. And young forward Erik Condra has 9 goals, and is plus 11 showing solid two way play.

 

  On defense, Eric Gryba (87 PIMS, 147 hits) and the ultra nasty Mark Borowiecki (100 PIMs and 182 hits) rock anyone who comes into the zone when one of them is on the ice, with Borowiecki second on the team in blocked shots to fellow youngster Cody Ceci.

 

  With veterans Chris Neil and Chris Phillips slowed by age and general decline and Spezza gone to Dallas the kids ahve been forced to step up and indeed they have. The Senators are no longer an aging team but one filled with promise.

[jammer2]

@yave1964  Stone and Hoffman have been wonderful surprises.  I was convinced that Stone would have a very nice career after watching him lead the Team Canada in goals at the WJC a few years ago. Hoffman was a huge steal.....kudos to the Sens scouting department. I still think Pageau is going to be a 30 goal guy eventually, the puck seems to follow the kid around, always in perfect position to do something positive with the puck.

[jammer2]

@yave1964  Skill and smarts wise, I think Pageau is one of the most underrated players in the game today. He may eventually force his way into the Sens top 6.  How bad do the Leafs look right now, walking away from Clarke McArther?  Clarke is better than anyone on the Leafs second line, and could have been signed to a very reasonable contract....pretty big oversight by the sad sack Leafs, which is what we have come to expect.

[hf101]

@yave1964  Skill and smarts wise, I think Pageau is one of the most underrated players in the game today. He may eventually force his way into the Sens top 6.  How bad do the Leafs look right now, walking away from Clarke McArther?  Clarke is better than anyone on the Leafs second line, and could have been signed to a very reasonable contract....pretty big oversight by the sad sack Leafs, which is what we have come to expect.

  

I picked up Pageau a week ago for the pay fhl, a good find for sure.  I might even make it to the Champ week next week vs @yave1964  

 

I have to say I thought the Sens would come in second to last place in the conference this season.  Great quick rebuild by the organization for sure.  

 

Nice thread @yave1964 !

[ScottM]

As the board representative of Sens Nation, I have to say that I'm extremely excited about where we go from here. I honestly didn't expect to finish much (if any) higher than what @hf101 expected. Even if we had, I certainly didn't expect to have any shot at the playoffs. I was stunned when we stayed around the bottom of the playoff picture for the first month of the season, and wasn't at all surprised when we fell off.

 

Obviously, no one thought Hammond would show up and do what he's done, but I felt like some of the other young guys had the potential to make some noise -- a couple of years down the road. I certainly didn't see it happening this year. I wouldn't have been surprised to see one or two of them break out this year, because we see that happen all the time all over the league. What does surprise me is that so many of them have done so, and done so as rapidly as they have. This hasn't been a season-long build up, it's been an instant maturation that has taken place in the last month and a half. I can't help but hope that what we're watching is the beginning of the group that will return the Cup to Ottawa soon!