Melnyk: Nobody is Safe

[ScottM]

 

https://www.nhl.com/news/senators-changes-may-be-coming/c-279805940

 

"Nobody is safe." Those specific words were used by Senators owner Eugene Melnyk when he was asked about the future of Senators head coach Dave Cameron. If there were any doubts that Cameron was on the hot seat, they should be gone after a comment such as that.

 

With playoff hopes all but gone, these certainly aren't happy days in Ottawa, and Melnyk has no trouble finding things he's dissatisfied with. Senators fans can't be happy with the goaltending this past season, and one wonders if we might see more of Matt O'Connor next season. If the organization feels that O'Connor is ready to make the jump, promoting him could help with another issue: player salaries.

 

Melnyk was asked about increasing payroll next season and quickly shot the idea down. "That's baloney. Absolute baloney," he said. "We throw $68 million U.S. at this. That's our payroll. Let's get that straight. Which puts us way up there, way over budget. We tried to do anything. If there was a single player we could have added, two or three, we would have added them and Bryan knows that. But he just couldn't find anything that was worthwhile, never mind paying for them." Perhaps trading Anderson in favor of promoting O'Connor would help, but there are probably a few pieces needed, so that money might not be enough.

 

Then, there's Bryan Murray. The GM might not be back next year thanks to stage 4 cancer. If he's unable to continue in the role, there will be multiple questions regarding the front office. Who will replace Murray? Will Murray continue in an active role? If so, what?

 

There were no shortage of underachievers in Ottawa this year, so there's plenty of blame to go around. Obviously, one has to think that Erik Karlsson will be back next year. You don't just dump one of the top players in the game. But I wouldn't bet the farm on any other single individual.

[flyercanuck]

See that's the one thing I love about the Flyers...the variety. One year it's the coach, then next it's goaltending. Then coach, then goaltending.

 

In Ottawa, it's coach one year, coach the next. Then coach the next...and then coach.

[ScottM]

@flyercanuck I think that's a big part of the approach that the franchise will take, but I'm not so sure it's the case. I think Cameron has done pretty well with the production he's been given. I think there are a lot of player issues this year. We need to move a couple of guys to get the team's attention. Moving Cameron doesn't do it, imho.

[ruxpin]

I really think Cameron was dealt a crap hand this year.  He may take the fall, but given some individual performances their place in the standings is pretty appropriate.  They're possibly even higher than they should be.

 

Hoffman started off lighting the world on fire.  He's disappeared.  I wanted to blame it on the next problem (Turris), but even when moved around or while Turris was out, he simply didn't produce.

 

Turris:  I realize he was playing hurt.  But that's someone's fault that he was playing if he was not only going to be unproductive but counterproductive.  I haven't read enough, but did he hide his injury and/or demand to play or did management force a losing situation?

 

Stone:  He needs to learn to play and produce in the first half of the season the way he does in the second half.  It's really too bad he and Hoffman couldn't produce at the same time or we probably wouldn't be having this thread.

 

Ryan: another player who's really played only half a season

 

They have some really nice supporting players, but they need the above to produce more consistently if they're going to go anywhere.  It can't be the Karlsson Show.

 

But the crux of the situation is the goaltending.  The fact the defense outside of Karlsson is really subpar is part of it, but it's not an excuse. You and I talked about goaltending before the start of the season and we both thought this might be an issue then.  I don't buy Andersson as anything more than an average goalie, and I was pretty sure Hammond was a really pleasant (at the time) fluke last year.  He didn't have to repeat that (no one could, I don't think), but he has not even been average.  I've wondered if he would benefit from more playing time, but I really think we're seeing the goalie he was in the minors that only came up because of the injury disaster last year.

 

It's actually sad because they really were such a fun team to watch last year.  I think they simply caught lightning in a bottle through really what was only half a season and hid some significant blemishes in the process.  If it's the right moves, it may only take moving a couple out and bringing a couple in.  But since the answer probably includes goalie, there may be some heavy lifting to do.

[yave1964]

Ottawa played over their head last year but they do have a fair amount of solid forwards and the best offensive defenseman in the game today bar none.

  The problem is not the star skill players, it is the supporting cast.

  By staying near the league bottom in salary and running a cast of defenseman who are boring and ordinary and quite frankly substandard talent wise simply because they play cheap, they are selling the fans short.

  Unlike Chicago who has stars as well and has to be creative every year and make difficult decisions based off a combination of winning and the bottom line, the Sens seem to only be concerned with the later. As long as players like Wiercoch and Boroweicki and Wideman make up half the defense for no other reason than they work cheap, the team will never ever contend. NONE of the three are more than AHL injury call ups on the best day of their lives and it is indicative of what the Senators are all about.  They may catch lightning in a bottle like they did with the Hamburgler last season but that is about it.

  This is a cheap organization who runs on a shoestring and knows they will sell out anyway, they defraud their fans with the occasional deal for a Bobby Ryan or a Dion Phaneuf to con the fans into thinking they are really trying but the truth is, more than any other team in the league it is all about the bottom line.

[ScottM]

@yave1964 You're absolutely correct that there's a problem with the supporting cast, but I'm not willing to give the top guys a pass either. Guys like Turris (even when not hurt), Hoffman, and Stone simply seemed to disappear for significant stretches of the season. Granted, you're not going to have perfectly consistent play all season long, but they were MIA far too much.

 

I mostly agree on the Phaneuf deal as well. I mean, yes it's a nice pickup compared to what we had (Karlsson, to some degree Methot, and no one else), and it was nice to get Greening off of our payroll, but we still basically have a defensive corps that's composed of 50% AHL'ers. I still think it's somewhat humorous that I'm happy to have him considering 

 

Again, I don't think Cameron is the problem. Blaming things on the coach every year is nothing more than making an excuse. But, generally speaking, I like the no one is safe mentality IF it's handled the right way. IF we make some moves that bring in some guys that will contribute more, I'll all for a bit of a house cleaning. Maybe you even trade away one of the bigger names (just not Karlsson or Phaneuf) to send a message to the others. Something needs to be the wakeup call. That said, I'm not so sure that this owbership group or front office will handle it properly...