Ask Mullet Monday: #FreeMika

by Bonk's Mullet 

It's back! After months of anticipation, your favourite weekly-feature-that-only-happened-one-time has returned. Every Monday, for the entire season, I will answer questions from the mailbag. Tweet me with the hashtag #AskMullet to have all of your pressing questions answered. Standard text messaging rates apply.

With Sens fans still reeling from the news about Zibanejad, I've answered some questions from today and some from the vault, because most of you only asked if I was wearing pants.

Warning: There's some NSFW language if that offends you.

Zibanejad Assigned to AHL - Twitter Explodes

by Bonk's Mullet

The Sens dropped news on Monday like DJ Z-Bad drops the bass. The Ottawa Senators assigned Mika Zibanejad to the AHL, despite his relatively strong showing last year in a full shortened season the team. Here's the Twitter fallout. Make sure you click "Read the next page" in the Storify thing to get the full slew of tweets.

Game Summary: Pre-Season Games 7 & 8 - Sens lose 9-3 over two games to the Islanders

Nah, I'm just kidding. We all watched Breaking Bad.

Jim O'Brien Appreciation Video

By Kevin Lee

The Sens have lost many fan favourites in the past year including Kaspars Daugavins and Guillaume Latendresse. It appears Jim O'Brien is on his way to joining that list after being waived by the Ottawa Senators. In true Bonk's Mullet fashion, we mark his time in the organization with a suitable appreciation video.

Game Summary: Preseason Game 6 - Requiem for Jim O'Brien

by Chet Sellers

Remember last year when there were no preseason games because of the lockout, and everybody said, "oh no, everybody's going to be out of shape when the season starts and there's going to be a rash of injuries"? You know what's worse than that? A rash of injuries DURING THE PRESEASON. Last night the Senators iced a largely NHL-calibre lineup against the Hamilton Bulldogs and were rewarded with scary injury moments involving Bobby Ryan, Patrick Wiercioch, and Erik Karlsson, who are now chilling with Jason Spezza in a taped-off area of the dressing room marked "maintenance day" and filled with soft, fluffy pillows.

Tonight, we have the reverse scenario - the Senators have all of six NHL players in the lineup (and one of them is Matt Kassian), while the Canadiens will effectively start the entire roster they used against the Senators in last year's playoffs. So on paper, this looks like a pretty even matchup.

Seriously, though, tonight's Senators lineup. I'm relatively familiar with the Senators prospects system and I'm still pretty sure most of the guys in this game are actually cab drivers. "David Dziurzynski"? Pull the other one. I can't believe I skipped yoga to recap this.

Game Summary: Pre-Season Game 5 - Sens beat Habs 5-2

By Luke Peristy

Preseason games are like a box of chocolates: you pick at random and hope you don't get the coconut one you never know what you're going to get in the lineup.

Tonight, the Senators iced a lineup of roster players, except for the relatively unimportant positions of first line centre and starting goaltender. Stephane Da Costa was inserted into the first line in lieu of Jason Spezza, and Andrew Hammond was in goal instead of Craig Anderson. Both Spezza and Anderson were nursing minor injuries, so it made sense to leave them out of a meaningless game. None of the injuries were alleged to be back, ankle, or frozen chicken related, so no worries there. It was also rumoured that the Senators put Da Costa on the first line to entice another team to trade for him. Intrigue abounds!

On the other bench, the Canadiens started Budaj in net in addition to bunch of AHLers, thus indicating that they were treating this one like it was an elimination game in the playoffs. 

Here are my game notes:

The New Atlantic Division and You!

Written by Luke Peristy (Graphics by Kevin Lee)

Earlier this summer, the NHL underwent conference realignment for the first time since 1993. This realignment effected several changes. Firstly, a new/old playoff format was implemented such that the first two rounds of the playoffs will be inter-divisional. Secondly, geographical oddities, such as Detroit playing in the Western Conference or Winnipeg playing in the Eastern Conference, were eliminated. Thirdly, the NHL created new geographical oddities by putting the two Florida teams in the same division as Boston and Montreal. Finally, the word "Metropolitan" was applied without irony to the state of North Carolina for the first time in recorded history.

So where does this leave the Ottawa Senators? Well, Ottawa's NEW Atlantic Division has some new faces and some old ones. Let's take a closer look at all the teams you are about to hate even more than you already do.

Game Summary: Pre-Season Game 4 - Sens beat Leaves 3-2

With a game scheduled in Ottawa against Montreal on Wednesday night, the Senators sent a B-squad of sorts to Toronto for Tuesday night's exhibition game against the Maple Leaves. The game was only broadcast on Leafs TV, so many of us were forced to watch the game while donning our nicest pirate caps.

The Faker's Guide to the Ottawa Senators Offseason

by Chet Sellers

So you’ve finally decided to start following the Senators this season – congratulations! You’ve made a decision that will in no way result in any personal hardship, either now or in the future. As a fan, you should now feel comfortable sidling up to other fans you see talking about the Senators – the office IT folks, your yoga instructor, and of course, cops – and joining in. But until you become more familiar with the team, should you fake it until you make it?

Of course you should! Why are you reading anything on the internet if not to represent yourself as a subject matter expert right away? Heck, look at this blog - this time last year, most of us working at RBM were still trying to identify the Senators in road games when we couldn’t spot those snazzy red jerseys. Now we’re well-versed in the complete history of the team, from late-round pick made good Alexandre Daigle to other early stars like Steve Duchesne, one of team’s best-ever right wingers.

But don't try to bite off all that delicious history at once; for now, why not just start with our helpful offseason recap? To make you an instant expert, we've included helpful talking points for each major offseason event so that you can fake your way through any conversation. Those cops won’t know what hit them!

Sens Collectors: How Swede It Is

By Kevin Lee

As an avid collector of Ottawa Senators memorabilia, I've decided to start a recurring feature on the blog to show off the various items that Sens fans own and treasure. Your collections can range from decorated rooms, to signed photos, to jerseys. I want to see them! Shoot me a tweet at @BringBackLee or an email to sensforlife11@hotmail.com and they will definitely be considered for future posts. This is the third Sens Collectors post and will feature items involving Swedish players. Past posts can be found here and here.

Game Summary: Pre-Season Game 3 - Sens beat Leaves 3-2

by Bonk's Mullet

We're venturing into "real blog" territory here on BonksMullet.com and we've decided to give game summaries a try. We'll be experimenting with the format a little bit. The goal is to spice them up with a bit o' laughs as there are plenty of better resources to get an accurate summary of the game's events. There will be shameless plagiarizing of my own tweets, so consider yourself warned.

The Sens played their first game at home of the pre-season, which marked Spezza's first game in a red shirt with a C on it. They took on a team of nice young gentlemen in pretty blue shirts with money spewing out of their pockets. Here's what went down on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

A Brief History of Jason Spezza

By Luke Peristy

Last weekend’s announcement that Jason Spezza is to be the 8th captain of the modern incarnation of the Ottawa Senators came at the conclusion of a long and exhaustive vetting process. That it was ultimately Spezza who got the ‘C’ should have come as a surprise to no one except for Clarke MacArthur, who has spent the last three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and thus has strange ideas about just what’s expected from an NHL captain.

For Spezza, it was just the next step in a journey that began when he was a 15-year-old wunderkind forced to overcome his crippling handicap of being photographed with Don Cherry. Let's take a look back at that journey.

GIFlights: Exhibition Game 2 - Sens @ Flames

By Kevin Lee

Here are the highlights I could find of the Ottawa Senators exhibition game against the Calgary Flames. The game wasn't broadcast, but the Sens came out with the win with a score of 4-2. The only goal missing from the Ottawa side for the highlights is Mark Borowiecki's late in the third.

GIFlights: Exhibition Game 1 - Sens @ Jets

By Kevin Lee

Here are the highlights of the Ottawa Senators first exhibition game, a 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. You can find a nice summary of specific player performances written by Peter over at Silver Seven Sens.

Click the GIFs to enlarge.

Who Else Did the Senators Consider for Captain?

by Chet Sellers

Yesterday Paul MacLean announced that he'd decided on Jason Spezza as the new captain of the Ottawa Senators, finally turning the page on the team's Daniel Alfredsson era. For many fans, choosing Spezza was obvious - he's an extremely talented player who's been with the team over ten years, and during that time he's taken more and more leadership responsibility both on and off the ice. But even though Spezza was an obvious pick, he wasn't the only player the Senators considered. So who else was on the list, and where did they fall short? Let's find out!

Captional Gains: Training Camp Day 1

by the Bonk's Mullet staff

The Ottawa Senators have released a gallery of photos from the first day of training camp, but only we here at BonksMullet.com have the exclusive stories behind each photo. Here's what we found out.

Guest Blog: London Rookie Tournament

by guest blogger Nick Iwanyshyn, with comments from Bonk's Mullet

Nick (a freelance photographer) contacted me with the proposition of doing a photo blog of the Sens rookie game in London. He didn't end up getting a press pass to the event, but I thought it could be fun to see the game from a fan's perspective anyway. My thoughts are in bold. Click the images to enlarge them.

I Know What You Did Next Summer: A Look at the Decisions of the Future

By Luke Peristy

[Editor's mullet's note: Please give a warm welcome to the newest member of BonksMullet.com, Luke Peristy. Check out his bio on our authors page.]

In case you missed it, on Monday the Senators announced that they have extended Colin Greening's contract for another 3 years at an AAV of $2.65MM. This news was met with a resounding "Meh" around the Sens Twittersphere (RIP "The Alfiesphere") and beyond. I, for one, am in support of the move. The contract is very much in line with the market value of a player of Greening's calibre. In addition, Greening is a useful "Swiss Army Knife" type player, i.e. able to play in a variety of roles in a pinch, but don't try to open a bottle of wine with him if you can help it. That metaphor might need some work. Anyway, Greening's new deal was the sort of move that has been typical of the Senators' Summer of Responsible Spending. Observe the subtle turnover that has been happening over past three months.

GIFlights: Rookie Tournament Game 3 - Sens vs. Leafs

By Kevin Lee

Here are the six Ottawa Senators goals scored in today's final rookie tournament game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sens won 6-2 thanks to 4 goals in the third period. Here's a nice summary by Amelia over at Silver Seven.

Should your NHL team be on an internal budget?

By Kevin Lee

Click to zoom: (or view full-sized chart here)

Which Ottawa Senators are Under the Most Pressure This Season?

by Chet Sellers

I’m still getting my head around all of these “fancy stats” you kids use – growing up, the only stat we kept was wins, which happen to correlate pretty well with winning, thank you very much. So I’ll get out my TI-55 at some point and program circles around all of you, but for now, I feel I’m on pretty safe ground making the following assertion:

“In hockey, scoring more goals than your opponent is a key factor in winning in hockey.”

The 2012-13 Senators finished 26th in the league in goals for, in part due to injuries to key offensive talent like Erik Karlsson, Jason Spezza, and Milan Michalek. They also finished 2nd in the league in goals against, in part due to the most successful PK in the league, which itself was heavily supported by a record-breaking .941 SV% season from Craig Anderson and equally solid seasons from Robin Lehner and Ben Bishop.

This year, Karlsson, Spezza, and Michalek are back, Bobby Ryan has come to town, and it’s not unreasonable to expect offensive steps forward from players like Mika Zibanejad and Kyle Turris as they move down the depth chart and face weaker competition. Perhaps most importantly, we understand Erik Condra has been taking shooting drills against the broad side of a barn all summer, and a modest improvement in his shooting percentage alone could net the team as many as 350 additional goals this season.

On the other hand, it’s also not unreasonable to expect the team’s goaltending and PK to regress, and for the team’s defensive corps to struggle as Jared Cowen returns from injury, Patrick Wiercioch is expected to replace Sergei Gonchar, Chris Phillips is a year older, and Joe Corvo is being given his own jersey and everything. So I feel comfortable making the following two predictions about the 2013-14 season:

a) The Senators will score more goals than last year.
b) The Senators will allow more goals than last year.

I feel especially comfortable with these predictions because I checked and the Senators are scheduled to play 34 more games than last year. But you know what I mean.

So in this brave new world of goals, goals, goals, who’s under the most pressure to perform, and who’s going to be most responsible for the team’s success or failure? Let’s find out!

Sens Collectors: Flashback Time

By Kevin Lee

As an avid collector of Ottawa Senators memorobilia, I've decided to start a recurring feature on the blog to show off the various items that Sens fans own and treasure. Your collections can range from decorated rooms, to signed photos, to jerseys. I want to see them! Shoot me a tweet at @BringBackLee or an email to sensforlife11@hotmail.com and they will definitely be considered for future posts. This is the second Sens Collectors post and will feature items from the past. The first post can be found here.

Ottawa Senators Off-Season Power Rankings - September 2013

by Chet Sellers

We made it, everybody – we defeated summer! It’s finally September, a month when we can watch the semi-new-look Ottawa Senators play iced hockey somewhere other than our imaginations. It hasn’t been a great summer, has it? We’ve had the team’s media war with ex-captain Daniel Alfredsson, the internal budget, casino fights, Ukranian hackers, the smooth taste of Corvosier, and at the centre of it all, the question of whether, when Eugene Melnyk next opens up his wallet, anything is going to come out except a single, cartoon moth.  But has any of this bad news affected the players? Let’s find out!