A Tale of Two Cities

So as everyone knows in the hockey world, the Dallas Stars are last in the western conference, and that is a major disappointment. On the other side, in the east, the Ottawa Senators are trying so hard to dig themselves out of the hole they have fallen in. The question everyone must ask, or quietly wonders within their own head, why are these teams struggling? What are they doing wrong? Yes the Senators have had goaltending problems, but that doesn't explain why only their top three of Heatley, Alfredsson, and Spezza, along with newcomer Filip Kuba are the only ones to crack double digits in points thus far this season. Down in Texas, its much of the same. The Stars are suffering from a few more injuries then the Senators, for example captain Brendan Morrow is done for the season, and Sergei Zubov has only played in 10 games. Aside from that, the Stars aren't getting the top notch performance out of their "star" forwards. Along with that goes the drama of Sean Avery which seems to have really left a bad taste in Texas.

In Ottawa, Brian Murray sits up in his office, humming and hawing. How can such a deep, talented team be struggling so much? Mike Fisher has only 3 goals and 5 assists, Antoine Vermette has only 2 goals and 3 assists, Dean McAmmond, Chris Kelly, and Chris Neil have a combined 10 points. What happened?! Last year Vermette had 24 goals and 53 points, Fisher had 23 goals and 47 points. So what happened? Is it just some slump? No one really has an answer. Could it be the defense? Losing Redden hasn't hampered the defensive output, as Filip Kuba already has 19 points, and is on pace to easily replace Redden's mark of 38 points last year. To me the answer lies in the fact that there may have been too many changes in the dressing room. In desperation to make or break over the past 3 seasons, the Sen's have gone through many different players. From the 06-07 season, only 11 players remain. The biggest changes have come on the defensive end. Chris Phillips, Christoph Schubert, and Anton Volchenkov have been the 3 that have remained, while Joe Corvo, Andrej Mezsaros, Wade Redden, Tom Preissing, Mike Commodore, and Luke Richardson, have all come and gone.
The secondary scoring has always been a problem and the Sens have constantly tried and failed at improving that. In 06-07 they brought in Mike Comrie and Oleg Saprykin, but those two failed miserably. In 07-08 it was aging vet, Cory Stillman who managed to put up a solid 65 points. This year the Sens put their hopes in their up and coming forwards, however this has clearly not been working out for them. The solution to the Sens problems only comes with more roster changes. Brian Murray must do something to spark his secondary scoring, dealing Vermette is a possibility, but his play as of late doesn't guarantee much in return. The idea of trading one of their top scorers is a hard one to swallow, yet, seems the most plausible as to what they would receive as compensation. Now one may ask, which one?
Much has been speculated that Jason Spezza is the odd man out, but why would you trade such a young talented forward? If i were Brian Murray, I would simply not that Alfredsson is the oldest of the bunch, and yes he is a huge leader, but its time to give it over to the youth. Dealing Alfredson to a Cup contender would bring back enormous returns. It would also show a lot of class to give Alfredsson his shot at a Stanley Cup, seeing as he is 35. This move would also clear up plenty of cap room for some summer spending, and with names such as Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, and Gaborik all hitting the market, a fat wallet doesn't hurt.
Yes its isn't an immediate boost, but at least it helps to make the Sens future look a little brighter then it does right now. The problem for the present is the fact that there are a lot better teams in the playoff picture right now, and it would be hard for the Sens to work their way in.


Heading down south to good ol' Texas, we find a similar problem. The Stars have been desperately trying to find something that works over the past few seasons. Acquiring Brad Richards, and Mike Ribeiro had seemed to be a huge boost for their offense, however, they sit at the bottom of the Western conference as we speak. The Stars have been battling a few major injuries, as star captain Brendan Morrow, and star defensman Sergei Zubov are/have missed/missing an enormous amount of the season. There is also the issue of Sean Avery, who many believed to have poisoned their dressing room. That doesn't explain the horrible play of starting goalie Marty Turco, or the fact that Ribeiro and Richards have a combined 9 goals. Young forward Loui Eriksson leads the team in goals with 12, which has been a good surprise thus far. One of, if not the main reason for the struggle thus far, is the lack of depth at forwards. After Morrow went down, the Stars were left with a trio of Modano, Ribeiro, and Richards. From there rookie Fabian Brunnstrom has not been as prolific as expected, and recent signing Mark Parrish has not panned out well either. Toby Peterson, Steve Ott, James Neal, Krys Barch, and Landon Wilson, round out the forwards, and just proves the lack of depth.
At this point for the Stars, with Avery pretty much done, Morrow gone, and Zubov in and out of the lineup, it seems like a lonnnnngggggg way up. There isn't much, as far as roster changes go, available for the Stars. They more or less have to stick it out and run their course from here on in. They may be in for the Tavares sweepstakes by seasons end, but it seems like this season, the Stars could really use a "mulligan" and just start all over again.