Ottawa Senators: Skill, Not Location

With the NHL season done, more or less, it's time that I say what my team, the Ottawa Senators, needs to do in the offseason.

First of all, the Sens have a huge hole to fill behind the bench. Even if John Paddock can now say that he led the Ottawa Senators to the best start in history, he lacked the leadership and sheer grit to keep the momentum going.

Why? He had it easy before. Playing second fiddle to Bryan Murray in the 06-07 season when the Senators made it to the big dance (the Cup finals), he had basically no stress to perform.

Once Bryan Murray stepped up to GM for this franchise fit for the Gods, Paddock was left to cope with seemingly no problems whatsoever. Time would prove him wrong.

So who do the Sens need behind the bench right now? A coach who has a history of good team building, and leadership and since Murray wants to stay GM that means a little bit of looking is needed.

There is already some talk of acquiring former Leafs coach Pat Quinn and, even if I hate the team, I must say Quinn is exactly what the Sens need right about now.

There is also talk about giving Patrick Roy his NHL coaching debut in Ottawa. But after the incident he and his son endured this year, I say that it would probably be best to leave him where he is.

Now more than ever, the Senators need to improve on the blue line.  With Wade Redden packing his bags and with no other actual leader on the back end, things are going to be tough.

Some may say Ottawa has Chris Phillips, Andrej Meszaros, and what have you, but the point still remains that things are going to go from bad to worse if GM Murray doesn't make some magic at the draft.

Finally (and it's been talked about all year) what to do in nets? Ray Emery is gone, and all I have to say about it is: it's about time! Yes, he led the team when Hasek was out, yes he led the team to the Cup finals, and yes he had an okay start this year, but that is all in the past.

He now sucks and the Ottawa Senators have come to this realisation and are looking at a trade or free agency. Kudos to the Sens for that! But wait a minute, that leaves only one problem: No more backup! Everybody calm down, take a deep breath, and drink plenty of fluids.

Let's figure this one out together.

Option one, get Emery traded for a good backup. Fat chance, but if somebody is dumb enough to take him and give something back in return, the team will take it.

Option two, sign an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). All nice, but that would mean buying Emery out which leaves less money in the pot. Darn.

Now if the Sens strike oil and get a good goalie who doesn't care about the money, that would be a good thing. If not, they're gonna get stuck with a decent, or maybe even bad, goalie to act as a hole filler, and that is not what you want to do.

Option three, call up someone from the minors. It might work, and it might not. Montreal got a gold in Carey Price from their minor team but he was already geared for glory. So the minors thing probably won't work. What can we get from this?

Unless miracles fall from the sky, the Ottawa Senators will most probably have a hard time with either their traded goalie, their UFA goalie, or their Called-Up-From-The-Minors-To-Fill-A-Hole goalie.

Next year is going to be tough for the Sens and unless the owner of the team suddenly becomes God, this stink might go on for a couple years. Let's just hope that what goes down must come up.