Has Hartsburg Had Enough Of Spezza?

   Is the writing on the wall for Jason Spezza? He has been demoted from Ottawa's first line to the second line. He will now center Foligno and Winchester, while Fisher has been moved up to center Heatley and Alfredsson.

 As gifted as Spezza can be offensively, Hartsburg has run out of patience with his "star" center for his continued defensive gaffs. Finally, a coach in Ottawa who is willing to show his team that he is the boss. With his "my way or the highway" coaching style, Hartsburg will either look like a genius when Spezza comes around or, at the very least, earn respect from the other players for rewarding hard work and effort with ice time. Unlike former SENS coaches, effort equates to ice time not contract size.

  Now don't get me wrong, Ottawa needs Spezza to put up numbers offensively, but I am of the opinion that he has not improved his game in the past two or three years. A player who gets twenty to twenty five minutes of ice time a game had better play average to well defensively, otherwise he can be seen as a liability when he's not filling the net with rubber. With such great team mates to learn the game from (without the puck), you would think that Spezza would improve through osmosis. I wonder if he asks Alfie or Fish or even Vermette for ideas on how to improve? Or is his head so high in the clouds that he sincerely doesn't care about his defensive play?

  Some GM's around the league are already beginning to panic, and I guarantee you that if someone was to package a good deal to Ottawa for Spezza, Murray would take it. It's not that they don't like Jason as a person, he does lots for local charities and to promote the Senators organization, he just doesn't seem to grasp the importance of improving his defence.

  So I say, let the rumours fly! Gaborik? Marleau? Sedin(s)? Lecavelier? Bring it on! I would even love to see prospects and draft picks, build through Binghamton.

GO SENS GO!