Today's Top News, as Always

Reviews of yesterday's game at the rookie tournament, Hartsburg's plan for the team as well as his plan to split up the big line, a few thoughts on emerging rookie Kudelka, and Fisher getting noticed around the league.

A few reviews of yesterday's rookie tournament game against the Maple Leafs, from the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Senators' website. It was rather impressive to see our guys come back from a 2-0 deficit to win the game, and they were working a lot better in their roles, looking more like teammates than individuals competing for roster spots. You can see my previous entry for a lengthy look at the game's events.

An Ottawa Sun story on Hartsburg's vision for the team and the way he wants to see them play. Like a good boss would, he made the effort to contact the players over the summer, not to tell them exactly what he wants from them, but to talk about his expectations, and also to hear what their feelings were on the past season and their goals for the season ahead. Everyone will be asked to play to their role, but there will be an increased focus on defensive awareness and on working as a team, both simple ideas, but effective and essential ones nonetheless.

Another Ottawa Sun article has word that indeed the big line will be split up this season. He suggests that he'll keep Heatley and Spezza together at first, but that they will have to find other combinations that work, with my hope being we get an opportunity to see Spezza with neither Alfie nor Heatley on his wings, to see him really prove that he doesn't need players earning as much as him to be worth what he makes. Alfie might wind up with Fisher, but Fisher should also be expected to contribute as a solid two-way player regardless. I like hearing that Hartsburg has expectations from all our players, regardless of who they have to work with, since they need to be adaptable. His plan for three scoring lines with one hate-to-play-against line would seem to imitate the successful plan of champions past, and I hope the players really buy into it this year.

The Ottawa Citizen has a nice little special look at the hopes for prospect Tomas Kudelka. It sounds as though Binghamton coach Clouston and Tim Murray both agree that he has potential, but that one of the bigger adjustments for him will be to adapt to the increased skill and especially pressure of the AHL and eventually the NHL. I hope to see him continue his solid play at today's tournament in an hour, and with any luck see him stand out among the blueliners, no easy task this tournament though.

Finally, an NHL.com story about some of the toughest guys at both ends of the ice brings us Fisher. You don't hear two-way player if you're a Sens fan without thinking of Mike, and there's plenty of good reason for that. Hopefully he's all healed up from his season-ending injury, and I would not be at all surprised to see him sporting an 'A' on his jersey this season, with all the ability to live up to that responsibility.

Fisher Signs 5-year Extension with Sens

With a full dozen players finishing their contracts this season, Brian Murray is wasting no time in taking care of business. The Ottawa Senators announced today that they have signed peerless two-way forward Mike Fisher to a whopping five year extension, worth 21 million dollars, or 4.2 million a year against the cap. This extension makes Fisher the Senator under contract furthest into the future, one year longer than the end of the last year of Alfie's option years, to the end of the 2012-13 season. Fisher and Murray are both happy to see him stay in the capital, not to mention legions of Senators fans.

While not possessing the scoring touch of Dany Heatley, Mike's got as much heart and grit as anyone else in our Nation's capital. Depending on Redden's future with the team at the end of the season, it's very likely that Fisher could take on the "A" full time alongside Phillips, although it's likely that Murray wants Redden to stick around, albeit for a much reduced price. Saving the Selke Trophy nominee from hitting the market next year undoubtedly saves the Sens some bankroll, despite how lofty 4.2 million a season seems. Comparable players this season went for similar amounts, ones without the complete grit, leadership, and two-way package Fisher offers.

Signing Fisher also sends some interesting messages. The first and most important message is this: in choosing to sign Fisher first, ahead of scoreboard babies Heatley and Spezza and the rest of the squad, Murray is showing that players who give their heart and soul to the team every night will always reap the rewards, without having to try to extort or bargain their way there. Now look at the flip side, back to the part where we want to have a 23 man roster next season. Including Fisher, the Sens have now locked up 10 players for 27 million dollars, averaging 2.7 million dollars each. To lock up the remaining 13 we'd like to have, we have less than 2 million to spend on each of them. If we sign Heatley to an extension, worst case cost of 8.5 million, that would give us just over 1.2 million to offer the other dozen. If we were to sign Spezza on top of that, we'd be the Tampa Bay lightning, filling out the rest of our roster with league-minimum players.

So what's going to happen? My guess is that Heatley will get the nod over Spezza. While Spezza's no slouch, comparing their numbers prior to pairing up, it's Heatley who's proven his mettle on his own. Heatley also differs from Spezza in that he can play a full season, can take and can dish out a hit, can kill penalties, and can deal with the hardest of demons. My guess is that this will be Spezza's last season with the Sens, barring some kind of gift discount to the Sens offered by the dynamic duo in order to stay together. Most likely, we will see ourselves the proud new owners of four first-round draft picks. If we're lucky, maybe one of those might just be able to nab us John Tavares.