Wednesday, February 18, 2004
From one national capital to another
The Sens have acquired Peter Bondra from Washington for prospect Brooks Laich and a second round pick in 2005. While I like Laich and think he's got a good future ahead of him in the NHL, if he's what it takes to improve the Sens chances at winning the Cup this year then so be it.
The Sens are stacked with young forwards: Hossa, Havlat, Spezza, Fisher, Schaefer, Vermette, Langfeld, Neil, etc while Smolinski and (hopefully) Alfredsson are locked into their lineup for the next few years. They also have some other good foward prospects in Bochenski, Eaves, Mirnov and Kaigorodov in the system. Basically, the Sens are stacked and you can only have 13 or 14 forwards on your roster when everyone is healthy.
As for Bondra, since he was playing the Sens last night I noticed how he's still damn fast. He caught up to Alfredsson on a breakaway during last night's game. He'll just add more speed to possibly the fastest group of wingers in the league. He'll also help playing the point on the powerplay. The Sens can now send out Redden with Alfredsson and Chara with Bondra on the points for their two powerplay lineups to go along with Hossa, Havlat, Bonk, Spezza, Smolinski, etc up front.
Another question is, when everyone's healthy, who does Bondra push out of the Sens lineup? Probably Josh Langfeld who has looked really good since he got recalled from Binghamton with 13 points in his last 16 games. But then again, when does a team have everyone healthy in the NHL these days?
The Sens are stacked with young forwards: Hossa, Havlat, Spezza, Fisher, Schaefer, Vermette, Langfeld, Neil, etc while Smolinski and (hopefully) Alfredsson are locked into their lineup for the next few years. They also have some other good foward prospects in Bochenski, Eaves, Mirnov and Kaigorodov in the system. Basically, the Sens are stacked and you can only have 13 or 14 forwards on your roster when everyone is healthy.
As for Bondra, since he was playing the Sens last night I noticed how he's still damn fast. He caught up to Alfredsson on a breakaway during last night's game. He'll just add more speed to possibly the fastest group of wingers in the league. He'll also help playing the point on the powerplay. The Sens can now send out Redden with Alfredsson and Chara with Bondra on the points for their two powerplay lineups to go along with Hossa, Havlat, Bonk, Spezza, Smolinski, etc up front.
Another question is, when everyone's healthy, who does Bondra push out of the Sens lineup? Probably Josh Langfeld who has looked really good since he got recalled from Binghamton with 13 points in his last 16 games. But then again, when does a team have everyone healthy in the NHL these days?
