Honourable And Dishonourable Mentions Of The Week
SenShot is always looking for new ideas and weekly blogs to post. Along with the around the web links, and best tweets of the week, SenShot has introduced a new weekly blog that will come every Monday. I will be running this segment, which is called “Honourable and Dishonourable Mentions.”
The concept is self-explanatory, as each writer from the site simply gives their honourable and dishonourable mention of the week for any player, coach, or staff member in the Ottawa Senators organization (which also includes Binghamton). It’s essentially something good and something bad that happened from the past week, but everyone gets to voice their opinion. We hope you enjoy this new segment!
Jack Leiper:
Honourable Mention – Milan Michalek
Milan Michalek has really stepped of his game in 2015 and you have to give him kudos for that. He now has 10 goals and 10 assists on the year, and after what was looking like a terrible season, he’s turned things around.
He’s played like a 4 million dollar player in 2015, and has to be feeling confident. Good for Milan, he gets my honourable mention.
Dishonourable Mention – Binghamton Senators
The whole season has been a dud, much like Ottawa’s. After expectations with what was supposed to be a promising forward group, we’ve seen nothing from this crew. Shame.
Fans are frustrated with the defence, and we’ve seen two losing streaks of greater than 5 games. Bingo won’t make the playoffs, as Ottawa’s AHL system hasn’t looked promising. That’s my mini-rant.
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Honourable Mention – Shane Prince
Prince has been with the organization for almost the better part of three seasons as he finally gets the call he’s been dreaming of. All Bingo fans wish him well in his NHL debut as Prince is a fan favorite featuring his hustle, speed, and puck control in scoring as evident in leading the club in many categories this season.
Good luck Shane!
Dishonourable Mention – Alex Guptill
Guptill took an ill-advised hooking penalty more than mid-way through the third period in Sunday’s game at CTC which led to a Toronto goal killing whatever momentum the Senators had at the time. Luckily enough, the Senators scored a shorthanded one prior to that Marlie goal so the game remained intact with Binghamton leading.
Zachary Prenner:
Honourable Mention – Whoever decided to call up Shane Prince
Jeff took my original choice of Prince, but I’d like to mention that I’m pleased Prince will finally get a chance to showcase himself at the NHL level. With the playoffs highly unlikely at this point, I’m all in favour of bringing up players like Prince, Puempel, Claesson and Wideman to see how they fair with the big club.
They are the future of this organization – or so we hope. It’s imperative we find out just what kind of assets we have, and we’ll never properly do that with them sitting in Bingo.
Dishonourable Mention – Chris Neil‘s thumb
Neil’s battle with Luke Gazdic of the Oilers on Saturday was an awesome throwback of vintage Neil pugilism, but in the process he managed to fracture his thumb. Because of this, any trade talk regarding his future has been all but nixed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Neil and would be glad to see him retired as a Senator, but with the Draft as deep as they say it is, and his declined play, I’m aware he might be more valuable as an asset for a trade which now seems highly unlikely.
Feb 14, 2015; Ottawa, Ontario, CAN; Edmonton Oilers left wing Luke Gazdic (20) fights with Ottawa Senators right wing Chris Neil (25) in the second period at the Canadian Tire Centre. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
Travis Valois:
Honourable Mention- Mike Hoffman
One player who has impressed me all season is Mike Hoffman. The man is always looking to shoot the puck. I sometimes find the Senators frustrating in the offensive zone. Many of the Sens players make that one extra pass that doesn’t lead to a fruitful scoring chance. Hoffman has put 101 shots on net at even strength. He leads the Senators with 18 even strength goals.
Dishonourable Mention- Chris Neil
Chris Neil fought on January 31st, February 7th, and February 14th. His most recent fight resulted in an injured thumb. A friend recently pointed out to me that Chris Neil has probably been fighting because he wants to stay in Ottawa. Would Neil intentionally fight more to suffer an injury and not get traded? Probably not but its a funny theory!
For the longest time my gut feeling was that Methot would be traded…He certainly would have gotten more on the open market
Trevor Shackles:
Honourable Mention- Bryan Murray
Just as I began writing this post, news came in that the Ottawa Senators had re-signed Marc Methot to a 4 year contract worth a total of $19.6 million (cap hit of $4.9 million). For the longest time my gut feeling was that Methot would be traded, as he wanted more money than what Ottawa was giving, and he certainly would have gotten more on the open market.
I’m extremely happy he re-signed though, and good for Bryan Murray on getting the job done. Now only if he could trade some veterans…
Dishonourable Mention- Alex Chiasson
He did score a goal and an assist on Saturday, but it was against Edmonton in a 7-2 drubbing. He’s getting less and less ice time (including only 9:27 against Buffalo), and for good reason. I think we already know what he is, and it’s not someone to get super excited about. He’s a third line player that doesn’t drive possession. If other teams were interested in him I would call them up right away.
That wraps up the first segment of honourable and dishonourable mentions here at SenShot, I hope you enjoyed this new concept! Tune in every Monday to see thoughts from all the writers on the site.