Sens Army..!

I've always wanted to start off with that. Yes, it's gimmicky. But so are many other facets of this organization. You know. Bryan Murray's lisp. Cory Clouston's Mexx addiction. Eugene Melnyk's public comments. About time we as fans embrace our place within the gimmick that is the Ottawa Senators of 2011.

So Sens Army(!!), we have found ourselves to be in quite the peculiar position. We now cheer for our team to lose, and we cheer for our team to win. It's confusing to be an Ottawa fan right now for sure, as all of our standards and expectations have completely evaporated, and we have little left with which to put these remaining games into context.

In an effort to make the tank watch more enjoyable, it is obvious that a drinking game must be developed and put into place for all Sens fans to use as a coping mechanism. Or as an excuse to get truculent and vandalize Leafs paraphernalia. 

So hey, how about this. I'll start, with the first five drinking game rules, and you, the Sens Army (!!!) can come up with the rest.

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I'll preface this post by asking that you don't hate me for this suggestion, and that you keep an open mind while reading and commenting.

Daniel Alfredsson is mired in what is by far the worst slump of his career. He's been moved back and forth from the right of Jason Spezza to the right of Mike Fisher, and who knows how many different left wings have come and gone on his line.

In the meantime he has not produced offensively. Why this is I do not know. It must be noted that he is indeed still leading the charge offensively... but I use the term 'leading' in the loosest sense possible.

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Daniel Alfredsson. Jason Spezza. Alex Kovalev. Mike Fisher. Milan Michalek. Peter Regin. Sergei Gonchar. Erik Karlsson. Filip Kuba. Chris Campoli. 

These names more or less represent the pile of puzzle pieces for both power play units entering the season for the Ottawa Senators. On paper, they already trump what the franchise had assembled for the man advantage entering last season by a country kilometre. This is largely related to the off-season acquisition of Gonchar, and the offensive emergence of both Karlsson and Regin in the latter part of last year.

However, if your name is Cory Clouston, the question has become how to best arrange your resources so as to extract the most offense possible over the course of the campaign, with the goal of developing a downright scary man advantage come playoff time. After all, this squad in its present manifestation will not go deep into the post-season by virtue of its suffocating defense... fact. 

Alas, put on your Punch Imlach hats and go nuts in the comment section. Assemble the power play puzzle as you see fit. Include justifications for why your combinations and permutations are superior to the next guy/gal. And be sure to key in your prediction for the performance of the PP as a whole into the poll. 

On a rainy and miserable Saturday morn in the fall, I awoke to a splendid surprise. It was a friend of mine calling, and offering one extra ticket to the Senators-Rangers game, with puck drop in a half hours time. After accepting (obviously), I realized two things- one, that it wasn't morning, but rather early afternoon, and two, that I was still drunk from the previous nights antics. 

As it turned out, the seat was in one of the 400 level Molson boxes, with complimentary beer and a most hospitable environment to boot! Arriving to the box as the puck dropped, we asked our friendly barkeep for some beer and sat down amongst the others in the middle of the seating area. Ah, the high life.

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