The Rebuild is Official

Eugene Melnyk has spoken out on the state and future of the Ottawa Senators. (Sun)

Notable statements from Melnyk:

"The time has come to make some of the most difficult decisions that an owner
can make."

"We’re going to do what it takes to bring the Stanley Cup to
Ottawa, whether it takes one, three or five years. It will happen. You have my
commitment."

“At this time, it makes no sense to make managerial or
coaching changes[.]”

Will Don Brennan shut the fuck up and stop whining about Clouston still being behind the bench? Jason York thinks he should. Peter Raaymakers at SilverSevenSens.com also disagrees that Clouston is at fault. I think everyone in Sens Army - except Don Brennan - has thought the same for a while now. You could see it with Leclaire last year.

A few key points on the rebuild according to sources for the Globe and Mail:

• General manager Bryan Murray will finish out the year in his position but will
  move on to a senior advisory role
• coach Cory Clouston will also play out the year, but is highly unlikely to stay on as head coach.
• Murray’s immediate task will be the “selling off” of player assets heading into the Feb.
  28 NHL trading deadline.
• The new general manager – tentative interviews have already taken place, with deeper interviews to come – would be in place for the June entry draft.
• Over the summer, the new GM, [...] would [...] re-calibrate the team by chasing prospects rather than expensive free agents.

Western Conference Final: Ducks v. Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings (1)
v.
Anaheim Ducks (2)

Preseries intro coming soon, but don't hesitate to start to berate your new enemy fans! Blog your best and blog it often!

Eastern Conference Final: Senators v. Sabres

Ottawa Senators (4)
v.
Buffalo Sabres (1)

The stage is set for the Eastern Conference Finals. The President Trophy winning Buffalo Sabres (1) host the steamrolling Ottawa Senators (4) in a battle to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Buffalo Sabres, known "affectionately" by rival fans as the BuffaSlugs for the team's new logo and general work ethic of their fans, have had a reversal of season. Starting strong out of the gate with a strong record over the first 20 games, the Sabres held on to gain home-ice throughout the playoffs and have been playing middle-of-the-pack hockey from around December onwards.

Their opponent, the underdog Ottawa Senators, are playing the strongest hockey of their history. The last 20 games of the season, the Senators were the team to beat winning big, coming from behind, grinding, and emerging from close games with the win. What a turnaround to the abysmal start that had pundits wondering if Ottawa would even make the post-season.

This series promises to be the best of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs as plenty of bad blood still exists from the February 22 meeting which saw Ottawa's Neil lay out Buffalo's Drury while finishing a clean open-ice check.



The Sabres responded by sending out goons Mair and Peters against the skilled Senators Spezza and Heately which turned out to be the best matchup Buffalo could manage with a chance of winning.



Biron, wholly embarassed by the fists of Emery was sent-off to Philadelphia for some fresh air and the chance to see attractive women.

The bad blood is sure to boil early and often. How long before Peters & McGrattan appear on the lineup cards? Which goalie will stand tallest? Will Brian Murray stoop to Lindy Ruff's tactics or will hockey prevail?

Sens & Sabres fans: Post your best and post it often - it's likely to get as messy here as it is on the ice.

Seeking Team Representatives!

So, in order for this site to be useful, fun, or simply a huge distraction from your productivity in April, we need contributors! Ideally we'll have two representatives from each team in the playoffs to post articles on the front page. Anyone will be able to comment, but they need something to comment about. If you are a literate - and affable - fan of one or more teams, or if you love stirring up rival fans, you're the type we want. If you are a regular commenter on habsblog.com, well, you likely had someone - your parole officer, perhaps - show you how to navigate here so I wouldn't recommend applying for the job, even if you knew what that was.

What the 'job' requires:

• At least you, or the rep for your rival team, should be able to post at least one post per game that your team plays. This allows commenters to respond to something of relevance,
• You should have respectable knowledge of your team and can mine the 'net and nhl.com's stats when disparaging your rival,
• A pent-up rage towards some event in your youth that you are to afraid/proud to talk about so instead you lash out at others using a combination of sarcam and elitist humour directed downwards at rival fans.

That's about it. Pretty simple. E-mail me at mork.from.ork.78(chez)gmail.com if you want to be a contributor and we'll get you hooked up.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Battle for the Cup. As you'll see in the header, the purpose of this blog is to bring together fans of teams in the NHL playoffs. There are plenty of team blogs, regional rivalry blogs, etc. out there which are dedicated to said teams/rivalries. However, the nature of the playoffs is such that every two weeks, a new short-term rivalry arises as teams move on. Here at the Battle for the Cup, we want to bring together fans from these teams (sorry, Leaf Nation) to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, successes and failings as the series go on, and to generally have fun kicking fans when their teams lose.

This site will probably work best for game-time commenting so you can continue visiting your normal top quality blogs for post-game analysis. While here, keep it respectable, please.

As an award, at the end of the playoffs, when the Champion has emerged victorious and with Cup raised high, the blog colours will change to those of the last team standing and remain so until the conclusion of the next season, or until the administrators get bored with the colours. (Rest assured, blue and white will never be used for the site colours :)). For now, though, Carolina won't get that respect as they were too inept to make it back to the playoffs following the win.