Amidst all of the angry, frustrated and embarrassed e-mails and calls that we got this morning wanting to vent about the Sens performance against Carolina, there’s something that we really didn’t get into. We started to broach it a little bit when talking about Bryan Murray making moves for the future, but we really didn’t get into when he should start.
For a lot of you, he should have started “the rebuild” months or even years ago, but almost all of you have agreed that the rebuild should have at least started weeks ago. If I had to put all the Sens fans that have hope for the playoffs onto a deserted island, I think I would only need one plane and a very small island. So, if just about everyone is in agreement, then when should the rebuild start?
I was thinking this as the Sens were embarrassing themselves in the last 10 minutes of Wednesday’s game and I had an epiphany of sorts. With the Blue Jackets coming up tomorrow night and the vaunted Blue team coming to Scotiabank Place on January 1st to ring in 2011, if the Sens were to lose both of those games to make it three losses in a row, what better way to start the year than to blow it all up?
I remember a show in which the callers asked Lee and I this very same question and I remember telling everyone that I would wait ‘til about mid-January before making any rash decisions, but if they can’t beat one of three teams that are outside the playoff picture in a four-day stretch, then there’s no hope for this hockey club.
Now, all of this trade talk is fun to some, but let’s remember a couple of truths that may ruin the roll that we’re on right now. Just because you decide to be a seller, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make trades at the drop of a hat. The NHL has now become a league where all trading is done at the trade deadline and maybe a couple of weeks before.
Waiting may not necessarily be a bad thing for this team. As long as they continue to hover around the 8 spot, they hold power in trades involving winning clubs that are looking to poach talent because they can always make the argument that they’re still trying to push for the post-season. If the Sens continue to fall though, their trading power starts to fade as it becomes more and more clear that they would be trading with the future in mind.
Secondly, we have to remember that we don’t pay the salaries and bills to run the franchise like Eugene Melnyk does. Remember when he said that the team has to make it to the second round just to break even. If he’s worried about the bottom line, he may not be willing to go through a long, drawn out rebuild in the hopes of a championship.
It’s got to be a tough spot for any organization to be in. You want to win so desperately and you’re supposed to believe in yourself. It’s so tough to be cerebral about things and take the emotion out of the decision on when to quit, but if the Sens keep losing at this rate, it’s imperative that the management and ownership of this team figure out exactly when it’s time to do what every sports franchise dreads.