First of all, thanks to all of you that took the time to leave your response in yesterday’s comment section.
With the Ottawa Senators celebrating their Twentieth season in the NHL, I thought it might be fun to do some reflection on years passed. Using your votes, I have come up with the reader's choice in eight categories.
Most Underrated/Most Overrated player, Most Heart, Toughest, Most Entertaining, All-Time Favourite, Worst Sens Memory and Best Sens Memory. Over the next little while, I’ll be posting the results in each of the categories.
Up first…Most Underrated Ottawa Senator of the last 20 years.
This was probably the category with the most variety in the responses. The answers that were submitted varied from current Sens to old and included a mix of grinders, offence stars, goalies and defenceman.
But in the end, the winner was forward Chris Kelly, with 20 % of the vote.
Hard to argue with this one. Kelly was a heart and soul player for this team that always had a way of elevating his play when the game was on the line. Reliable in all three zones, Chris Kelly was the type of guy you could trust with the game on the line. Kelly is with the Bruins now but it’s clear the impression he left on fans in this city remains.
Honourable mention to Radek Bonk (10%), Antoine Vermette (10%) and Patrick Lalime (9%).
The complete list of players receiving votes can be found below.
MOST UNDERRATED (59 votes)
Chris Kelly- 12
Radek Bonk- 6
Antoine Vermette- 6
Patrick Lalime- 5
Chris Phillips- 3
Magnus Arvedsson- 3
Martin Havlat- 3
Ray Emery- 3
Anton Volchenkov- 2
Jason Spezza- 2
Nick Foligno- 2
Ron Tugnutt- 2
Shawn McEachern-1
Shean Donovan-1
Todd White-1
Zdeno Chara-1
Alexandre Daigle- 1
Peter Schaefer- 1
Christoph Schubert- 1
Daniel Alfredsson- 1
Filip Kuba- 1
Bryan Murray- 1
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After a hard fought win in Edmonton last night, the Sens traveled to Vancouver ahead of their Sunday night tilt with the Vancouver Canucks. Paul MacLean gave his players the day off and they are expected to return to the practice ice tomorrow at 1:00 PM Pacific time.
I like the arvedson selection. I remember that guy would get like a breakaway every 2nd game he played on the PK lights out quick, if only he could finish
Other nomination I really liked was Shean Donovan, that man would do anything ever asked. He reminded me of someone else who now I wish I would have voted for in Shaun van Allen
I still remember van Allen lighting it up with havlat! Anyways great blog topic Chirp!
My vote for most underrated player, although I have taken this to mean under appreciated as well is: Jason Spezza.
He's a PPG player. A true No1 centre for this team and gets ripped whenever the opportunity arises. Since I've been a fan he has always been the go to guy to slam whenever anything goes wrong.
If we had paid the money he asked for I'm sure he'd be in the overrated category right now. Sometimes best to leave on a happy note.
I'm pretty sure Craig MacTavish was the last guy without a helmet.
Doesn't sound underrated to me...
Ask Wade Redden... Redden's demise was when Chara left Volchenkov went to play with Phillips. Redden and Mesauros never worked out as well as Redden and Volchenkov.
I think the voters are confusing the meaning of underrated with good but not a star player. Kelly was much appreciated for his role during his time in Ottawa by coaches, teammates, and fans.
My vote for example is logical. Daigle is hated by the Ottawa fan base for not becoming a star player. Yet he played 616 NHL games in his career and put up 327 points. His career was criminally underrated because he wasn't what fans expected him to be.
I think Kelly is actually one of the worst possible examples. He's greatly appreciated by Ottawa fans for what he did here, the 12 votes more than prove that.
Daigle was overrated as a prospect. He didn't become what he was supposed to. However a guy who played 616 NHL games and put up half-a-point a game is hardly the "bust" people constantly accuse him of being. He is disproportionat ely viewed as being much worse than he actually was because of where he was drafted.
Carter is a 1st line C for sure, would easily make our 2nd line a dynamo, but if he is asking to be traded we don't need that type of player on our team right now, not again. Plus, the asking price would be stupid ridiculous, which would include a 1st round pick +, which we are not going to give away.
Mistakes like that leave you in the middle of the pack...Example, Tranna...
If we had laich we never would have had fisher and kelly develop they did and fetch us what they did. Hindsight is 20/20 of course but at the time I remember how pumped I was to have Peter Bondra
Considering where Columbus is right now, if those picks are for this year, Philly could be making out VERY well. CBJ is dead last with 8 points, that pick goes right into Philly's pocket. Who do you think they have in mind??
I don't know about the 3rd, but the 1st rounder was the one the Flyers used to select Couturier
Funny, they've spent 3-5 years rebuilding their team, and we spent 2-3 weeks rebuilding ours yet we are still further in the rebuilding process!
GO SENS GO!
whatever makes him sleep at night. I didn't realize it was a ref that let in 3 goals high glove on 7 shots?
seems to be his logic, meh, whatever, that is what is nice about Chirp...if we play like crap..that is what his analysis, yeah, we blew that one, this could have been better...not... well the refs made our defense turnover the puck x amount of times in the neutral zone.
Also what does happen when Carkner comes back... that is 2 extra D and once Neil comes back and then Regin.. don't they go over the 23 man roster they are allowed to keep? Something has to give.
Kessel is wayyy too young to be an All-Star captain in my opinion. I liked the Selanne idea someone suggested the other day though.
It at the time, just like you didn't know Bondra was "done", some of our "Brain Trust" should have put greater value on Brooks.
How about Laich/2nd center; Fisher/3rd center, Kelly/4th center; ya coulda had 'em all!
ERROR 404: LOGIC NOT FOUND.....
I will be very, very upset if we don't continue to move out expiring/unwant ed contracts for prospects and picks. I don't care if we're first overall we should not be "stocking up for a run" this year. IF we manage to be in the hunt this year it only means we're that much more likely to be in the hunt for the next several years with the young guys we have - don't trade any of them away for rentals.
The more I think about it, the more I'd have to go with Arvedsson. Kelly might be better but Arvedsson was less-recognized and extremely consistent/stro ng/defensive/re liable etc.
That's the last thing I want cause then when alfie wins and get game MVP all the leafs fans will say it's cause he drafted kessle think ahead!!!
With Daugs/Wincheste r/Konopka scoring and Butler doing better Filatov realized he had to actually work IMO...
Good to hear they are winning. Is Lehner out with that knee injury? Who is Riley Armstrong?
Great pickup then... Did Kleinendorst find him? Seems to have worked...
my sentiments exactly,
he was a top 3 I believe, that played with great players, and was really the third wheel on most of his lines,
I think he should have been in the overrated category.
another example was Pavel Demitra
we may have another in Filatov...hope he gets his chance here
High ankle sprain. On the injured reserve and no timetable for a return.
nah lets hope kessel gets picked last again like last year...that moment of ovechkin phone filming him made me weekend lolololol
The definition of underrated to the rest of the world is "To rate too low; underestimate." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/underrated