Presented without comment: Ottawa extends GM Bryan Murray

Per TSN, Ottawa has re-signed General Manager Bryan Murray to a three-year extension. Murray inherited an Eastern Conference Champion when he moved upstairs in 2007. After four years, the Sens have won a single playoff series and are 32-39-11 this season.

Other than the Wells trade, what we learned this weekend

This weekend, we learned through Roy MacGregor of the Globe that the Ottawa Senators are finally going to go through a rebuilding process. Ottawa finish off their pre-All Star schedule at home to Buffalo on Tuesday, and in their recent stretch where they've lost 11 of 12 games, they have been outscored 49-20. That is, well, horrible, and the team hasn't been able to score this year, or put shots on net, or generate chances. They are 29th in goals, 24th in shots and 29th in 5-on-5 scoring.

The team aren't in a too bad of a position for a rebuild since they'll see a lot of expiring contracts over the next couple of years and aren't going to be signing any big names for a while (if they do it right).

Expansion franchise: Hamilton Boo Birds

[Frank Chartrand - AP]

Ontario hockey teams are not very good, are they? Both got shutout last night at home, both were booing their own teams, and neither look like they'll make it to the playoffs anytime soon without some serious housekeeping.

A brief look at Hockey Night in Canada

In a move up there with the Edmonton Oilers firing their training staff, the butthurt guys at the Ottawa Citizen suggested last week that the team ban Toronto Maple Leaf fans from Senators' home games.

Why is this relevant? Because the Leafs and Sens game is the early game on Hockey Night tonight; neither team is really good this year at a combined 18-26 and both team has found a way to manage a loss to the other!

Leafs strategy: Send Orr after goalie

Trainspotting with the 1-4 Ottawa Senators

Choose Ottawa Senators hockey. Choose a goalie. Choose defensemen. Choose a centreman. Choose a Swedish captain. Choose an arena with one entrance 25 km out of the city. Choose one highway exit. Choose a parking logjam. Choose red, black and white. Choose an easily confused GM. Choose an injury prone goaltender. Choose a more reliable backup. Choose to leave Jason Spezza on the first line, God knows why. Choose, of all possible San Jose Shark options, Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek. Choose not to accept that Daniel Alfredsson is not Daniel Alfredsson from five years ago. Choose a piggybacking PP specialist over a proven shot-blocker. Choose an over-the-hill Russian superstar. Choose to boo young defensemen. Choose not to attend games. Choose instead to unpack Leafs gear stored away in 1992. Choose to wear childish third jersey to game. Choose Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Campoli. Choose to keep Chris Phillips playing as your top defenseman, regardless of the fact that he has been on the ice for more goals at even strength than any other defenseman so far this season. Choose to be the team that shoots more than the opponent, but still get outshot 40-19 on national television. I choose not to choose Ottawa Senators hockey.

The Good Old Hockey Game - A look at the NHL season

The NHL season starts tomorrow, and every blog likes to put together a gimmicky look at the season. There's no reason The 'Eh' Factor can't get involved in this. Here are some lulz and predictions to get you ready for the season.

How the NHL network TV schedule affects Canadian teams

The National Hockey League released it's 2010/2011 network television schedule for both the Canadian and American markets on Wednesday. CBC, TSN and TSN2 will carry national games in Canada, along with the early game we'll see on NBC after New Year's.

National TV broadcasts get us into a nice routine. Saturday nights are for curling up on the couch and flipping on CBC, particularly after playing out on the pond, or spending the day sleeping off a hangover and playing video games. The weekday TSN games are great for when you come in after work or school, too bent out of shape to complain about Pierre McGuire.

TSN are advertising 124 games on TSN and TSN2 this season, although the TSN2 games tend to be picked up from Versus. Some highlights from the TSN2 schedule include:

Monday October 18th - Colorado @ NY Rangers
Monday November 29th - Dallas @ Carolina
Monday December 27th - Minnesota @ Columbus
Monday January 17th - Los Angeles @ Dallas
Monday February 14th - Washington @ Phoenix
Tuesday March 15th - Buffalo @ Carolina

Sure, maybe some of those games, along with others on the 48-game TSN2 schedule, won't be total stinkers, but the TSN2 games are either Versus pickups or games where an extra camera crew may happen to be leftover in the region. Subtract those and the six preseason games plus four games from Europe that are on during times nobody will be able to watch, and we're looking at a 66-game schedule. That's nothing to sneeze at, and the North American season starts off nicely with a double-header on October 13th, with Toronto in Pittsburgh and Vancouver in Anaheim.

All in all on TSN we're looking at a 66-game schedule, with eight double headers, so 58 days during the year where there will be a nationally-televised game featuring a Canadian. That is more than enough to get your truculence fix from the Maple Leafs or Flames.

CBC, as usual, offers up the usual Saturday doubleheader, plus a doubleheader on Thursday, October 7th with Montreal in Toronto and Calgary in Edmonton with some specially scattered games throughout the season.

The national broadcaster will also have tripleheaders on December 4th, New Year's Day (accounting for the Winter Classic, which falls on a Saturday this year), February 5th, Hockey Day In Canada on February 12th, March 12th, and on April 9th, the last Saturday of the regular season.

Some notes:

-All three Western Canadian teams will be broadcasted on either TSN or CBC a total of 24 times: 14 times on CBC and 10 times on TSN. The Toronto Maple Leafs see their 24th nationally televised game on January 25th. The Montreal Canadiens will see their 24th nationally televised game on January 18th. The Ottawa Senators will see their 24th nationally televised game in franchise history sometime next season.

-The Edmonton Oilers boast the number one draft pick who will likely play on the team, but they have no nationally televised games in the United States.

-The Vancouver Canucks will not see a Saturday night game against a Western Canadian foe until, get this, January 22nd against the Calgary Flames. The Oilers and the Canucks will only see each other once on CBC.

-As usual, every Montreal Canadiens game will be televised in Canada on specialty channel RDS, which can be bought from all of the major carriers in smooth standard definition.

Neil owes $2.4 mil, idle Jays draft

Your Tuesday headlines

-Due to blogger being down yesterday, we could not bring you the headlines. Unfortunately, they were very funny, and only our esteemed editor had a chance to read them.



-First off, it appears that Ottawa Senators forward Chris Neil has been in debt for quite some time.

Luckily, the man has all kinds of talent to fall back on.



-The Blue Jays drafted Deck McGuire, a future KRIO Action 7! News team anchor, with the 11th pick in the draft. The guy sounds totally badass, and, as a Blue Jays right hander, would probably only blow 30 saves a year!

-Here's a blog post comparing Chris Pronger to Gordie Howe in a way that does not stretch as much as it could. Pronger has had two horrible games these playoffs, in which times the goalie has been pulled.

-Joey Votto went 0-for-3. Had Michael Saunders not hit a three-run homer, we'd have been doomed at the next Baseball Classic.

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Okay, we're done. We need sleepz.