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Sunday, December 19, 1999
Yashin return isn't the answer
The Senators are in the middle of a stretch in which they've won only three of 10 games. They lost six of those games.
Goal scoring is a problem. They've been shut out once in that stretch and in six of those games, they've scored two goals or less.
Offensive help is needed.
A trade should be made, some people are saying.
Sound familiar?
It should. That's exactly the situation the Senators found themselves in one year ago when they won only three of 10 games between Dec. 5 and Dec. 28.
That was with Alexei Yashin in the lineup.
I'm not one of those people who think the Senators are a better team without Yashin in their lineup. He's a great player whose presence gives the team's skill level a tremendous boost.
He's also a gamebreaker who can get that big goal for you with a great individual effort and there aren't nearly enough of those types of players to go around.
But for all those folks who were starting to get squirmy because the Senators hit a bit of a lean patch recently, keep in mind they went through exactly the same thing with Yashin in their lineup last season.
The Senators would be a better team with Alexei Yashin in their lineup, no doubt about it.
LOSS NOT THAT BIG
But they are not diminished as much as you might think by his absence.
Other people, most notably Radek Bonk, have stepped up and grown into the space created by Yashin's decision not to honour his contract.
The point: If the Senators start to struggle, don't automatically blame it on Yashin not being around. It's true they have enjoyed great success in the past with him in the lineup.
They've also gone through some lean times, as well.
The problems, at those times, particularly on a club that prides itself on its team concept, run much deeper than the addition or subtraction of one player.
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