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Monday, October 11, 1999
Jury's still out on Zamuner
Four games, as impressive as they have been in them, is not enough to suggest the Senators will dominate the Eastern Conference or even the Northeast Division.
Just as four games, as unimpressive as he has been in them, is not enough to suggest Rob Zamuner will be a bust in Ottawa.
The former Tampa Bay Lightning captain had to be wishing for a better start with his new team, however.
Zamuner came to the Senators as the key to a compensation package for Tampa's signing of GM Rick Dudley; a seven-year veteran with the reputation of being a fine defensive left winger as well as one with the ability to score some goals, one that Team Canada officials thought so highly of that they picked him ahead of Mark Messier when putting together an entry for the Nagano Winter Olympics.
Zamuner, some believed, might even draw consideration to become a first liner here, and when Alexei Yashin slithered out of town, a candidate to wear the Senators 'C'.
But as it is, fans are still waiting to 'C' what all the fuss was about.
Through the pre-season and the first four games of the regular schedule, Zamuner has been mostly invisible to the casual observer.
JUST ONE POINT
He has collected just one assist thus far this season and in Saturday's big win over Toronto he was the only Senator unable to register a shot on goal, not including goalie Ron Tugnutt or his backup, Patrick Lalime.
Against Boston two nights earlier, Zamuner himself acknowledged he made a costly gaffe that led to a Bruins goal.
"Give me an assist on their third one," he said.
Rookie Andre Roy has made more of an impact to date, and he had never played in an NHL game before this season.
Now, there could be any number of reasons why Zamuner has been so "blah" out of the starting blocks. A new team, a new city, the heavy burden seven years of losing can cause ... he deserves a period of adjustment.
And on a team that put so much emphasis on chemistry, he has fit in very well.
But the hefty contract Zamuner carried into this "small market" also subjects him to close scrutiny.
In making $2.1 million (US), he is the third-highest paid Senator actually honouring his contract, behind only captain Daniel Alfredsson ($2.6 million) and Igor Kravchuk ($2.5 million).
At some point soon, he's going to have to show why.
SECOND THOUGHTS: The only bad thing about Jacques Martin naming Alfredsson his captain? It happened a year later than it should have ... Both the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears effectively either ended or drastically downsized NFL suicide pools yesterday ... The PC version of NHL '99 anyway has a setting that includes a Dean Brown-like "Scramble!" voiced in. When informed of this, the Senators play-by-play man didn't miss a beat. "Hey," said Deano, "I'm in the game."
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM: Mike Modano says he'll quit hockey unless there's a cutdown in the violence. The league may want to start its cleanup by having a little talk with the player picture on the NHL guide and record book. Modano's own teammate, Derian Hatcher, is considered by some to be the dirtiest player in the game ... If, as Dimitri Yushkevich says, Alexei Yashin "is not selfish," it'd be nice to know what the Russian word for it is .... How the mighty have fallen. An in-house hockey pool at the Sun was held on the weekend and Doug Gilmour wasn't one of the 48 centres picked ... Mike Weir could not have dreamed he'd have the season he has enjoyed. The only question now is: How good can the guy be?
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