With the Senators facing the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, I figured I would try and answer three questions about the Ben Bishop-Cory Conacher trade from earlier this year. Nationals Pedro Severino Jersey . 1. Did the Senators trade the wrong goalie? Lets make one thing clear: The Ottawa Senators acquired Ben Bishop from the St. Louis Blues for one reason and one reason alone. They wanted to push Robin Lehner and create an internal competition for him back in the spring of 2011. At no point did the Senators truly believe that Bishop was in their long-term plans. The ideal scenario in Ottawa was always to have Craig Anderson hold onto the No. 1 job for a while and then gradually hand over the job to Lehner. Bishop was always viewed as an intermediary; a transitional netminder who could help bridge the gap when Lehner wasnt ready. But now there is a revisionist theory floating around Ottawa suggesting that the Sens should have traded Craig Anderson while his value was sky-high last season and they could have hung onto a tandem of Bishop and Lehner. To be clear, under that scenario, the Sens would be going into this season with a pair of goalies who had a combined 70 games of NHL experience. That would be a massive, massive gamble for any organization to take – especially one that viewed itself as a darkhorse contender in the conference. Yes, Craig Anderson has been off to a slow start this season, but lets not forget that he has been arguably the best goalie in the history of this franchise over a span of 100 games. Six months ago, if you were to rate the ceiling on the three goalies Ottawa had last season, Bishop would come in third every time. The Senators made the choice of trading Bishop out of that three-headed monster last season because Anderson was providing superior goaltending at a discounted price. Remember that Bishops job was merely to push Lehner a little bit internally and from that standpoint it was mission accomplished. Imagine if they traded Anderson away and he was having a Vezina-calibre season for another team while the Sens were this mess defensively. What would people say then? Probably that they needed a veteran presence in goal and that they shouldnt have traded Anderson. 2. Why did the Senators trade Bishop within the division? On this point, I can see a valid argument for sure. If Ottawa had options, obviously it would have been in their best interests to move Bishop away from the Eastern Conference – and specifically the newly formed Atlantic Division. Remember when the Los Angeles Kings moved Jonathan Bernier this summer, they made sure to trade him to the Eastern Conference. Same goes for the Canucks who ensured Cory Schneider wouldnt impact their own playoff positioning by sending him to New Jersey. But heres a question: Why did the Columbus Blue Jackets trade Steve Mason to the Flyers at the deadline last year, knowing they would be in the same division as Philadelphia this season? Well, they did it for the exact same reason why the Sens moved Bishop to Tampa Bay. The reality is that sometimes, you have to take the best deal on the table and hope that it works out for the best. If you recall, the Boston Bruins traded Andrew Raycroft within their division a few years and that worked out just fine for them. (Of course it helps that they got Tuukka Rask in return). 3. Why didnt Bryan Murray hold out for more? I can tell you with a great deal of authority that the Senators were pursuing a trade with the Flyers near the deadline that would have seen Ben Bishop traded to Philadelphia for Sean Couturier. That was the Senators first option and it looked like it may happen right up until 12 noon on deadline day. The Flyers had even claimed centre Adam Hall off waivers right around the deadline, making the Sens believe they were ready to part with Couturier under the right circumstances. But once the Flyers got cold feet, Murray had to look at his other options and he circled back to the Lightning. Yes, there was a deal on the table from the Oilers that would have included Ryan Jones, but the Senators needed some scoring up front. Murray wanted to land a player who could add some offensive punch to one of the lowest-scoring teams in the league, so he acquired Cory Conacher for Bishop. The other significant goalie who moved at the deadline was the aforementioned Steve Mason – who only cost the Flyers a third-round pick to acquire. And considering Mason had more than 200 games of NHL experience under his belt and had proven he could be a No. 1 goalie, the Flyers didnt give up too much in that trade. So the asking price for a goalie like Bishop wasnt going to be anything greater than a middle-round draft choice or a player like Conacher around the trade deadline. At the time of the deal, Bishop had only played 36 career games and had posted a 15-13-3 record with a 2.58 GAA. Even if the Sens hung onto Bishop for a few more weeks and tried to move him at the NHL Draft, he probably wouldnt have netted them much more – especially considering goalies like Jonathan Bernier and Cory Schneider were being aggressively shopped. Those goalies werent in play at the deadline, but were at the draft. The Devils paid a price of a first-round pick for Schneider, so let me ask this question: What would the Sens have gotten for Bishop at the draft? I dont know for sure, but I can tell you they wouldnt be getting a first-rounder. Bishop wasnt seen in the same class as Schneider or Bernier. This idea the Sens could have held out and gotten more for Bishop is pure fantasy. Nationals Kyle McGowin Jersey . According to a release sent by the league, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were the only team to exceed the cap. Their total salary expenditure of $4,417,975 was $17,975 over the salary cap of $4. Wholesale Nationals Jerseys .C. -- The Carolina Panthers announced Thursday theyve signed free agent wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery to a two-year contract, helping rebuild a depleted wide receiving corps. http://www.cheapnationalsjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=nationals-greg-holland-jersey . The freestyle skier from Calgary finished sixth in the qualification round with a total of 82.00 points. Groenewoud won a silver medal at the X Games last month, just over five weeks after undergoing double knee surgery.CHICAGO -- During a recent game at Wrigley Field, John Weber was using a pencil and scorecard to expertly track the game between his hometown Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 86-year-old retired transit worker figures he is an increasingly rare kind of baseball fan. "Look around, do you see many people keeping score?" he asked. No indeed. Between batters and between pitches, most fans in the stands at Wrigley -- and everywhere else in the majors -- take their eyes off the game to peck away at smartphones, phablets, tablets and iPads. Few bother to figure out the baseball hieroglyphics that Weber and other purists lovingly scrawl on their cards. The Cubs are hoping to add a massive video scoreboard to Wrigley as early as next year in what would be the biggest renovation at Wrigley since lights were installed more than a quarter century ago. The plan has stirred plenty of opposition, with many wondering if modern electronics will rob some of the mystique that surrounds the venerable ballpark, which hosted its first game on April 23, 1914 -- 100 years ago Wednesday. The scene in the stands illustrates how Wrigley is already a modern park and in fact got there faster than some of the newer, shinier stadiums around the country. The Cubs were the first to install a moving walkway back in the 1950s (it was removed a few years later) and in 2012 were one of the first teams in the majors to offer Wi-Fi. "The Cubs were ahead of their time and, frankly, ahead of the league," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media, the leagues interactive branch. The lack of a video scoreboard is a glaring reminder that the Cubs have some catching up to do. That is even more obvious this year thanks to a new instant replay system that allows teams to challenge umpires calls. "With this replay for our fans, 75 million of them at the games, get to see what everyone sees at home," Bowman said. Except at Wrigley, where fans have to wait until they get home or watch the television monitors while theyre in line to buy a hot dog or beer. "How ridiculous is that?" asked Marc Ganis, a sports consultant with SportsCorp Ltd. in Chicago, who once advised the Cubs prior owner, the Tribune Co. "The only time you see it is when youre not in your seat." The lack of a video board is only the most visible example of some of the differences between Wrigley and other parks. Rather than ordering food and drink on a handheld device and having it delivered right to their seats, fans at Wrigley get things the old-fashioned way: By yelling at vendors roaming the aisles or making a trip to the concession stands. Nationals Stephen Strasburg Jersey. The Cubs cant do it any other way because Wrigley Field is so small that food must be prepared offsite. A proposed $300 million renovation project includes construction of commissary, though team spokesman Julian Green said a final decision hasnt been made. The Cubs are also examining whether to join the roughly 20 teams that have customized Major League Baseballs At the Ballpark app to give fans access to information about ballparks as they enter, from seat location to specials on merchandise. One thing the Cubs say they wont be doing any time soon is allowing fans to upgrade their seats via their handheld devices. "There are a lot of great innovations happening at new ball parks but Wrigley has magic (and) we need to be careful that we dont implement technology that takes away from the experience of Wrigley, the experience of what it has been like for sons going to games with their fathers, and their fathers fathers," said Andrew McIntyre, the Cubs senior director of information technology. Many fans do worry that the Cubs embrace of technology could change the atmosphere at the friendly confines for the worse. They want to see the park as they imagine past generations saw it. "Any modernization, you risk losing what made it special," said Todd Jezierski, a 32-year-old Oregon resident. He said when a friend heard he was coming to Wrigley, he excitedly told him he just had to visit the restrooms and see the ancient urinal troughs. Charlie Tausche, a 75-year-old retired attorney, has less of a problem with a massive video board than with the technology-toting young people who will flock the Wrigley in greater numbers once school lets out. "They stand up in front of you in the middle of the game and take their selfies," he complained. The oldest stadium in the majors, Bostons Fenway Park, is awash in video boards and still remains one of the jewels of baseball at 102 years old. And -- this is a big one for long-suffering Cubs fans -- it has fielded three World Series winners in the last decade. Robert Garcia, a 38-year-old Chicago teacher who came to a recent game decked out in a Cubs hat, jacket and clutching a scorecard and pencil he just bought, said the essence of Wrigley will remain with new technology. "When you come in and look down you still see the ivy, you still see the bleachers," he said. Even Darryl Wilson, who has been working the manual scoreboard for 23 years, has no objection to all the new technology, including a new video scoreboard. "I hope they dont think I can keep up with that scoreboard," he said. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '