SPEZZA GETS DEMOTED

It looks as if this accountability thing Craig Hartsburg was preaching during his first press conference was not just lip service. Jason Spezza, who showed virtually no desire to compete on Saturday night will now find himself on the second line centering two of the hardest working skaters on the team. Nick Foligno and Jesse Winchester will play on his wings.

Mike Fisher gets promoted to top line center and will play with Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson. Fisher and Heatley have shown good chemistry together in the past, and are often paired in 4 on 4 situations. Fisher and Alfredsson have never seemed to click.

This is a great move by Hartsburg. Spezza will either learn to play with some heart and lay the odd bodycheck, or he is going to find himself watching some games from the press box. He should not go out there and try to run guys over, but he should get his body involved more to win some puck battles.

But Fisher may not be the right guy to go to the top line. The hope here is that if Fisher is not the answer, that Hartsburg doesn't instantly promote Spezza back to first line duty, but instead put Antoine Vermette in his place on the top line. Vermette may be the better player to go alongside Alfredsson and Heatley because Verms is more of a puck possession guy. He plays Spezza's role better than Fisher does.

Time will tell. This is going to shake things up for sure, and Hartsburg is making it very clear that no one is bigger than this team.

Comments

[PRA]

This actually throws the whole accountability thing out the window! Fisher has played TERRIBLE. AWFUL. No nice way of saying it. And he gets....wait for it....PROMOTED????? To play with Heater and Alfie???? WTF???

I think Spezza has played very well other than a couple of bad giveaways. Not sure I understand this move.

[Ollie]

I agree 100%. In fact, I was saying to my friend as much after the game on saturday. I'm glad we're not splitting up the big line and leaving Spezza and Heatley together. I also agree that it should be Vermette on the top line and not Fisher.

Spezza has to be a more complete player for this team to go anywhere and this may be just the thing that really kicks him into gear. Nothing else has worked.

[terry k]

I have to disagree with this blog entry. I think this change is much more about kick starting Fisher's season than demoting Spezza. Geez, Spezza only had 4 points on Friday night, and he sets the screen for Alfredsson's goal on Saturday...Sorry, but this move is all about Fisher.

[Alfierules]

I think Spezza has been playing like Spezza. Which has been very good for us over the years. But I do agree that I think Hartsburg wants him to become a more complete player, and get him to grind it out a little more. So I agree with terry that this is about Fisher, but I also think this is about Spezza. Not a punishment as Sens Junkie suggests (wrongly in my opinion), but to give him a playing environment that he is less accustomed to. Where things don't flow as smoothly. Where more work is required.

[terry k]

Its funny how when Alfie goes to another line, it is to generate secondary scoring, but when Spezza moves, it is because Spezza is demoted.

Sure Alfie is a god, but maybe we read too much into these changes.

[Tbag]

Gonna be the third person to say that I'm surprised by this move. In the past, I've really ragged on Spezza, but this move just doesn't feel right to me.

IMO spezza (while held off the score sheet against boston) followed up his strong performance against the yotes with a sound game on saturday. He didn't have any brutal give aways, he screened, I even recall him having a very nice back check where he stripped a bruin player of the puck. If he continues to play as he has the last 2 games, you wont hear anything negative about him from me.

I have the feeling that this is a move to potentially jump start Heatley. Heatley's foot speed has been rather questionable thus far, and the majority of his goals are coming from the PP. I think the movement of spezza is trying to promote more movement from Heatley to make him more effective in 5on5 situations.

Have to agree about the comments on Fisher. He has been 100% ineffective, failing to at least land bone crushing hits. I understand that its his first few games back, but we need a hell of a lot more from him for a cap hit of 4.2. His positioning on the first line over Vermette I just find baffling. From what I've seen so far this season, Vermette has up'd his physical game but more importantly, you just hate to see his faceoff ability wasted playing on the wing on the 3rd line with Kelly.

[Al]

I really don't think Fisher fits between Alfie and Heatley. I personally would prefer Kelly between Alfie and Heatley. I don't know if you remember the year that Spezza was injured, they moved Kelly to the top line and that worked wonders. I would put Fisher between Ruutu and Neil. Put Vermette between Foligno and Winchester.