Senators Ensure Blind Behind The Back Passy Goodness Through 2015

Our favourite defensive liability, Jason Spezza, the Ying to Heater’s Yang (not that there’s anything wrong with that) has signed a 7yr/$49M contract extension that will keep him coughing up the puck in a Senators uniform until his 32^nd birthday.

Spezza will get $8 million in each of the first five years of the contract and $5 million and $4 million, respectively, in the final two years. The cap hit will be $7 million per year for the Senators. Negotiations for the new contract proceeded quickly. Spezza's agent Rick Curran met with Senators' GM Bryan Murray last weekend and the deal was consummated Thursday night.

Aside from the mental image of Bryan Murray consummating anything with anybody, I have to say I think this is awesome news. I really do. As maddening as Jason can be sometimes, he is scary-good on the rush and can put a puck through a stripper’s g-string without ruffling the folded twenties tucked therein …8 times out of 10 (Pssst…Jason. It’s what happens those other two times you try that that makes people yell at you. Just sayin’, you might want to work on that a bit).

It’s also much better than losing him next year to restricted free agency after say, JFJ goes Kevin Lowe on our asses and puts in a ridiculous offer sheet, always assuming he’s been suitably instructed on the proper use of opposable thumbs or that MLSE hasn’t fired him by then.

The concern of course, is that we now have an enormous amount of money tied up in our “core” (Heater, Alfie, Fish, Rayzor and now Spez). So let us all hope and pray that either the Commissar’s much ballyhooed promise of an ever rising salary cap comes to fruition, or the Sens find some hitherto undiscovered font of Bangladeshi third liners who are willing to play for food and stay locked in the Bank’s basement between games. Otherwise, we could be in deep, deep shit in about four years. But oh boy, are those four years shaping up to be one hell of a ride.

Seven More Years [TSN.ca]

Spezza To Be Horribly Crushed From Above Somehow

Fantasy League GMs take note: do not draft Jason Spezza this year. After a wildly successful 2006-2007 season...um, a rumoured mild slump mid June-ish which we've managed to expunge from memory (thank you beer!) notwithstanding...our very own poster child for the maddeningly talented yet infuriatingly inconsistent, has successfully begged to be been selected as the cover boy for NHL 2K8.

For Spezza, appearing on the cover of the box is a bit of a dream come true. The Ottawa Senators centre is an avid video game player and has been playing hockey related video games for as long as he can remember. The company said it was Spezza's rabid interest in video gaming that prompted them to use him on the NHL 2K8 cover.

We all know what this means of course. Following in the limping footsteps of Marshall Faulk, Donovan McNabb, Stephen Alexander and yes, even that sub-human dog murdering goat molester from Atlanta, Jason will suit up for the first Senators pre-season game...and get run over by the Zamboni in warmups. And just like that, *poof*, his season is finished.

On the upside, if Take2Interactive, the game's producers and the responsible, caring corporate citizens who brought us such wholesome entertainment as Grand Theft Auto and Bully, stay true to form, our boy Spezz should play a whole lot tougher in the game than he does in reality. Who knows, maybe his digital alter-ego might show Jason how to back check, or better yet, where the corners are.

But a word of advice Jason: if Sports Illustrated comes calling, hide under the bed until they go away.

Company puts on Spezza's game face [Ottawa Citizen]