Rangers – The No Format Blog

The Ottawa Senators are up 2-0 in their round 2 playoff series vs the New York Rangers; but when it comes to sports media in Canada at least, it feels to some fans like they’re in a hole 0-3.

For the Senators, it’s always been an uphill battle for respect in the league. They’re roughly in the middle of two franchises with huge fan bases – the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Naturally, this tends to create media bias toward these two clubs, simply because creating content geared toward them will bring more eyes to the major networks.

I think what’s happening is a little bit of bias on the part of Senators fans. I think a lot of what the mainstream media is saying about the team is largely objective. There was a piece on TSN with a headline relating to something about “cause for concern” after game 2 – and I think it’s justified! Game 2 was a mess for both teams, and there will be adjustments.

The real problem, I think, is on Twitter. I hear about some of these “battles” after the fact, because I tend not to follow a lot of hockey reporters. But there are a select few reporters who claim to be neutral but carefully choose their words in order to incite angry reactions from Senators fans – and laughter from non-fans.

It’s these irresponsible tweets that have most Senators fans up in arms. I don’t blame them either, but the best way to deal with them is to just ignore them and not give them anything to deal with. They want you to be angry at them and read their pieces and generate ad revenue. They know what they’re doing.

Bottom line for Sens fans – the most important thing for the team is that they win. Who cares what outside voices say about the team? Does it matter if the team is respected by people who don’t follow the team? I don’t think it does. What matters to me is the team’s performance.

I don’t think there was a single bigger moment in 2015 than the infamous Bat Flip. The biggest proof of that is that I can say “bat flip” and you probably know what I’m referring to. For that reason, I think the series starting tonight vs the Texas Rangers is likely the most anticipated meeting of the year so far – the return of 2015’s ALDS opponent to the Rogers Centre.

But the team hosting the series is very different from the one that won the ALDS last year. Or is it?

While it’s only been one month, the 2016 Jays are playing sub-.500 baseball. For April they went 11-14, scoring 95 runs while allowing 102. In the 2015 ALDS & ALCS, the Jays had a record of 5-6, scoring 52 runs and allowing 57 runs. Doing some very rough extrapolating, the 2015 playoff Jays over 25 games would have a record of about 11-14, with 118 Runs For and 130 Runs against.

For those of you doing the math, their actual RF/RA differential this year is -7, and the theoretical 25 game record above is -12. Pretty similar!

I’m not suggesting that it’s time to panic, or pack it in. At only 26 games into the season, with a 12-14 record, it’s far from over. I have to wonder though…at what point do we accept the team’s real record? Last year, the Jays had a poor first two months – both below .500, and didn’t turn it around until June when they went on their first 11-game winning streak of the year. Even then, July was a losing month. It wasn’t until August when they really took off.

I guess what I’m suggesting here is that you can’t assume the Blue Jays are going to continue to be as bad as they are this year, but you also can’t assume they’re going to be as good as they were at the end of last year. However, their 2015 playoff record pretty well matches what they put together in April of this year.

I think the Jays need to look at their bullpen options, as that’s been the real issue, but it’s hard to not want to wait it out a bit longer to see if some of the struggling players (read: the entire team outside of the starting pitching staff) pick up their play and start playing to their potential.