Since teams from opposing Conferences play each other only twice every three years nowadays, there's very little familiarity between the two Stanley Cup finalists (who didn't play during the regular season) and maybe even less familiarity for their respective fan bases with respect to their opponents. To ameliorate some of that, Earl from Battle of California and Ben from Sens Army are educating one another on their teams' strengths and weaknesses leading up to the start of the Finals on Monday.Anyway, Earl had 10 questions which Ben has answered, including this:
9. Random question--but if you could have one former Senator back for this series (one who left within the last year or so), who would it be and why? I think I'm asking a "Chara or Havlat" question, but if you have another guy in mind that works too.Sure, there are personnel reasons for the ice time disparity from last season to this one, but Potsy is often a whipping boy for Caps fans, so it's nice to see him get some love, especially from a fan of his former team. I've said it before and will again - in the right role (i.e. second defensive pairing), Pothier will be a perfect fit for this team. Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Chara and Havlat each have their niches, and my initial response was Chara – he’s such a presence on the ice. But we had them both last year and were beaten out in the second round, so I’m going to skip them and say Brian Pothier, he was a free agent who left last summer – he got 12 minutes a game with the Sens, and now playing in Washington he gets 20+ minutes per game. He was a gem with the right attitude that the Sens could put to good use today.