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. 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. 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Getting fired might not have seemed necessary at the time, but proved vital in creating Carrolls future. Ill never know that and Im going to take it for the way it happened was necessary, Carroll said. The pain and the struggle and the hardship and then the challenges of bouncing back were all part of the rebirth of that — of the philosophy and a mentality. Fifteen years after being dismissed by Robert Kraft and New England, Carroll will face the Patriots as he tries to join another rare fraternity of coaches who have led teams to consecutive Super Bowl titles. That year out of football was the birth of Win Forever and all the other catch phrases that go along with being part of a Carroll-coached program. And much like last years Super Bowl in New York, where Carroll got his first NFL head coaching job with the Jets, this trip to the championship game brings another chapter of his career full circle. It gave me an opportunity to really collect my thoughts about moving forward and to get pointed in the direction that, really, we have maintained since, Carroll said. I had a tremendous opportunity to reflect on the time that I had had. What is most telling about Carrolls approach is that 15 years later its still relevant. Hes gone through multiple generations of athletes, embraced the eruption of social media and graduated from dealing with 18-year-old freshmen to 30-year-old professionals. Yet the philosophy remains successful. Thheres a reason coaches from other sports — Steve Kerr, Lloyd McClendon, Terry Stotts, Erik Spoelstra — have made a point of visiting Seattle practice to get a sense of how Carroll works.dddddddddddd I think because we made it work. We made it work because it was so true, really, to my heart. I could stand for it, up against whatever the challenges were, whatever the hurdles were, the issues were. It kept me together. It kept me on course, Carroll said. I found that we needed to be uncommonly consistent with what we believe in and prove the way we feel, the way we position things, would be one that we could make successful because it was so true it wasnt hard. While Carroll is set in his beliefs — and the results are hard to argue against — that should not be taken for inflexibility. Hes taken a give-and-take approach with the personalities he coaches, while they have bought in to what he preaches. Pete is always evolving, hes always adapting, Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. I think thats one of the things I love about Pete Carroll. He allows us, he allows the players to dictate what direction were going to go. He listens to the players and pays attention to us and ultimately he tries to fit our needs and wants and desires and that allows us to be comfortable coming to work and enjoying what we do. Hes always adapting and always changing. That ability to adapt was evident this season. Sitting at 6-4 after losing at Kansas City in Week 11, Carroll pulled together about a dozen of Seattles core players. He realized a connection was missing with this team and if anything was going to be salvaged from this season, it needed to be found right then. The results since: an eight-game winning streak and the chance for Seattle to become the first team in a decade to repeat as NFL champion. He allows his players to bump their heads and scrape their knees, and learn from their experiences on and off the field, Richard Sherman said. He gives us a chance. He trusts his players more than I think a lot of coaches do, and we appreciate him for that. <a href="http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnfl.com/">Wholesale Jerseys</a> ' ' '