"You cant win with Jason Spezza as your captain."I have heard that phrase uttered countless times over the past few months, as the Ottawa Senators season has slipped away. In his first season as captain, Spezzas club has been a major disappointment. The Senators fell well short of expectations and predictably, Spezza is taking the lions share of the blame from his harshest critics. I have always said that the Spezza debate in this town is like Coke versus Pepsi. If you are a Coke drinker, its very hard to convince you that Pepsi is superior. The same goes for Spezza - those people who hate him cant be convinced otherwise. Its a black-and-white argument and its virtually impossible to sway someone from one side to the other.Anybody who has read or listened to me over the years knows that I fall into the camp of people who believe the Senators are a better team with Spezza down the middle. But in todays blog, I am not trying to convince anybody about Jasons ability as a player. You can judge that for yourself. What I do want to bring up is the idea that a captain is the person who sets the tone for how his team plays.The critics of Spezza will argue that because he has a penchant for turning over the puck and does not play as well defensively as some other players, he causes his entire team to play with a loosey-goosey mentality. If the guy wearing the "C" is taking risks with the puck, that is setting the tone for the 17 other skaters.Those people say that if Spezza was a real leader, he would play the game the right way in all three zones. He would be a rugged leader, who was more physical. He would be someone like Andrew Ladd of the Winnipeg Jets.If you were to write down all the characteristics you would want in a captain for a Canadian team, Ladd would meet all the criteria.• He is from Maple Ridge, B.C.• He plays the game the right way• He has Stanley Cup rings with two different teamsAnd yet, the Winnipeg Jets are a team that is a mess defensively. They have given up 234 goals – second-worst in the Western Conference.Their captain is there every night supposedly playing the game "the right way". His teammates see how he conducts himself on and off the ice. So why are they so bad defensively?Its because the captain can only do so much. And many times, we overrate the role of a captain on a hockey team. We assign certain characteristics to people and we have a hard time deviating from our original stance. In our minds, Ladd is a great captain – so the problem is with his Winnipeg teammates.But if Ladd escapes the criticism in Winnipeg for failing to get the Jets to play a more structured game, why does Spezza take the heat in Ottawa for the exact same thing?The tricky thing for Spezza is that he is also trying to fill the skates of the previous captain Daniel Alfredsson, who had a mythical status in this town.But before Alfredsson had his breakthrough moment as captain in 2007 in leading the Senators to the Stanley Cup Final, he had just as many detractors in Ottawa as Spezza does now. There was a prevailing sentiment that "you will never win with Daniel Alfredsson as your captain." Those echoes reached a crescendo when Jason Pominville walked around him for the series-ending goal against the Buffalo Sabres in the 2006 playoffs.However, after Alfredsson won over his critics in 2007, he was good for life in Ottawa and was never blamed for any of the problems.When it comes to the team that fell off a cliff in 2007-08 with one of the great collapses in NHL history?"Dont blame Alfredsson, that was all Ray Emerys fault."How about the team that missed the playoffs in two of the next three years?"Lets blame Hartsburg and Cory Clouston. Alfie is a great leader."When the Senators made the playoffs in 2011-12, they did so with the worst goals-against average of any of the 16 teams to qualify for the playoffs. They were kind of a mess defensively that year, but did anybody blame Alfredsson?Of course not.Because they had made up their minds that he was not the problem. Being the captain is all about perception. Alfredsson was always a good leader in Ottawa. He didnt radically change his approach in 2007 when they went to the Stanley Cup Final. Things just finally worked out in his favour and as a result, all of the questions surrounding his leadership vanished overnight.Spezza probably needs time to grow into the captaincy in this town, so he can experience his own defining moment as the leader of this hockey team.Whether he gets that opportunity or not is an entirely different question. Orlando Pace Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry, Im sure youve received many emails wondering what your take is on the Spezza goal that looked like Neil blatantly kicked it in while standing directly in the middle of the crease where, you know, usually a goalie is to make a save but couldnt be due to Neil being there! Thanks! Jon - Westfield, MA Jon: Lets first ask Henrik Lundqvist what he thought of the scoring of the Sens second goal with . Aaron Donald Jersey . - Dominika Cibulkova erased three match points in the second set Wednesday and beat Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Sony Open. http://www.officiallaramspro.com/ . Garcia had eight birdies overall to go with a lone bogey on the fourth to move to an 18-under total of 198 at the Asian Tour event. "I was able to hit some really nice shots and then was able to roll two or three really good putts in and it was nice to be able to finish birdie, birdie on this difficult finishing stretch," Garcia said. Robert Woods Jersey . Spains victory rendered Frances 3-0 win against Finland meaningless as Spain needed just one point to secure passage to Brazil. Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema scored either side of Joona Toivios own-goal as France advanced to the playoff among the eight best second-place finishers. Jared Goff Jersey .com) - A chant of Zeke reverberated around AT&T Stadium before Ezekiel Elliott powered into the end zone for his fourth and final touchdown.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Kenneth Faried made a turnaround hook shot over Draymond Green with a half-second remaining, and the Denver Nuggets made Golden State wait at least one more game to secure a playoff berth with a stunning 100-99 win over the Warriors on Thursday night. Stephen Currys floater over Faried put the Warriors up 99-98 with 4.7 seconds to play, sending the announced sellout crowd of 19,596 roaring to their feet. Faried quieted fans moments later, backing down Green for the winning shot. Currys quick 30-footer rimmed off as time expired. Timofey Mozgov tied a career high of 23 points and set a career best with 29 rebounds, and Faried finished with 18 points and 17 boards to rally the Nuggets from 20 points down in the first half. Denver, which had lost six straight on the road, won both games at Golden State this season. Curry had 24 points and seven assists, and Klay Thompson scored 21 points to highlight an otherwise disappointing performance by the Warriors. The Nuggets outrebounded Golden State 63-38 and made all the big plays late. Mozgov made a step-back jumper from 17 feet before Darrell Arthurs 3-pointer gave the Nuggets an 83-80 lead -- their first lead of the game -- with 7:52 left. After going down by five, Thompson and Curry highlighted an 8-0 spurt to put the Warriors up 93-90. Randy Foye followed with a layup and a 3-pointer to put the Nuggets in front. Thompson missed a jumper, then Faried stole a rebound from Andrew Bogut and put it back for a layup that extended Denvers lead to 97-93. Curry came back with two free throws before Faried made 1 of 2 from the line. Curry forced another foul and made both free throws shots to slice Denvers lead to 98-97 with 35.9 seconds left. Foollowing another Nuggets miss, Curry came off a screen from Green and floated a go-ahead runner over Faried with 4.dddddddddddd seconds left that seemingly put the Warriors in the playoffs. Instead, the Nuggets called timeout and went right after the undersized Green, who has been starting at power forward for the injured David Lee. Faried backed Green down and floated in a hook shot that silenced the blue-and-gold clad crowd for good. The Warriors were trying to clinch a spot in the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons and improve their playoff position. Instead, Golden State (48-30) fell 2 1/2 games behind fifth-place Portland with four games to play, including one at the Trail Blazers on Sunday. Golden State is 1 1/2 games ahead of Phoenix and Dallas and two ahead of Memphis. Denver, which was eliminated in Game 6 of the opening round of the playoffs at Golden State last season, made sure they didnt have to watch the Warriors celebrate against them on the same floor again. With injuries sideling six Nuggets regulars, the Warriors overwhelmed Denvers decimated team at the start to go ahead by 20 points in the second quarter. But the Nuggets came back behind Mozgov and Faried, trailing Golden State 53-43 at the half and 75-73 through three quarters before holding off the warriors in the fourth. NOTES: The Warriors missed a chance to win 49 games for the first time since winning 50 in the 1993-94 season. ... Lee missed his seventh straight game for the Warriors with a nerve injury in his right hamstring/back. The team said theres no timetable for his return. ... Denver is 2-1 against the Warriors this season. The teams meet in the regular-season finale Wednesday at Denver. 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