Ottawa 2, Montreal 6

Ottawa lost a lifeless game to Montreal through a combination of bad goaltending, poor defensive coverage, and a lack of energy.  The game was over early in the second period and Paul MacLean made a serious mistake not pulling Craig Anderson earlier.  For the box score go here link.  A look at the goals:
1. Smith (Gonchar, Greening)
Greening drives the net and Smith cashes in the rebound
2. Montreal, Eller (sh)
Anderson is too deep in his net and Eller (with no option but to shoot) beats him far side
3. Montreal, Plekanec
A nice tip-in as Cowen can’t control Plekanec’s stick
4. Montreal, Cammallieri
Cashes in a rebound as Kuba can’t control his stick
5. Montreal, Leblanc
Shoots through Cowen, but if Anderson isn’t deep in his net it can’t go in
6. Montreal, Subban
Cashes in on a 2-on-1 down low (no back pressure from the forwards)
7. Spezza (Michalek, Alfredsson)
Cowen drives the net and Spezza cashes in off a loose puck
8. Montreal, Cole (pp)
Another tip-in where again Cowen can’t control the stick

Top-performers: there were none tonight, although Filip Kuba was the best blueliner, Jason Spezza was solid in all three zones, and I liked Bobby Butler‘s hustle offensively.

Players who struggled:
Craig Anderson – two bad goals and he simply couldn’t make a save when the team needed him
Erik Karlsson – lead the time in turnovers and was a brutal -3
Kyle Turris – was among the turnover leaders and was largely invisible in the offensive zone

December 27, 2011
Categories: Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Senators News: December 27th; Binghamton 8, Albany 3

-Here are the lines provided by The Ottawa Sun for tonight’s game: Milan Michalek-Jason Spezza-Daniel Alfredsson, Nick Foligno-Kyle Turris-Bobby Butler, Colin Greening-Zack Smith-Chris Neil, Erik Condra-Zenon Konopka-Kaspars Daugavins; Jared Cowen-Erik Karlsson, Filip Kuba-Sergei Gonchar, Brian Lee-Matt Carkner; Anderson with the start.  Chris Philips is out with an injury.

–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri writes about tonight’s upcoming game (link) with Paul MacLean trying to find something to get Bobby Butler going, “Bobby has really worked hard at being a good pro and a good player, and maybe this is an opportunity for him and Kyle to get together and have some chemistry. I think it’s worth it for us, at this point in the  season, to put those combinations together and give them a try.”  It will be interesting to see how he does playing with a shooting center.

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about the return of Milan Michalek (link) which has one item worth mentioning: his concussion was the third of his career, making me wonder how easily he could suffer his fourth.  Given how each concussion makes it easier to have another I wonder how small a threshold Michalek is at now.

-Garrioch writes that Peter Regin is still deciding if he’ll have shoulder surgery (link), but it’s hard to imagine he won’t.  In the same column he reports that Jesse Winchester “hasn’t made any progress since suffering a concussion after getting slammed into the boards by Buffalo’s Paul Gaustad a week ago.”

-ESPN’s power rankings are out (link) with Ottawa 17th.

-The Binghamton Senators came back from their break on fire, pounding Albany 8-3.  Stephane Da Costa lead the way with a hat-trick and Corey Cowick had a three point night.  Mike Hoffman, Mark Borowiecki, Mark Parrish, Corey Locke, and Rob Klinkhammer all had two-point nights.  For the box score go here link and for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.

-Elmira won 2-1 in a shootout; both Louie Caporusso and Jack Downing were held off the score sheet

-Canada romped over Finland 8-1 in the WJC with Mark Stone picking up a hat-trick.  Sweden overwhelmed Latvia 9-4 with Mika Zibanejad adding a pair of goals.

–Sportsnet‘s Mark Spector writes about the NHL’s inconsistency in applying the charging rule (link), but rather than making the obvious point that the league needs to clarify the rule and its application he goes down into crazy land and blames the players being hit.  It’s such a simple problem to solve: call it when the player leaves his feet (that’s in the rulebook right now) and define the circumstances where distance travelled is applicable.  Unfortunately, those in charge of the situation share Spector’s views (blame the victim), so there won’t be a sensible resolution coming any time soon.

December 27, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment