The first games are in the books for the organisation and both were regulation losses. For Ottawa, they played a solid first period and an inspired third, but were awful in the second (check out the game sheet link). My thoughts, starting with all the goals:
1. Bertuzzi goal – created by a bad line change by Jared Cowen (some have blamed Sergei Gonchar for this, but Paul MacLean fingered the rookie)
2. Lidstrom goal – terrible pass by Chris Phillips to the wrong team
3. Emmerton goal – courtesy of a turnover by Erik Karlsson
4. Hudler goal – created by a Jared Cowen turnover (this is a goal I think Craig Anderson could have stopped–he got too deep in his net)
5. White goal – Stephane Da Costa loses the draw cleanly and the puck is fired through a Phillips screen
6. Michalek goal – deflects a Jason Spezza shot
7. Michalek goal – great pass from Spezza and great move from Michalek
8. Kuba goal – shoots through a Colin Greening screen
–Bobby Butler continues to remain in MacLean’s dog house, receiving by far the least amount of ice time
–Daniel Alfredsson was -3
-MacLean did some line juggling in the third period, putting Alfredsson with Da Costa while Zibanejad joined Zack Smith and Chris Neil
-MacLean liked Da Costa, thought Zibanejad played nervous and thought Cowen was up and down; he said of the team’s overall effort that he’s “not totally displeased”
Overall Spezza, Michalek, Neil, and Condra had strong games, while Phillips and Cowen struggled. Speaking of Phillips, he had this to say post-game (link), “We all have to be a little smarter with the puck and make better decisions. It’s a part of the game. You have some guys who are just starting out and it’s going to happen. Tonight it was everyone who was making costly mistakes.” One final, niggling detail I’ve seen repeated in a couple of Ottawa Citizen articles: Ottawa did not ice four rookies (Zibanejad, Da Costa, Cowen, and Greening), but five (Condra), with three others who have never played a full NHL season (Smith, Butler, and Filatov).
In Binghamton, the Calder Cup champs lost 3-2 to Hershey, being out shot 37-29. I did not see the game, but a few things stick out looking at the game sheet (link) and Joy Lindsay’s game blog (link):
–Patrick Wiercioch had a goal and assist and was named the game’s second star, but was on the ice for all three goals against and made a weak play on the boards that cost a goal
–Mike Hoffman was -3 and was guilty of a turnover that lead to a goal
–Pat Cannone lead the team with five shots
-Hershey scored two short-handed goals
-Binghamton had a goal called back in the third period
Joy interviewed Kurt Kleinendorst (among others) after the game (link): “I thought we got better as the game went along. We took some penalties early, they got some momentum early, the shot clock looked ugly early, but at the end of the day, I thought our killers did a great job. And it was really our power play that did us in. First two goals against our power play. We did get one back, but you can’t be a minus-1 on the power play and expect to win against most teams, let alone Hershey. It’s an early day. I have to think we’ll be just fine, but we still have some work to do.” And “I thought Cowie [Corey Cowick] did a great job. He’s one of those guys that has already kind of shown what hard work does for you. He worked hard over the summer, and his game has improved quite a bit.”
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