–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan writes about the game last night (link), in which he calls Ottawa’s powerplay surprisingly successful. Is it surprising? The team has all the elements necessary to score on the powerplay (if not at this pace). It’s largely the same group of last year, but in the previous season the top players were injured and in and out of the lineup. Along with goaltending it’s Ottawa’s powerplay that’s going to be the straw the stirs the drink.
-Brennan looks at visor-wearing in the NHL (link), with Paul MacLean saying “It actually scared me [a puck in the eye] more than John Ferguson scared me. It was significant enough for me to keep it on. I didn’t really pay too much attention to verbal abuse [for wearing a visor]. It was hard enough for me to play, let alone think and talk at the same time. You can’t do too many things at once out there, even then.” On the Sens only Chris Neil, Zenon Konopka, Zack Smith, and Filip Kuba do not wear visors.
-Joy Lindsay provides a few notes from Binghamton’s practice (link), including “Godfrey moved up into the spot alongside Schira, leaving Heshka and Raymond as the fourth set of defensemen. Kleinendorst said he’ll probably keep eight around for ay least a while now that Raymond is back from his stint with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. Kleinendorst had good things to say about Filatov, who was separated from Locke to balance out the offensive talent and make each line a bit more defensively responsible.”
-Joy Lindsay’s line updates from this morning (link): Cowick-Dziurzynski-Petersson, Hoffman-O’Brien-Parrish, Filatov-Cannone-Grant, Downing-Hamilton-Lessard; Borowiecki-Conboy, Gryba-Wiercioch, Heshka-Schira, Godfrey-Raymond. Locke is not participating due to injury.
-Prospect updates (their position in team scoring is noted in brackets):
CHL
Jakub Culek (Rimouski, QMJHL) 12-1-4-5 (10th)
Mark Stone (Brandon, WHL) 13-9-19-28 (1st)
Stefan Noesen (Plymouth, OHL) 8-1-6-7 (9th)
Matt Puempel (Peterborough, OHL) 13-6-7-13 (1st)
Shane Prince (Ottawa 67s, OHL) 6-3-4-7 (7th)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Gatineau, QMJHL) 10-10-6-16 (2nd)
Darren Kramer (Spokane, WHL) 9-7-5-12 (2nd)
Jordan Fransoo (Brandon, WHL) 13-0-1-1 (6th)
SEL
Jakob Silfverberg (Brynas) 15-5-7-12 (t-1st)
Marcus Sorensen (Skelleftea J20) 7-2-2-4 (t-8th)
Fredrik Claesson (Djurgarden) 14-1-2-3 (3rd)
NCAA
Ben Blood (WCHA-North Dakota) 6-1-1-2 (t-2nd)
Chris Wideman (CCHA-Miami) 6-1-3-4 (1st)
Jeff Costello (CCHA-Notre Dame) 2-0-2-2 (12th)
Brad Peltz (ECAC-Yale) DNP
Michael Sdao (ECAC-Princeton) DNP
Bryce Aneloski (WCHA-Nebraska-Omaha) 6-0-4-4 (1st)
Max McCormick (CCHA-Ohio State) 4-1-3-4 (t-3rd)
Ryan Dzingel (CCHA-Ohio State) 6-3-3-6 (1st)
eyeonthesens 