–The Ottawa Sun‘s Aedan Helmer writes about last night’s game (link) including the following from Paul MacLean, “I thought we played real well. I thought we were in control of the game for the most part. But again, the lack of efficiency and execution in our own zone led to great opportunities for them. We turned the puck over (numerous) times and those are things that are going to come back to haunt you.”
–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan (link) actually hit the nail on the head when he writes, “It was obvious that David Rundblad was trying to do too much in his first game back after two in the pressbox.” Brennan also includes this from Paul MacLean, “I thought Brian [Lee] played fine for us in the two (weekend) games. But at this point in time, David Rundblad is a better player.”
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scalan looks at Jason Spezza‘s faceoff prowess (link), with Spezzasaying, “Everybody that’s good cheats. Look at the top of the (faceoff) list, those are the 10 best cheaters in the league. It’s changed a little bit from when I first came in. Some of those old linesmen, they didn’t give you much of a chance. With a lot of the younger linesmen coming in, it’s a little more of a fair fight. A lot of it is a respect thing. You have to respect the linesman, recognize that occasionally he’s going to drop the puck wrong, and maybe the guy’s going to get away with cheating — but if you snap on the guy right away, after a guy cheats on you once, you’re not going to get much respect from the linesman. A lot of times you tie up and it’s the winger who wins the faceoff. Both my guys are real good.”
–Sportsnet‘s Ian Mendes speculates on Twitter that Alfredsson will be in the lineup next game (link)
-Joy Lindsay’s has post-game comments from Kurt Kleinendorst up (link), where the affable coach sounds frustrated: “We weren’t very good. We get outshot every night, so it’s not just … it’s frustrating, for sure, but I don’t know if I would call it alarming. It’s certainly a trend. We’re 14 games in now, and generally speaking, that’s the way the shot clock looks at the end of the night. They’re a good team, and this is a tough building to play in. For whatever reason, we walk in here, and we don’t play our best hockey in here. We never have. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know why it is. But it is what it is. We just seem to come in here, and we just underperform.”
-Joy also reports that Bobby Raymond has been recalled (link)
-Rob Brodie, writing for the Sens website, has a profile of Mark Borowiecki posted (link). Kurt Kleinendorst said, “(Borowiecki) and Conboy have been our two steadiest defencemen, without a doubt. And so with that, we match him up against the other team’s top lines … I never thought we were going to have to use him that way but you know what, it’s been a blessing for him. More than likely, if we weren’t made up the way were made up, I probably wouldn’t have put him in that position. But we didn’t have that choice and I’ll tell you, I have to give him a lot of credit. He’s stepped right up and he’s been really good.”
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