–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch asks himself five about the Sens (link): 1. Can the Senators remain a playoff contender?, 2. Is the sky the limit for Erik Karlsson?, 3. Is Craig Anderson rounding into form?, 4. Do the Senators need a second-line centre?, 5. What happens when Matt Carkner returns? Garrioch doesn’t answer his questions, but my views are: 1. No–at their current pace they will finish with 84 points (which would be 11th in the East last year), 2. Yes, 3. I don’t think Anderson could have played worse at the start of the season, so yes, I think he is rounding into form, 4. Until they’ve seen Peter Regin play a substantial number of games I don’t think they know, 5. Either David Rundblad gets sent to Binghamton (which I doubt unless it’s clearly temporary), they carry eight defenseman, or they trade a blueliner.
-In another article Garrioch gets comments from Murray and MacLean about the team’s performance thus far (link), with MacLean saying, “My expectations were, we were picked to be last, we earned that distinction somehow and I think, at this point in time, we are a little better than that. We’re still working to be better every day and we’ve gone through some adversity which has helped to make us stronger. We’ve had some success, some adversity and now we’re having success again. That’s kind of what we expected with the type of players we have. At this time, we’re really pleased to be where we are.” Murray adds, “Being above .500 after the first 20 games, especially after changing a number of the players, certainly I’m satisfied and I’m more satisfied because we had a streak at the beginning where we didn’t look like a very good team. The good thing is, history tells me that you should get a little better as you go forward. Young players will grow, get used to the league somewhat and be able to produce more consistently.”
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan gives the Sens rookies grades (link), without providing the specifics of what those grades are based on. Briefly: Jared Cowen A- (“Tough. Physical. Strong defensively. A player on track to be developed into a top-pairing, shutdown defenceman in the mould of a Zdeno Chara…. Cowen has just one goal and no assists, the points will come as the rookie becomes more comfortable in the league“), David Rundblad C- (“The Swedish rookie is adjusting to a completely different style of game and size of ice surface. …Rundblad’s game is predicated on skill and risk, and it will take time to do this at the NHL level. Rundblad has shown brilliant flashes and horrible giveaways“), Bobby Butler C (“He’s a shooter, right? Then shoot, Bobby, shoot! Fourteen shots in 11 games does not a sniper make“), Stephane Da Costa C+ (“The jury is out on Da Costa, a small, likeable centre with terrific vision“), Erik Condra B (“You could set your watch by this dependable checking winger“), Kaspars Daugavins B+ (“The [PK] unit has been vastly improved since Daugavins rejoined the team early this month”), Colin Greening A- (“none has had more opportunity than the man his teammates call the Cyborg: a spot on the first line alongside centre Jason Spezza…. Greening is minus-8, tied with Da Costa for the team worst“). My grades: Cowen is a B+ (save the A’s for rookies who dominate like Gabriel Landeskog), Rundblad is a B- (he’s not expected to be a defensive dynamo), Butler is a C- (yes he’s produced lately, but he was awful previously), Da Costa is a C (if Regin were healthy he’d be in Binghamton), I agree with Condra, Daugavins is a B (he was regularly a minus player until recently, unlike his linemates), and Greening is a B+.
-The Binghamton Senators snapped their losing streak last night and defeated Hamilton 4-2. Nikita Filatov and Mark Parrish each had 3-point games while PTO Riley Armstrong had a two-point night. For the box score go here link, for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.
-Joy Lindsay’s post-game notes includes some interesting quotes from Kurt Kleinendorst (link), “He hasn’t been any kind of distraction, Nikita, for me. He’s taking the right approach. I can’t speak to what’s going on because I haven’t talked to Bryan, haven’t really discussed it with Nikita. But I’m not too concerned about it, because to me, his attitude has been very good, very productive. Tonight was a perfect example of that. When he wants to play, he’s a pretty special player.” And “He [Armstrong] had a big goal, but it’s more than that. He took key faceoffs, won key faceoffs. He’s been around, has hundreds of games in the American League. He’s a solid veteran player and brings a solid veteran presence, which is maybe something that we’ve been missing. He played an important role here for us. And all our younger guys played well, as well. That’s the good thing. We are all about development, and you develop better when you win. I thought Mark Parrish was awfully good. Mike McKenna was awfully good. And the list goes on. David Dziurzynski was awfully good. You can’t pin this win on any one player. It really was everyone.”
-The Elmira Jackals lost 5-3 last night; Louie Caporusso had two assists and Jack Downing scored his first professional goal
-ISS has released their updated top-30 prospects for the 2012 draft (for a look at the old list, go here link; I’ve listed their previous rank in brackets):
1. Grigorenko, Mikhail, RW 5/16/94 L 6.03.25 200 Québec QMJHL (2)
2. Yakupov, Nail, LW 10/6/93 L 5.10.5 189 Sarnia OHL (1)
3. Forsberg, Filip, RW 8/13/94 R 6.01 176 Leksands SweAl (4)
4. Murray, Ryan, LD 9/27/93 L 6.00.5 201 Everett WHL (3)
5. Dumba, Matt, RD 7/25/94 R 5.11.75 183 Red Deer WHL (6)
6. Trouba, Jacob, RD 2/26/94 R 6.02 196 USA Under-18 NTDP (7)
7. Koekkoek, Slater, LD 2/18/94 L 6.02 184 Peterborough OHL (10)
8. Aberg, Pontus, LW 9/23/93 R 5.11 187 Djurgarden SweE (19)
9. Gaunce, Brendan, C 3/25/94 L 6.02 215 Belleville OHL (8)
10. Rielly, Morgan, LD 3/9/94 L 5.11.5 190 Moose Jaw WHL (5)
11. Ceci, Cody, RD 12/21/93 R 6.02.5 207 Ottawa OHL (20)
12. Reinhart, Griffin, LD 1/24/94 L 6.03.75 207 Edmonton WHL (11)
13. Maatta, Olli, LD 8/22/94 L 6.01.5 202 London OHL (16)
14. Maidens, Jarrod, C 3/4/94 L 6.00.5 178 Owen Sound OHL (13)
15. Frk, Martin, RW 10/5/93 L 5.11.5 204 Halifax QMJHL (14)
16. Collberg, Sebastian, RW 2/23/94 R 5.11 174 Vastra SweJE (15)
17. Galchenyuk, Alexander, RW 2/12/94 L 6.00.5 198 Sarnia OHL (17)
18. Pouliot, Derrick, D 1/16/94 L 5.11.25 186 Portland WHL (22)
19. Kerdiles, Nicholas, C/L 1/11/94 L, 6.01.5 200 USA Under-18 NTDP (26)
20. Girgensons, Zemgus, F 1/5/94 L 6.01.25 201 Dubuque USHL (23)
21. Matheson, Mike, LD 2/27/94 L 6.01.25 180 Dubuque USHL (24)
22. Ebert, Nick, RD 5/11/94 R 5.11.25 205 Windsor OHL (9)
23. Athanasiou, Andreas, C 8/6/94 L 6.00 179 London OHL (18)
24. Sissons, Colton, C/R 11/5/93 L 6.01 189 Kelowna WHL (NR)
25. Slepyshev, Anton, LW 5/13/94 R 6.02 187 Novokuznetsk KHL (27)
26. Wilson, Thomas, RW, 3/29/94 R 6.03.5 203 Plymouth OHL (NR)
27. Curcuruto, Gianluca, LD 2/25/94 L 6.00.25 195 S.S. Marie OHL (28)
28. Skjei, Brady, LD 3/26/94 L 6.03 203 USA Under-18 NTDP (29)
29. Finn, Matthew, LD, 2/24/94 L 6.00.25 195 Guelph OHL (NR)
30. Thrower, Dalton, RD, 12/20/93 R 5.11.25 189 Saskatoon WHL (NR)
Falling out of the top-30: Marcantuoni, Matia (12), Schmaltz, Jordan (21), Laughton, Scott (25), and Samuelsson, Henrik (30)
eyeonthesens 