-Ian Mendes Tweets that no lineup changes are expected for tonight’s game (link)
-As the Crosby flap dies down #87 now believes Bryan Murray has been after him his whole career. Don Brennan (link) writes that he and his colleagues “remembered only two previous times that Murray said anything negative about Crosby — once after Crosby delivered what Murray thought was a cheapshot on then-Senator Patrick Eaves, and again when Murray thought Crosby was doing too much whining to referees.” If Brennan is correct than Crosby has thin skin. Regardless, now that Murray is no longer commenting and no one other than the Ottawa media is interested in the story I expect it to die shortly.
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan (link) is drinking the Crosby Kool-Aid and doesn’t see the elbow that was thrown at Foligno. I appreciate that Scanlan doesn’t think the incident is a big deal (and he makes a good point about how fans react to star players), but for the sake of argument let’s grant the Foligno got hit with the forearm–the intent was to elbow him in the head. The issue isn’t whether this happens in scrums or not, the issue is head shots. It’s clear from Crosby‘s comments after the incident he’s only concerned with body checks to the head–that’s fine, but that distinction was not being made previously.
-Pierre McGuire talks about the future of the center position in Ottawa (link) and says he thinks Nick Foligno is a better #2 center than Peter Regin (who he see’s as a #3), but going forward it depends on whether Mika Zibanejad is a better center or a winger.
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri and Don Brennan (above link) are anxious for Nikita Filatov to start scoring (link)
-Rob Brodie writes about Nick Foligno enjoying his time as a center (link)
-ESPN, TSN, and The Hockey News have their power rankings out, with Ottawa 19th, 22nd, 23rd, and 23rd (with ESPN’s Scott Burnside writing “The Senators remain last in the league in goals allowed per game but continue to hang around, putting together a nice 4-1-1 streak to get within a point of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. Go figure.“)
–Louie Caporusso and Jack Downing were sent down to Elmira
eyeonthesens 