–The Ottawa Sun and Ottawa Citizen‘s Don Brennan and Allen Panzeri continue their habit of writing articles on the same topic (link and link), which is how much it will cost to re-sign Erik Karlsson. Both refer to Viktor Hedman‘s new deal with Tampa (5 years/4.0) and talk about how Karlsson likes it in Ottawa (Ian Mendes Tweets (link) he likes the Kris Letang comparison, 4 years/3.5). It’s all much ado about nothing. There’s no question Murray will re-sign Karlsson and with the cap space the Sens have his number isn’t that relevant–he’s the best blueliner on the team so he’s not going to upset any comparables.
-In Brennan’s potpourri article (link) he says Chris Neil will be in the lineup for the game against the Caps. He also talks about how few powerplays Ottawa gets (something that troubled them last year), with Daniel Alfredsson saying “I asked one of the refs the other night, ‘what do we have to do to get a power play?’ He just said ‘move your feet, work through it’ so I guess that’s all we can do.”
-Binghamton beat Manchester 4-1 in Matt Carkner‘s first game since February. Andre Petersson pushed his point streak to seven games, while Stephane Da Costa had two assists in his Binghamton debut. Robin Lehner made 27 saves for his first AHL win since October. For the box score go here link and for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.
-Joy Lindsay has extensive post-game notes (link). Kurt Kleinendorst talked about the win, “We did some really good things. Our first period was real good. Our second period was very sloppy. And then I thought we settled it back down in the third period, and it was a good period with a two-goal lead. And in the second period, we were sloppy because we were turning pucks over in the neutral zone, not getting pucks deep — which is always part of the game, but I would have thought we would have learned our lesson last week against Wilkes-Barre. And that’s where Robin kept us in there. I thought in the second period, Robin was probably the difference in the game, in the second period, for sure.”
-The Senators also made a trade to help Binghamton, acquiring Rob Klinkhammer out of the Chicago organisation for a conditional 2013 7th round draft pick (the conditions are that Klinkhammer plays for Ottawa at some point this season). The 25-year old, 6’3 left-winger went undrafted out of the WHL and is in his fifth season in the AHL (306-56-77-133).
-Elmira won in a shootout last night, with Jack Downing scoring while Louie Caporusso was held pointless and Brian Stewart picked up the win. Elmira won on Wednesday as well, Stewart with the win, Downing with an assist, and Caporusso pointless.
-Pierre McGuire writes for Sports Illustrated‘s that “Scouts from at least 20 NHL teams have journeyed to the heartland to watch 6’8 defenseman Andrej Sustr, a 20-year-old Czech-born sophomore at Nebraska-Omaha. Slow to develop, he went untouched through three drafts, which means he is now an unrestricted free agent. His role model is 6’9″ Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, though most scouts feel Sustr will be less of a developmental project than Chara” (link). Sustr is a right-shot blueliner who came to North America in 2008-09 to play in the NAHL (much like Stephane Da Costa). He plays with Sens prospect Bryce Aneloski and leads the team in blueline scoring (16-3-8-11). In the 2010 draft he was ranked #195 by Central Scouting and #264 by Red Line Report.
–Sports Ilustrated‘s Stu Hackel talks to Scotty Bowman about a number of things (link) and the whole article is worth reading. He talks about what went wrong in Washington, “I don’t know how good that team is. They’re always in a weak division. They’re always with teams that have no money or don’t spend to the salary cap. They get in the playoffs and their competition is tougher. I think what happened with Boudreau, he replaced Glen Hanlon, and they weren’t playing for him. They bought in Boudreau, some guy from the minors, and they started to win by playing all-out offense. They didn’t play any defense. Then they started to lose in the playoffs and he tried to change. I don’t think you can change. It’s too bad for Boudreau, but he bounced back right away.” He talks about the problems in Anaheim, “Carlyle, I don’t understand. He was a big line matcher. He always had a defensive line. The year they won the Cup (2007), it was Sami Pahlsson, Travis Moen and Robbie Niedermayer. He changed on the fly (to get them out against their opponent’s best forwards) and they played a very disciplined game. I’ve been watching them the last month and a half. The goalie [Hiller] wasn’t what he was, but their defense corps is horrible. And Perry, Getzlaf, and Ryan, they weren’t good in their own end. I know he didn’t have a checking line anymore because all those guys are gone. You know when you get star players, you can’t ever get them thinking that you want them to fail. You got to make them believe you’re always in their corner, you’re always trying to insulate them. I don’t know what he was doing.” He says Carolina is simply not talented enough (thus the firing of Paul Maurice) and relates the success of Ken Hitchcock in St. Louis to their imitation of Detroit’s style of play.
eyeonthesens 