-TSN’s Bob McKenzie Tweets that Nikita Filatov has been assigned to the KHL (link) after being scratched for five straight games. The move is no surprise given Paul MacLean’s preference to play an unproductive Bobby Butler. Was Filatov given a fair shake? I don’t think so, but if the coach wasn’t going to play him there’s no point in the organisation keeping him around (not even for Binghamton’s sake as their season cannot be salvaged at this point). When Filatov was acquired everyone expected the Sens to struggle to score goals, but goals haven’t been the problem and I think that worked against him getting more of an opportunity. I give credit to Murray to keeping his word to Filatov (if things didn’t work out he would be allowed to return to the KHL).
–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan writes about the Sens latest losing streak (link), with Paul MacLean unwilling to see it as any different than any other time of the year, “It hasn’t been easy the first 30 games. I don’t anticipate the last 52 to be easier. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. This is a tough league. Real tough league to play in. We’re competing, and we’re going to come here again on Monday and get ourselves ready to play Tuesday in Buffalo. We’re going to come, we’re going to play hard and we’re going to give it our best shot.”
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Ken Warren believes the latest streak is just part of the expected ups and downs of the season (link), with Warren reporting, “A recent survey of more than 500 respondents revealed that 75 per cent of fans wanted Murray to stay the course and not start gambling by making trades. It’s not a scientific poll — I have no idea what the margin of error of plus or minus is — but three-quarters of anything is a sizable majority.” I can’t help but recall the CBC’s Elliotte Friedman saying on The Fan 590 that “Ottawa’s fans…they jump off the bandwagon pretty quick” (link). It’s still early, but it was a dumb thing for Friedman to say.
–The SIlver Seven‘s Mark Parisi looks at the ups and downs of the team over the past week (link) and I disagree with some of his comments. I like the idea of a weekly review however, so rather than tilt against the Silver Seven windmill here’s my own version (covering December 5th-11th, Monday to Sunday):
Team Record 1-2-1
Forwards
Daniel Alfredssson 4-2-2-4 -1 (a great week for Alfie whose game is rounding into form)
Jason Spezza 4-0-4-4 -4 (he struggled in all four games)
Nick Foligno 4-3-0-3 +2 (a strong week)
Zack Smith 4-2-1-3 +2 (offensive output continues to surprise)
Colin Greening 4-1-2-3 +1 (despite playing throughout the lineup he produced)
Milan Michalek 4-2-0-2 -4 (cooling down and struggled defensively)
Jesse Winchester 4-1-1-2 +1 (a good week for a depth player)
Erik Condra 4-1-0-1 +2
Kaspars Daugavins 4-0-1-1 Even (first line audition crashed and burned)
Bobby Butler 4-0-0-0 -1 (improved when removed from the top line)
Chris Neil 4-0-0-0 -4 (minus four!)
Zenon Konopka 3-0-0-0 -1 SCR 1
Peter Regin 1-0-0-0 Even INJ 3
Nikita Filatov DNP SCR 4
Defence
Jared Cowen 4-0-2-2 +2 (fantastic week for the rookie)
Erik Karlsson 4-0-2-2 -3 (despite the plus/minus he was solid)
Sergei Gonchar 3-0-2-2 -1 INJ 1
Chris Phillips 4-0-2-2 -1 (as usual it was up and down throughout)
Brian Lee 4-0-1-1 +1
David Rundblad 4-0-0-0 -2
Matt Carkner 1-0-0-0 +1 AHL 3
Goalies (GAA/SV% are approximate)
Craig Anderson 1-2-0 GAA 3.33 SV% .903
Alex Auld 0-0-1 GAA 3.00 SV% .871
-Joy Lindsay Tweets (link) that David Dziurzynski is back skating with the team. Today’s lines from practice: Klinkhammer-Da Costa-Parrish, Dziurzynski-Cannone-Bartlett, Hoffman-Armstrong-Downing, Cowick-Hamilton-Lessard; Borowiecki-Gryba, Ratchuk-Conboy, Raymond-Schira.
-Prospect updates (their position in team scoring is noted in brackets, defence compared to defence; I’ve also indicated if the player’s scoring position has change (with a + for up, – for down, and = for unchanged):
CHL
Mark Stone (Brandon, WHL) 33-27-38-65 (1st=)
Shane Prince (Ottawa 67s, OHL) 25-14-22-36 (3rd=)
Matt Puempel (Peterborough, OHL) 29-17-15-32 (2nd-) (suspended)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Gatineau, QMJHL) 17-18-13-31 (1st=) (injured)
Stefan Noesen (Plymouth, OHL) 27-10-21-31 (3rd=)
Jakub Culek (Rimouski, QMJHL) 30-8-15-23 (5th=)
Darren Kramer (Spokane, WHL) 27-11-7-18 (6th-)
Jordan Fransoo (Brandon, WHL) 33-2-5-7 (4th=)
SEL
Jakob Silfverberg (Brynas) 27-12-12-24 (2nd-) (injured)
Mika Zibanejad (Djurgarden) 13-3-3-6 (14th=)
Fredrik Claesson (Djurgarden) 29-1-4-5 (4th=)
Allsvenskan
Marcus Sorensen (Boras) 14-5-4-9 (6th+)
NCAA
Ryan Dzingel (CCHA-Ohio State) 17-5-10-15 (3rd-)
Ben Blood (WCHA-North Dakota) 18-2-7-9 (t-1st=)
Bryce Aneloski (WCHA-Nebraska-Omaha) 20-1-8-9 (3rd-)
Chris Wideman (CCHA-Miami) 20-1-8-9 (1st=)
Michael Sdao (ECAC-Princeton) 13-4-3-7 (t-1st+)
Jeff Costello (CCHA-Notre Dame) 15-1-6-7 (9th+)
Max McCormick (CCHA-Ohio State) 10-2-4-6 (12th-)
Brad Peltz (ECAC-Yale) 3-0-0-0 (=)
eyeonthesens 