-Looking for his first win of the season, Alex Auld will start against the Penguins.
–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about Craig Anderson‘s problems (link), with the goaltender saying, “Obviously, I can be a little better. You hate to get scored on and you hate losing games. At the same time, you need help. You need everyone working together and everyone on the same page. If everyone does a little bit more, everyone gets rewarded. You can’t win one game, lose two and then win one. That’s inconsistent hockey. The good teams, the ones that make the playoffs, string a few wins together. They consistently play the same way regardless of the outcome.” Paul MacLean said nothing about his goaltending, instead talking about puck-movement, “To me, one of the biggest issues we have at Game 32, that’s affecting our growth, is execution with the puck. We have to move the puck quicker and get going. Our transition game from defence to offence and offence to defence is almost like it has a pause button. That slows us down and causes us to either take penalties or turn over the puck that end up to be fatal. We just need to have a more natural progression (for both areas).”
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan wonders if fighting has any impact on the outcome of games (link). It’s a difficult argument to make, since whatever the result of the game is proponents can say the fight was a key.
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Ken Warren talks about the issues Ottawa’s young blueline has (link), with the best quote comes from Jason Spezza, “We’ve played well lately, but we’ve just made too many glaring errors that have cost us and ended up in the back of the net. I made a couple of mistakes on the power play in the New Jersey game (a 5-4 shootout loss on Dec. 8) and in the (Boston) game there (were) a couple of mistakes made by guys. We’re doing a lot of good things. We just have to make sure we stick to the system the whole time. The good teams have been real patient and found a way to capitalize against us.” This is the way to look at it, because despite the recent criticism about “youthful errors” the veterans have been just as guilty, making the problem a team issue.
-Pierre LeBrun Tweets that the Sens have talked to Phoenix about Kyle Turris, but he doesn’t believe they are the front-runners (link). This isn’t really news except that it dynamites those who bought into the idea that Phoenix would refuse to trade him.
-Joy Lindsay provides Binghamton’s lines for tonight (link): Rob Klinkhammer-Corey Locke-Brandon Svendsen, Mike Hoffman-Stephane Da Costa-Mark Parrish, David Dziurzynski-Pat Cannone-Mike Bartlett, Corey Cowick-Wacey Hamilton-Francis Lessard; Mark Borowiecki-Eric Gryba, Bobby Raymond-Tim Conboy, Mike Ratchuk-Craig Schira. Lehner gets the start.
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