Ottawa 6, Pittsburgh 4; Binghamton 3, Adirondack 1

I was at tonight’s game against the Penguins which featured abysmal goaltending on both sides.  A slow and non-descript first period was followed by an eight goal bonanza in the second that ultimately chased Brent Johnson from the net.  Despite the win (Alex Auld earning his first), the Sens Nick Foligno was the victim of another knee (this time from Simon Despres) and his status has yet to be updated.  For the box score go here link.  Tonight’s goals:
1. Greening (Spezza, Cowen)
A great deflection in front
2. Pittsburgh, Sullivan
Beats Auld far side in close; a shot Auld should have had
3. Spezza (Alfredsson, Karlsson)
Fires it home from between the circles
4. Alfredsson (Spezza, Lee)
Slides the puck under Johnson from the faceoff dot
5. Pittsbugh, Niskanen (pp)
Beats Auld short side from the point; another bad goal
6. Pittsburgh, Malkin (pp)
Beats Auld exactly the same way
7. Cowen (Foligno, Karlsson)
Bounces the puck in off of Orpik
8. Konopka (Karlsson, Cowen) (pp)
A great deflection in front
9. Spezza (Alfredsson, Cowen)
Goes 5-hole on Fleury
10. Pittsburgh, Kunitz
A great deflection in front

Top-performers:
Jared Cowen – had a four-point night and was strong in his own zone
Jason Spezza – also had a four-point night, the most he’s had this season
Daniel Alfredsson – three-points and tied with the two above at +4

Players who struggled:
Alex Auld – three bad goals does not inspire confidence
David Rundblad – he was benched after a Karlsson turnover and was only out again on powerplays; it’s pretty clear that his dangling at the offensive blueline is what’s driving Paul MacLean nuts

The Binghamton Senators won in the return of Corey Locke, breaking their four-game losing streak.  Mike McKenna got the win while David Dziurzynski, Rob Klinkhammer, and Stephan Da Costa scored.  For the box score go here link and for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.

Elmira lost 5-3 to Chicago, with Brian Stewart pulled in the loss, Jack Downing having a goal and an assist, and Louie Caporusso with no points and a -3.

December 17, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Senators News: December 16th

-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.

December 16, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

Senators News: December 15th

–Nick Foligno doesn’t think Adam McQuaid intentionally kneed him nor does he think he warrants a suspension

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch looks at last night’s loss (link) and Paul MacLean put the blame on the two turnovers that lead to breakaways, “We made two fatal mistakes with turnovers by not executing with the puck and it ends up with two breakaways that were the difference in the game. That keeps happening continually and we’ve got to continue to work at having it stop.”  I understand what he’s saying, but Craig Anderson was the biggest part of the loss.

-Joy Lindsay Tweets (link) that Binghamton has signed Brandon Svendsen to a PTO; Svendsen has been playing for Kalamazoo in the ECHL (10-7-7-14), but was a full-time player in Binghamton during the 2009-10 season.  Jack Downing was returned to Elmira.

-Joy provides the lines at practice: Klinkhammer-Locke-Svendsen, Hoffman-Da Costa-Parrish/Armstrong, Dziurzynski-Cannone-Bartlett, Cowick-Hamilton-Lessard; Borowiecki-Gryba, Ratchuk-Conboy, Raymond-Schira.

-Besides Mark Stone, Sens prospects Mika Zibanejad and Fredrik Claesson will play for Sweden while Jakub Culek will play for the Czechs.  Shane Prince‘s fate for USA is still up the air.

–SenShot‘s Jared Crozier writes an interesting piece on why Canadians love the World Junior Championship so much (link).  I recommend reading the article as I agree with most of it (TSN, the timing, nationalism, and winning).  I’d add the following point: in addition to the general when of the event, it’s also mid-season in the NHL which is the least interesting point of the regular season.  The one thing the tournament is not is a best-on-best.  The last junior age tournament that features all the best players available to each nation is the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, which is the IIHF’s under-18 tourney (Canada has won 16 out of 21 tournaments overall and 14 of the last 16).  Ivan Hlinka takes place in August however, so has no chance of becoming a popular event for viewers.

December 15, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Ottawa 2, Boston 5

Tonight was an ugly loss for the Senators and Craig Anderson wears the goat horns.  The game itself had some flow until the Bruins took the lead.  The Sens were fortunate not to lose Nick Foligno to injury (he was kneed by Adam McQuaid).  For the box score go here link.  Here’s a look at the goals:
1. Boston, Peverley
Simply beats Anderson on a routine shoot
2. Alfredsson (Spezza)
Alfredsson gets lost in coverage and Spezza feeds him a great pass
3. Boston, Kelly
Carkner redirects a shot right in front of his net where it gets banged in; Rundblad looks bad on this play until you realise he was moving away from the net to go after the puck on its original trajectory
4. Boston, Bergeron
Alfredsson sends a hard pass to the last man back (Karlsson) and it bounces off his skate and Bergeron easily dekes Anderson on a mini-breakaway
5. Boston, Paille
Rundblad comes down the wall and while Winchester covers for him Phillips has no idea Paille is well behind him–he scores on the breakaway
6. Spezza (Phillips, Alfredsson)
A great shot from the top of the faceoff dot
7. Boston, Paille
Simply beats Anderson with a routine shot

Top-performers:
Jason Spezza – a goal, an assist, no turnovers and he wasn’t a minus
Daniel Alfredsson – despite the giveaway on Boston’s third goal he lead the team in scoring chances and had a goal and an assist

Players who struggled:
Craig Anderson – let in two bad goals and was hopeless on two breakaways
Nick Foligno – invisible offensively and lead the team at -3

December 14, 2011
Categories: Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Ottawa at the Thirty Game Mark

The Sens are now through thirty-one games in the season, so I’m a game late in posting my ten-game segment (for the previous segment go here link).  Ottawa went 3-4-3, earning 9 points (virtually the same clip they’ve had all season).  They are 5th in the division (from 3rd), 11th in the conference (down from 8th), and 20th in the overall standings (down from 16th).  They are 6th in goals for (down from 3rd), 29th in goals against (up from 20th), 14th in powerplay percentage (down from 3rd), 22nd on the penalty kill (up from 24th).  They are 21st in 5-on-5 goals for/against ratio (0.74), up from 26th; they remain 16th in the league in facoffs; they are 24th in shots allowed (down from 15th) and 11th in shots-for (up from 16th).

Here’s a quick snapshot of player’s stats over the last ten games, although with TOI and faceoffs I’ve simply indicated if the numbers have changed significantly (INJ=games missed due to injury, SCR=scratched):
Nick Foligno 10-4-5-9 +4 TOI 15:08
Jason Spezza 10-3-6-9 -6 TOI 19:38 FO% 55.1 (FO declining)
Daniel Alfredsson 10-2-6-8 -1 TOI 17:31
Erik Karlsson 10-1-6-7 -4 TOI 25:27
Milan Michalek 10-6-0-6 -2 TOI 19:01
Zack Smith 10-5-1-6 +2 TOI 15:12 FO% 48.6 (TOI up by 0:36; FO declining)
Erik Condra 10-3-3-6 +4 TOI 14:21 (TOI up by 0:33)
Sergei Gonchar 9-0-6-6 +1 TOI 21:54 (TOI up by 0:31) INJ 1
Colin Greening 10-2-3-5 Even TOI 16:21 (TOI down by 0:40)
Jared Cowen 10-2-3-5 -1 TOI 18:31 (TOI up 2:09)
Kaspars Daugavins 10-1-3-4 +3 TOI 14:52
Chris Phillips 10-0-4-4 +1 TOI 20:13 (TOI up by 0:43)  
Jesse Winchester 10-1-2-3 +1 TOI 10:52 FO% 53.2 (FO declining)
Brian Lee 8-0-2-2 Even TOI 14:28 (TOI down by 1:40) SCR 2
Filip Kuba 4-0-1-1 -1 TOI 22:13 (TOI down by 0:29) INJ 6
David Rundblad 8-1-0-1 -1 TOI 15:37 (TOI down 1:14) SCR 2
Zenon Konopka 9-0-1-1 -2 TOI 7:13 FO% 59.8 (FO increasing) SCR 1
Bobby Butler 10-0-1-1 +1 TOI 11:29
Chris Neil 5-0-0-0 -5 TOI 13:31 INJ 5
Nikita Filatov 3-0-0-0 Even TOI 9:49 (TOI up 0:39)  SCR 5 (sent to KHL)
Stephane Da Costa 2-0-0-0 -1 TOI 12:09 FO% 36.7 (sent to Binghamton)
Peter Regin 1-0-0-0 Even TOI 12:29 INJ 9
Matt Carkner 1-0-0-0 +1 TOI 15:40 INJ 4 (spent time on assignment in Binghamton)
Craig Anderson 3-3-1 3.36 .897 (pulled once) GAA has declined
Alex Auld 0-1-2 3.43 .875 GAA and SV have improved

A few things stand out: a great stretch for Nick Foligno and Daniel Alfredsson has returned to form.  Jason Spezza was a team worst -6, while Foligno and Erik Condra lead the way at +4.  Alex Auld has yet to win a game yet this season (including earning a loss in relief), while Craig Anderson seems unable to get his GAA down.  Jared Cowen‘s production has rocketed up, accompanied by his ice time.

December 14, 2011
Categories: Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

Senators News: December 14th

–Milan Michalek suffered a concussion last night, but the Sens don’t believe the injury will keep him out long term.  With Michalek out, Bobby Butler slides back into the lineup

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan looks at the troubles Butler has had this season (link), with Paul MacLean’s concern that he isn’t shooting the puck enough.  As Brennan points out, Butler has scored in only one game this season.  It’s great that MacLean likes his work ethic, but he wasn’t signed to be an energy player.  Butler says his problem is “I’m just not getting the puck … not shooting enough. I’ve been trying to do all the little things … if I’m not getting the puck I can’t shoot it … a little bit of everything.”  Unpacking that a little, Butler is saying he isn’t being set-up enough to get shots.

-Rob Brodie writes for the Sens website about Sergei Gonchar (link), who said “When you’re young, you want to have everything right away. During the game, you want to do things right away. Sometimes, when you’re a defenceman, you’re trying for the big hit or you’re trying to jump (up in the play) and your timing is not always good. So when you’re patient and you’re waiting for that moment to come, you’ll have that chance. But being patient when you’re young is probably the toughest thing to do.”

–Sports Illustrated‘s power rankings are out with Ottawa 24th (link), with Adrian Dater adding, “The slow fade in Canada’s capital has begun. Coach Paul MacLean’s team is 3-4-3  in its last 10. Having veteran defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba would  help turn things the other way, but each remains out a few more days with injuries. It would also help if Craig Anderson? who signed a pretty expensive four-year deal last year? could get his saves percentage over 90 percent and goals-against under 3.40.”

-As expected, Sens prospect Mark Stone made the World Junior roster

–Hockey Futures‘ named Stone their prospect of the month (link), saying in part, “During this past November, he supplanted Emerson Etem (ANA) of the Medicine Hat Tigers atop the WHL scoring derby. On two occasions this season, Stone has been named the WHL Player of the Week. Stone has scored 11 power play goals and added a pair of shorthanded markers. Five of his tallies have been game winners. The 19-year-old native of Winnipeg, Manitoba was a beast during November with 14 goals and 15 assists in 14 games. On the season, Stone has compiled 65 points in 33 games. The 6’3, 195-pounder played in one of the Subway Super Series games against Russia, skating with Wheaties teammate Michael Ferland (CGY) and Mark McNeill (CHI) of the Prince Albert Raiders to produce perhaps Team WHL’s most effective forward line. The trio earned invitations to Team Canada’s Selection Camp for the upcoming WJC, although McNeill and Ferland were among the first group of players to be released.”

-I don’t normally include rumours here, but I remember all the chatter in the 2009 draft when the Leafs took Nazem Kadri and the Sens taking Jared Cowen about who fleaced whom.  Opinions about Kadri in Toronto were very high last year, but this season he’s hit the rumour mill (link).  Cowen has been better than I expected when he was drafted and I certainly prefer having him to Kadri.

–Red Line Report‘s latest issue is out with an updated list of 2012′s top prospects (with the position changes noted; for the previous report go here link).
1. Nail Yakupov (Sarnia, OHL)
2. Filip Forsberg (Leksand, Sweden) (+1)
3. Mikhail Grigorenko (Quebec, QMJHL) (+2)
4. Ryan Murray (Everett, WHL) (-2)
5. Matt Dumba (Red Deer, WHL) (+2)
6. Zemgus Girgensons (Dubuque, USHL) (+2)
7. Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw, WHL) (-1)
8. Pontus Aberg (Djurgarden, Sweden) (+6)
9. Alex Galchenyuk (Sarnia, OHL) (-2)
10. Jacob Trouba (US NTDP, USHL) (+7)
11. Sebastian Collberg (Frolunda, Sweden)
12. Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton, WHL) (-2)
13. Henrik Samuelsson (US NTDP, USHL) (-9)
14. Olli Maatta (London, OHL) (-2)
15. Damon Severson (Kelowna, WHL)
16. Nick Ebert (Windsor, OHL) (-3)
17. Slater Koekkoek (Peterborough, OHL) (-1)
18. Gianluca Curcuruto (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL)
19. Jordan Schmaltz (Sioux City, USHL)
20. Derrick Pouliot (Portland, WHL)
21. Cody Ceci (Ottawa 67s, OHL)
22. Matt Finn (Guelph, OHL) (+60)
23. Brendan Gaunce (Belleville, OHL)
24. Andrey Vasilevski (Salavat, KHL)
25. Oscar Dansk (Brynas, SEL)
26. Radek Faksa (Kitchener, OHL) (+2)
27. Martin Frk (Halifax, QMJHL) (-5)
28. Scott Kosmachuk (Guelph, OHL) (-2)
29. Teuvo Teravainen (Jokerit, Finland) (-2)
30. Colton Sissons (Kelowna, WHL) (-1)
One player fell out of the top-30 this month: Eric Locke (#33, -3).  Here’s the movement among former top-30 players: Chandler Stephenson (#41, -4), Calle Andersson (#52, -17), Patrik Machac (#53, -2), Jarrod Maidens (#55, -2), Matia Marcantuoni (#56, -25), Troy Bourke (#59, -5), Scott Laughton (#62, -4),  Ryan Olsen (#75, -16) and Luca Ciampini (#115, -65).

-TSN’s Craig Button has a top-60 2012 prospect list posted (link)

December 14, 2011
Categories: NHL Draft, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

Ottawa 3, Buffalo 2 (OT); Binghamton 2, Wilkes-Barre 4

The Ottawa Senators enjoyed yet another third period comeback to win 3-2 in overtime, although I suspect for many fans the biggest news was the injury suffered by Milan Michalek in a collision with Erik Karlsson.  I thought Buffalo helped defeat themselves by sitting back on their lead.  In regards to the Sens,  watching tonight I have no idea why Paul MacLean would ever break up the Bingo line (Daugavins-Smith-Condra) or the Michalek-Spezza-Greening line.  For the box score go here link.  Here’s a look at the goals:
1. Michalek (Spezza, Greening)
Ryan Miller over commits to Spezza whose pass gives Michalek a wide open net
2. Buffalo, Szczechura
Foligno strips Karlsson of the puck in front of the net and falls, leaving Buffalo with a 2-on-0 on the doorstep
3. Buffalo, Ennis
Rundblad tries to pass through Derek Roy who picks it off–the puck gets to Ennis whom Greening can’t catch and he dekes Anderson
4. Regin (Lee)
A seeing-eye shot through a crowd
5. Cowen (Karlsson, Spezza)
Great pass into the slot for Cowen to bang in

Top-performers:
Jason Spezza – two assists and no turnovers is a good night
Colin Greening – he had nine shots on goal along with an assist and solid physical play
Peter Regin – he was fantastic defensively and he scored
Jared Cowen – a great night that included the game-winner

Players who struggled: despite some mistakes I don’t think anyone stood out as particularly bad.  Paul MacLean was clearly ticked off by David Rundblad‘s turnover, but his overall play was fine.  Chris Phillips lead the team in turnovers, but by his standards his play was fine.

Binghamton lost their fourth game in a row despite leading twice (both goals, one by Da Costa and the other by Hoffman, were scored 5-on-3).  Robin Lehner took the loss.  For the box score go here link and for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.

December 13, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Senators News: December 13th

-Here’s The Ottawa Sun‘s projected lineup for tonight: Colin Greening-Jason Spezza-Milan Michalek, Peter Regin-Nick Foligno-Daniel Alfredsson, Erik Condra-Zack Smith-Chris Neil, Bobby Butler-Jesse Winchester-Kaspars Daugavins; Chris Phillips-Sergei Gonchar, Jared Cowen-Erik Karlsson, David Rundblad-Brian Lee (Ian Mendes Tweets (link) to update this, saying Konopka will play and Butler is scratched).

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan reports that Bryan Murray intends to qualify Nikita Filatov to keep his rights (link), which is a prudent move (it’s worth pointing out that the Sens got Oleg Saprykin for Alexei Kaigorodov in 2007).  Pierre McGuire said this morning that he thought Filatov‘s problems were related to work ethic (link).  The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri writes that Filatov made a point of thanking Murray for how he was treated and for giving him an opportunity (link).  One thing that I hadn’t seen reported until the decision to return Filatov to Russia was made is that he supports his family financially (making playing in the AHL fiscally disastrous).  It’s interesting that his two head coaches had a different perspective on him, with Kurt Kleinendorst saying he thought Filatov worked on what he needed too (link) while Paul MacLean said the opposite (link).

-TSN, ESPN, and The Hockey News have their power rankings out (link and link and link), with Ottawa 25th, 24th, and 21st.

-Joy Lindsay reports that Patrick Wiercioch has been released from hospital (link)

-Joy updates Binghamton’s injuries (link) with only Corey Locke having a chance to be back in the lineup before Christmas.  Also out are Andre Petersson, Jim O’Brien, Josh Godfrey, and Maxime Gratchev.

December 13, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Senators News: December 12th

-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 (=)

December 12, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Senators News: December 11th

–Senators Extra‘s James Gordon writes about last night’s game (link) and includes a quote from Paul MacLean that I think is worth repeating, “We gave up three 2-on-1′s in the first period, which isn’t’ great. But that’s not always the defenceman’s fault. We didn’t have forwards in responsible positions to help them out (when they’re pinching inside the blueline). They have to help the defence, too.”  Two of those plays resulted in goals (one involving David Rundblad where Chris Neil covered for him, but got deked and Vancouver scored; the other was Jason Spezza giving up on the backcheck which allowed Ryan Kesler to score).

-There’s a lot of ink being spilt over Nick Foligno‘s hits on Cody Hodgson and Ryan Kesler, but I didn’t have a problem with either.  Chris Neil did throw a deliberate head-shot at Alex Burrows, but with no penalty on the play I’m not sure anything will come of it.

–Postmedia writes that Peter Regin credits assistant coach Luke Richardson with his surprising return last night (link), “It was mostly Luke, to be honest. They’ve been on  the road so much. At least our assistant coach is in great shape. He has been doing it all with me and skating the same as me. I have to thank him for all the hard work he has put into this.  I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while. You have a lot of time to refocus and think about all the mental stuff and I’ve had so much time that I don’t think it’s going to be a problem mentally.”

–SenShot‘s Kevin Lee wonders if Erik Karlsson is being overplayed (link).  Lee worries that he’s going to go down the road of John Paddock’s Ottawa Senators where he played Spezza, Alfredsson, and Heatley too much early in the season.  Lee thinks he’s seen a change in his game recently, “We don’t see as much of the explosive speed through the neutral zone that we had seen earlier in the year.”  It’s an interesting diagnosis I disagree with.  There are two factors effecting Karlsson‘s play (which I don’t think has changed): 1) he’s been among the leaders in scoring all season so team’s make a point of focussing on him, 2) Filip Kuba and Sergei Gonchar are out of the lineup, so the focus on him is even more acute.  As long as the two veterans are out of the lineup, or until David Rundblad‘s starts to put up points consistently, this will remain the situation.

December 11, 2011
Categories: Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

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