-A quiet night on the Sens front as neither Ottawa nor Binghamton plays tonight.

–Mark Borowiecki was re-assigned to Binghamton which is no surprise with Mike Lundin healthy.  He’ll be a big boost for Binghamton and may be the ticket for Ben Blood to return to Elmira–I missed my chance to look smart as that change has now been announced.

-Here are my thoughts on last night’s 3-2 loss to Carolina.  Scott had the scoring chances at 26-20.

-Elmira faces Kalamazoo tonight; the Wings are lead by Aaron Clarke (35 points) and backstopped by Joel Martin (19-17-5 2.64 .920).

–Pierre LeBrun and Adam Proteau wonder if having a third referee would help avoid mistakes on the ice and I just don’t see it.  Officiating in the NHL has always been capricious and that will continue no matter how many refs are involved.

-I wrote about how many former Hartford Whalers were coaches (looking specifically at the 88-89 roster) last April; Tal Pinchevsky writes about the topic (but broadly for the Whalers) for NHL.com.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

February 8, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa plays Carolina (4-4-0) tonight; the Canes are lead by Eric Staal (10 points) and backstopped by Cam Ward (2-3-0 3.43 .895).  Both Sergei Gonchar and Mike Lundin are expected to play, so Patrick Wiercioch and Mark Borowiecki will sit.

–Daniel Alfredsson talked about Jakob Silfverberg‘s play:

He’s a guy that plays well in all situations, knows the defensive side and the offensive side of the game, and knows what it takes to win. He’s done that a couple of times now. I remember in Florida, same thing in the third period he goes down, blocks a shot and we get a breakaway out of it. He’s a really smart player to go along with his offensive instincts. I think he’s probably got one of the best shots in the league and if I was a kid, I’d definitely study the way he shoots the puck.

-Here’s my look at Ottawa at the 10-game mark.

-Binghamton defeated Adirondack 3-0 last night in a game I was unable to watch.  Robin Lehner made 29 saves for the shutout while Corey Cowick, Danny New, and Brett Lebda (empty-netter) provided the offense.  Here is the box score.

-Elmira defeated Reading 6-4 with Louie Caporusso picking up 3 points.  Marc Cheverie has been sent down to Elmira.

–Brandon Dubinsky was fined the maximum $10,000 dollars for boarding Rob Scuderi; given Dubinsky‘s 4.2 million dollar salary is 0.2% of this years earnings (so if you made $30,000 a year it would cost you $71.42).  I know this is the maximum fine in the CBA, but to make a real statement the NHL would have suspended him for games, not asked him to cover a movie night for a few friends.

-Michael Grange has a story about how Colton Orr‘s weight was a major problem for him keeping up with the pace of the NHL because of how it interfered with his skating.  Orr is the kind of player Randy Carlyle likes, but Grange carefully does not delve into the general value of fighting or how (if) it impacts the outcomes of games (something that has been debunked repeatedly: here, here, here, etc).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

February 7, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Here are my thoughts on last night’s game and here are Paul MacLean‘s:

I thought Peter Regin was very good tonight, Stephane Da Costa played very well for us. (Erik) Karlsson, I thought, was outstanding in the game. Mark Borowiecki had his best game to this point. Patrick Wiercioch was fine. Andre Benoit was fine. The team, as a group, really showed a good work ethic and we stuck to the structure of our team. We did a better job of getting the puck to the net and getting some opportunities and playing not as tentative offensively. We’ve got to find the right guys to put on the ice after we score a goal. The experiment is not working with what we’re doing. The shifts right after goals, for and against, are always real important and the last two (games), we get the lead and then within 20 or 30 seconds, they’ve got the game tied up, so we’ve got to do a much better job of being focussed at those times in the games. Those are big shifts that we can maintain momentum or give momentum back.

It’s interesting who MacLean singled out beyond the obvious (Karlsson and Regin): young players for the most part (Da Costa and Borowiecki barely played in last night’s game).  MacLean has a strong tendency to stroke his young players in the media (much like Luke Richardson does in Binghamton), which is all to the good.  Speaking of Regin, he had this to say:

Of course, it has been awhile. I had high expectations for myself coming into this season. It has been a long time and maybe the timing has been a little off and it took a more time than I was hoping or expecting.

–Scott had the scoring chances 14-10 for Ottawa.

-Binghamton plays Adirondack (18-22-3) tonight; the Phantoms are lead by Danny Syvret (22 points) and backstopped by Scott Munroe (9-11-0 2.65 .913).

-Elmira plays Reading (31-11-5) tonight; Reading is lead by Yannick Tifu (43 points) and backstopped by Philipp Grubauer (19-5-1 2.30 .912).

–Stu Hackel takes a look at the early surprises this season; there’s nothing Ottawa-related here, but it’s worth checking out.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

February 6, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa plays Buffalo (3-5-1) tonight; the Sabres are lead by NHL leading scorer Tomas Vanek (19 points; no one is mocking his contract this season) and backstopped by the always opinionated Ryan Miller (3-4-1 3.11 .906).

–Paul MacLean talked about the tendency of the team to over pass the puck:

I call it ‘Give it to Johnny’, because we’re always trying to pass to the other guy, because Johnny has a better shot than I have or Johnny is in a better place. I thought we were tight, I didn’t think we were loose and confident with the puck.

I think the confidence comment is the right one–there are a lot of Sens right now who are afraid to shoot.

–Nichols shares thoughts on Stephane Da Costa‘s recall and he’s exactly right that he’s in Ottawa because Peter Regin isn’t performing.  I’m with Nichols in liking Regin, but he’s a player who has clearly lost his confidence and in the absence of Jason Spezza he does have to start producing.  I’m not sure Da Costa is really ready for prime time, but he is an offensively gifted player who could help.

–Varada has a rambling piece which I think is about the rebuild, but there isn’t much meat on the bones.  I did want to comment on one thing he said:

Silfverberg and Stone both kind of came out of nowhere, projected to either be lower pairing players or not play in the NHL at all.

Admittedly Varada might mean fans had this perspective, but that’s not true within the scouting community or the organisation.  Stone is a surprise, but his stock was badly hurt in his draft year due to injury and playing on a stacked team, while Silfverberg was always projected as an NHL player (you can read Pierre Dorion‘s comments here and scouting thoughts on Stone here).

-Former NHLer Brett Ledba has signed a PTO with Binghamton; Ledba was playing with Rockford (27-0-11-11) where he sported an ugly -12 rating.  With Robin Lehner around to clean up his mistakes he looks like a useful addition to Binghamton’s depleted blueline.

–Bobby Kelly looks at the weekend that was for Binghamton and makes a good point that David Dziurzynski is missing out on an excellent opportunity to see some NHL action.  After receiving praise last season he’s struggled this year and has been unable to step up in the absence of so many of Binghamton’s top players.

-I’m starting to think virtually every draft year (excluding 2010 which was considered a stinker throughout) is going to start with praise for its depth and then see that opinion change.  The Sens have done pretty well in these circumstances under Bryan Murray, but it is food for thought.

-Here’s a very long blog about the Penguins move away from European players–Don Cherry must be proud!

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

February 5, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

-As reported by SensProspects yesterday Stephane Da Costa has been recalled by the Senators.  The lines at practice are: Zibanejad-Turris-Alfredsson, Michalek-Smith-Silfverberg, Greening-Regin-Neil, O’Brien-Da Costa-Condra.  I like Regin with physical players–maybe he’ll find his confidence there.  I don’t like Smith playing in the top six.  I wish Paul MacLean would give up putting Chris Neil, Zack Smith, and Colin Greening on the powerplay–they don’t produce enough, can’t distribute the puck, and Neil has taken penalties several times already.

-Here are my thoughts on Ottawa’s 2-1 loss to Montreal, including links to Greg Kimmerly’s wonderful history with the Sens.  Scott has the scoring chances 16-18, which seems about right.  The Raaymaker talks about the blown call (Allan Muir also makes note of it) and I agree with his summation:

in the end, Ottawa lost the game, and the waved-off goal wasn’t the only reason for that.

Can’t say I agree with his Michalek comments (echoed by Mark Parisi below) nor that Carey Price is a Sens killer–Ottawa just didn’t put enough pressure on Price, so credit the defense not the goaltending.

–Mark Parisi offers his ups and downs for the Sens week that was.  I largely agree with Mark, although not about his downward trend for Michalek (who has always been a streaky scorer) or Latendresse (who is sick).  Mark apparently agrees with Adnan that Silfverberg was previously “invisible”, a standard which apparently can’t be defined but must remain in the eye of the beholder.

–Scott Burnside offers up his power rankings and has Ottawa 10th.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

February 4, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment