-Ottawa plays Toronto (24-15-5) tonight; the Leafs are lead by Phil Kessel (46 points) and backstopped by James Reimer (17-6-5 2.46 .922). The only lineup change for Ottawa is Matt Kassian playing instead of Guillaume Latendresse, which is one of those things you read a few times and still can’t believe.
-There’s a great deal of interest in Eugene Melnyk’s CSI activities and Scott offers us an update after he was asked about it by The Score:
Will his interest in the “case” lose steam if Karlsson gets back into the lineup in the coming weeks? Will it drag on for years and years a la Heatley grievance?
I think we can count on at least one or two more silly statements before the matter completely goes away.
–Scott had the scoring chances in the Washington game 17/10.
–Adam Proteau thinks the Sens and Islanders are the most surprising teams this season.
–Jared Crozier writes a long article disagreeing with Red Scarf Union’s (a Sens fan group) decision to have a Matt Cooke Hatefest for the next game against Pittsburgh. Crozier’s lengthy discussion of the issue focuses on Cooke‘s intentions (which seems about as sensible as Melnyk’s CSI investigation), but eventually he moves onto this:
Sure, Boo Coke [Cooke] if you want, just like Leafs fans boo Daniel Alfredsson. We all know how much we like that now don’t we? What if it had been Chris Neil finishing his check on Kris Letang and the Penguins fans started a “Chris Neil Hatefest”? Sens Army would lose its collective mind.
Does anyone lose their mind over Leaf fans booing Alfredsson? I should hope not (I’ve always found it hilarious, like Ranger fans booing Denis Potvin). Regardless, this is a more interesting argument, but frankly I think the entire debate is pointless. If fans want to boo Cooke I say more power to them, but I’m not sure what impact the effort is meant to have. I don’t imagine it will affect Cooke‘s play. For my part it’s more irritating having the home rink filled with Leafs and Habs fans, but that’s an issue that only time will solve.
-Binghamton lost 2-1 to Manchester last night, but more importantly, lost starting goaltender Nathan Lawson to injury part way through the game. Marc Cheverie took the loss, while Pat Cannone scored the only goal. Binghamton fired 38 shots on Martin Jones and should see more production if they can keep that up. Here’s the boxscore and the highlights.
-There wasn’t much news on Lawson‘s injury; Luke Richardson would only say:
Nate just pulled something in the lower body and we thought it best if it was hurting him to get him out now and get him back recuperating as quick as possible. We got quality goalies here so it was the right thing to do.
-Binghamton faces Hershey (35-30-9) tonight; the Bears are lead by Jeff Taffe (70 points) and backstopped by Philipp Grubauer (14-8-2 2.23 .921).
-The B-Sens recalled Ben Blood (his season with Elmira having come to an end). I haven’t seen the same official notice for Louie Caporusso who was also in the ECHL.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 