-The Sens fell 4-1 to Anaheim last night after blowing a 2-1 first period lead and losing 3-2 to San Jose the previous evening (Ducks boxscore and Mark Parisi‘s summary; Sharks boxscore and Adnan‘s summary; Travis Yost looking at both games). Other than Robin Lehner not much went well for Ottawa, as they looked sloppy in both games and minor lineup tweaks did nothing to solve the issues. Jean-Gabriel Pageau faced Paul MacLean’s wrath in the Anaheim game as he was benched after spotting a -2 in 3 minutes of ice time, but it’s Stephane Da Costa who is clearly does not belong on the roster. The Frenchman has accomplished nothing in his NHL opportunity and while it may wait until the Phoenix game he’s clearly Binghamton-bound. In general it’s worth mentioning that the Eastern Conference has an awful record against the west, so at least the Sens brethren have been equally terrible against similar opposition.
–Parisi offers his ups and downs for the Sens this past week and has Chris Neil as the biggest dud (hard to argue–dumb penalties have cost his team over and over again), although I agree with Varada that this is simply how the guy plays so is he really down or just average?
-Speaking of Neil, prior to the Anaheim game Paul MacLean said:
We can’t continue to take penalties, the undisciplined type of penalties we take. We just can’t do it, have any type of success, and again (Saturday) we took way too many penalties we didn’t have to take, and we can’t expect our goalies to kill them off, so we have to be much better. For the most part, we ended up getting away from the things that make us successful then we started taking penalties. When you start taking penalties all it does is suck the life out of your team and gives them tons of momentum. We’ve got to find different ways of not (taking penalties). It ultimately could come down to not playing.
This does not appear to apply to the assistant captain as yet.
-Going back to Varada, I don’t disagree with him that Jared Cowen has struggled, but given that the guy missed most of training camp I give him some leeway early in the season. I agree with Varada that Chris Phillips has been awful defensively, but like Neil that’s par for the course.
–Travis has been pumping Kyle Turris‘ tires (along with Clarke MacArthur) even in the last couple of games, but I think his wish to see Jason Spezza demoted to the second line is just that: a wish. Paul MacLean gives his veterans a lot of rope and that’s going to be extra long for the oft-injured captain.
-Binghamton exacted some revenge on Norfolk by beating them 4-1 on Saturday. Nathan Lawson picked up the win and the team played well in earning the victory (here’s the boxscore and the local beat report). Unlike their previous contest there were no fisticuffs as both teams stuck to playing hockey. The B-Sens next game is against Syracuse on Friday.
-Elmira played its second (and last) pre-season game, earning a 3-1 over Louie Caporusso and Dustin Gazley‘s Reading Royals. Ludwig Karlsson made his Jackal debut and finished it without making a meaningful impression.
-A little off-topic, but it’s funny to see Dallas Eakins scratch Nail Yakupov when the Oilers’ problems are between the pipes. Admittedly, the internal alternatives to Devan Dubnyk aren’t that appealing, but right now Edmonton is better off trying to out score opponents than shut the door on them.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
Leave a comment
No comments yet.
eyeonthesens 
Leave a Reply