As excited as I am that Canada has reached the finals of the WJC, it’s been a lacklustre elimination round for them as they were never going to lose to Denmark or Slovakia. At least the other side of the bracket was dynamic. That aside, another week of Sens and B-Sens action has come and gone and here’s a look at various points of interest.
Ottawa has gone 2-1-1 since my last post. Against Detroit the Sens blew two separate leads to lose 3-2 in overtime; despite falling behind 2-1 to Buffalo they rallied for a 5-2 win; they faced the same 2-1 deficit against Boston, but beat the Bruins 3-2 in overtime; then last night they blew two separate leads once again to lose 4-2 to Tampa Bay. Other than an empty net goal from Colin Greening, the goals scored came from Bobby Ryan (4), Kyle Turris (2), Mike Hoffman (2), Clarke MacArthur (2), and Mark Stone (1); Erik Karlsson picked up 4 assists.
Chris Wideman got a much-deserved call-up to Ottawa while Marc Methot is on a conditioning assignment in Binghamton; I hope Wideman gets a game to reward his efforts in the AHL.
Nichols writes about Pierre Dorian’s most recent interview and a couple of things stood out to me: the comments by Dorian on Nick Paul are pretty generic and muted (to my mind), which isn’t to say there’s reason to be disappointed with him, but as Nichols points out, he projects as a third-liner so there’s no need to jump too hard onto the hype train. Dorian also repeated what’s been a mantra since last year–the 2015 draft is very deep and very good. Nichols used comments on Hoffman to repeat what a good possession player he is.
Ary M looks at scoring chances via a new update from the folks at War on Ice. A lot of what’s revealed is as expected (Chris Phillips, David Legwand, and Chris Neil are awful), but there some interesting notes: Patrick Wiercioch is higher than anyone on the chart and Curtis Lazar shows better than expected.
The B-Sens returned both Jakub Culek and Scott Greenham to Evansville. The latter move puzzles me, as Greenham has played very well with Binghamton, but with Mannino in the picture it’s clearly a numbers game.
Speaking of the B-Sens, they also went 2-1-1 since my last post, with both wins coming from Greenham before he was sent down.
Evansville is in the midst of a five game losing streak. Troy Rutkowski‘s numbers aren’t spectacular down in the ECHL, but he still leads the team in scoring from the blueline; Jakub Culek has nothing to show since his return, while Chris Driedger has lost all five of the games in the losing streak and looked bad in three of them.
Prospect update
SHL (Sweden)
Mikael Wikstrand (DOB 1993, DL, 7-196/12, Frolunda) 28-4-7-11
Two points in his last two games
Andreas Englund (DOB 1996, DL, 2-40/14, Djurgarden) 30-1-3-4
Had no points for Sweden in the WJC (6-0-0-0)
Marcus Hogberg (DOB 1994, GL, 3-78/13, Linkoping) 6-7-0 2.51 .911
Returned from Oskarshamin in the Allsvenskan and improved his numbers while winning two of his last three games
CHL
Francis Perron (DOB 1996, C/LW, 7-190/14, QMJHL, Rouyn-Noranda) 37-18-33-51
Nine points in his last five games
Tobias Lindberg (DOB 1995, C/RW, 4-102/13, OHL, Oshawa) 36-17-29-46
Seven points in his last five games
Nick Paul (DOB 1995, LW, 4-101/13 Dallas, OHL, North Bay) 27-19-15-34
In the WJC he’s 6-2-0-2, the third fewest points among Canada’s forwards
Vincent Dunn (DOB 1995, CL, 5-138/13, QMJHL, Rimouski) 31-12-10-22
No points in his last game
Ben Harpur (DOB 1995, DL, 4-108/13, OHL, Guelph) 28-4-16-20
No points in his last four games
Miles Gendron (DOB 1996, DL, 3-70/14, BCHL, Penticton) 38-4-10-14
No points in his last two games
NCAA
Quentin Shore (DOB 1994, C/RW, 6-168/13, U Denver) 16-6-7-13
No points in his last two games
Shane Eiserman (DOB 1995, LW, 4-100/14, U New Hampshire) 14-3-3-6
One point in his last two games
Chris Leblanc (DOB 1993, RW, 6-161/13, Merrimack) 10-3-2-5
Two points in his last two games
Kelly Summers (DOB 1996, DR, 7-189/14, Clarkson) 16-2-1-3
Two points in his last game
Robbie Baillargeon (DOB 1993, CR, 5-136/12, Boston U) 8-1-1-2
No points in his last game
NCAA-III
Tim Boyle (DOB 1993, DR, 4-106/12, Endicott) 15-3-8-11
Hasn’t played since last time
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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