The Sens lost an entertaining game 5-4 shootout loss to New Jersey last night (losing despite being up 4-2). Andrew Hammond wasn’t sharp, but I’d put the loss firmly on the shoulders of Dave Cameron and the odious play of Jared Cowen and Mark Borowiecki (why are they ever on the ice in the last minute of a period?). Ross A provides a blow-by-blow breakdown while he also reminds us of how bad the two aforementioned defensemen are.
Travis Yost talked about the worst contracts in the league and one thing I wanted to pull from that is this:
Philadelphia and Toronto ignored innumerable warning signs and abysmal underlying statistics, and paid a dear price. This, of course, is not hindsight. And it’s probably not a coincidence that three of the most out-spoken critics of these signings (including Cam Charron, Tyler Dellow, and Eric Tulsky) are all now gainfully employed by NHL teams.
I bring this up in an Ottawa context because, despite having an analytics consultant, there’s no strong evidence the organisation pays any attention to it. This is exactly the reason why the Sens consistently bring in broken down, over valued veterans and overvalue terrible but physical defensemen.
I watched the BSens 3-2 loss to St. John’s on Wednesday (the second of their back-to-back with the IceCaps). The only lineup changes were O’Connor in net and Tuzzolino on the blueline (replacing the injured Ben Harpur). The game was less entertaining and eventful than Tuesday’s OT win. The BSens got down 3-0 early, as O’Connor gave up two bad goals and an unlucky one (all in the first period). Once again it was the top line (O’Dell-Lindberg-Dzingel) that brought the team back, with O’Dell cashing in after Lindberg missed a half-open net. Max McCormick made it 3-2 by banging in a loose puck, but that was it for the scoring. McCormick also took a really dumb, selfish roughing penalty in the second, but it didn’t wind up hurting the team. Binghamton had very little sustained pressure, although with the goalie pulled they had a couple of great chances. I liked the team’s resilience, but I’m still not happy with some of Richardson’s choices. Tuzzolino, incidentally, was not very good and really belongs in the ECHL. [A look at the goals:
1. O’Connor is simply beat by the shot from the point
2. O’Connor gives out a huge rebound and puts the puck in his own the net
3. A weak shot goes in off Tuzzolino
4. Just after failing to score on a double minor Lindberg misses an empty net, but a backwards between the legs pass to O’Dell right in front gets banged in
5. McCormick is left alone at the side of the net and bangs in a rebound]
I was listening to the Evansville podcast the other day and while I enjoyed it I have no idea what made them think Tyson Fawcett played well in the team’s opener–he did nothing useful. Speaking of the IceMen, P. J. Fenton (claimed on waivers) has signed with Sonderjysk in Norway so he won’t be suiting up in the ECHL any time soon.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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