Ottawa beat San Jose 4-3 despite being outplayed and losing Mike Hoffman during the game (which presumably means we’ll get a steady diet of Curtis Lazar accomplishing nothing in a scoring role). Ross A provides the blow-by-blow for those who missed it.
Speaking of Ross A, he interviewed moribund Ottawa Citizen journalist Ken Warren who, not surprisingly, simply echoed management’s opinions when relevant. Inexplicably Ross did not ask Ken about analytics, although I’d be shocked if Ken was anymore open to it than Bruce Garrioch. There’s no need for fans to be alarmed by Warren’s unimpressive efforts because Ottawa is blessed with excellent coverage from fans (something that won’t really change so long as the newspapers here prefer and can afford their management-friendly coverage).
I don’t care about the NHL All-Star game and I certainly don’t watch it, but it is interesting to see the blustery, conservative NHL fold to public pressure to put John Scott back into the game after indicating repeatedly they would not. There was an enormous amount of pushback by the league and its various shills in the media against his selection; the narrative spun was that those clammering for Scott were a small number of trolls of no consequence and there was a great deal of glad-handing when Scott was banished to the AHL. Clearly that was all bluster from the league as the lumbering goon will captain the Pacific Division. Seeing the NHL actually bow to something so trivial gives me hopes that on more serious issues when the league drags its heels we could also change with enough public pressure.
[A lot roster update: Troy Rutkowski and Ben Harpur were sent down to Evansville.]
Binghamton lost it’s rematch with the Amerks 2-1 on Saturday where the identical lineup couldn’t score enough to overcome Rochester’s limited pop on the powerplay (despite badly outshooting them and limited the Amerks offensive opportunities). Here’s the play-by-play:
–Schneider with a steal and Lindberg has a great chance in front
–Allen turns it over behind the net, but the Amerk pass in front misses the target
1. PP goal (looked like it went off an Amerk, which makes it Allen‘s goal, but Stortini was given credit)
–Lindberg just misses the net with a backhand all alone in front
–Dzingel with the dangle and Robinson has a great chance between the circles
–Paul hits the post with a deflection
Second
–Penny with a good defensive play in front (deflecting away a centering pass)
2. On the PK neither Fraser nor Allen can wrangle the puck and the Amerks bang home the rebound
–Sdao throws it up the gut and is very fortunate it doesn’t wind up back in the net (O’Dell bails him out)
-Great back-to-back saves by Greenham off Amerks in front
–Robinson with a chance below the dot
–Dziurzynski takes a dumb crosschecking penalty
3. One-timer from the top of the circle beats Greenham on the PP
–Lindberg with a great pass to Puempel who can’t put it past the Amerk ‘tender
–Lepine takes a dumb holding call in the offensive zone
Third
–Lepine passes to the wrong team, but nothing comes of it
–Schneider tries to go five-hole on a one-on-one rush
–Greening with a great chance off a rebound in front
–Dzingel rushes up the gut but runs out of room
-Despite getting a late powerplay with just under 4o seconds to go, the Sens don’t get a shot on goal
This was one of Binghamton’s better games, but their habitual march to the penalty box finally caught up to them (along with an inspired performance for the Amerk’s goaltender). Scott Greenham wasn’t particularly busy, which is pretty rare for goaltenders in Senators games. The loss basically comes down to discipline, which has been a problem all season.
The IceMen haven’t played since my last post, but they did make one roster move, releasing unimpressive SPHL defenseman Nicholas Kuqali. This means the team is getting healthier and should help them going forward.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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