–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch thinks tonight’s game against Vancouver will be a litmus test for the Sens (link).  He quotes Paul MacLean, “Against the other teams in the league that are closer to us, we’ve played pretty well. This is an opportunity for us to measure ourselves against the Stanley Cup finalists from last year and see where we are. The last time we played the Stanley Cup champions it didn’t go very (well), so this is going to be another test for us. I think we’re going to be ready for it because (the Canucks are) a good team.”  Garrioch goes on to note Ottawa’s 3-3-1 record against team’s above them in the standings, which to me answers his question. Ottawa is a .500 team that runs hot and cold.  How they perform against Vancouver isn’t going to change that perception.

–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri writes about much the same thing (link), saying “What Murray likes even more is that the Senators are starting to be more  consistent. The wild swings have been levelled out, and players are paying  greater attention to what they’re supposed to be doing.”  It’s not a direct quote so I won’t pick on Murray too much, but I’m not sure I see the difference between going 1-5, 6-0 and then 0-5, 3-0.  If that isn’t a continuation of “wild swings” I don’t know what is.

-Rob Brodie, writing for the Sens website, also looks at how the team is trending (link), but uses a better quote from Paul MacLean, “If we can find consistent play with our team and our work ethic continues to grow, and our attention to detail on how we want to play continues to grow, who knows where it’s going to go? We’re not predicting we’re going to be doing anything or playing anywhere. We’re just going to go out and take it game by game and when it’s all said and done, we’re going to be where we’re going to be.”

–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Ken Warren’s article isn’t worth reading (link), but is worth correcting: he says Andre Petersson had shoulder problems last year–it’s his back Ken, his back; he thinks Jakob Silfverberg leads Brynas in scoring (he does not).  In another article Warren can’t help but snipe at Nikita Filatov (comparing him to Mark Stone), but the meaningless comparison is not worth getting into.

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Jason York writes about Nikita Filatov (link), appropriately after the story has died.  I’ve listened to York’s opinion on Filatov evolve over the past week, but he still can’t quite understand the reasoning that’s so obvious to teammates (Daniel Alfredsson) and management (Bryan Murray).  The argument itself is nothing new, but I thought I’d look at the comparisons York has made to Filatov‘s situation (York doesn’t realise that an accurate comparison would be to another highly drafted Russian on a rebuilding team–there are none below):
–Ryan Getzlaf (borrowed from Garrioch’s story two days ago, my thoughts are here link)
–Bobby Ryan (2nd overall in 2005, he played 48 games in Portland before making the defending Stanley Cup champion lineup)
–Jason Spezza (2nd overall in 2001, excluding the lockout he played 43 games in Binghamton before permanently making the 2003 Ottawa lineup that came one game short of the Cup final)
–Zdeno Chara (3-56/96, played parts of two seasons (48 and 23 games) in the AHL)
–Shea Weber (2-49/03, played 46 games in Milwaukee before joined the 05-06 Predators)
–Martin St. Louis (Undrafted; in Calgary organisation 1997-2000)
–Tim Thomas (9-217/94, unsigned by Quebec/Colorado)
–Danny Briere (1-24/96, spent the bulk of the 97-98 and 99-00 in the AHL, along with half of 00-01)
There are all sorts of problems with these comparisons, but briefly: both Ryan and Spezza were trying to make Stanley Cup rosters filled with veterans (and they still only played half the year in the minors).  Chara was not a high draft pick so there were no expectations of him bursting into the lineup (and yet he never played a full season in the minors).  Weber beat the odds in Nashville by not spending a full year in the minors.  St. Louis wasn’t drafted and along with Briere played in an era when small players didn’t play–both were added to veteran laden teams and had no option other than waiting their turn.  Finally, Thomas was a goaltender with no pedigree at all.  To summate: none of them are Russian, only half are first round picks, and none of the high draft picks were on rebuilding teams.

–SenShot‘s Jared Crozier takes a look at the Sens after 20 games (link) where he illustrates how the Sens have cut down their goals against and improved their penalty killing while their powerplay declines.  He cites Kaspars Daugavins as his biggest surprise and Jason Spezza as his biggest disappointment–I don’t agree with either.  Spezza‘s play hasn’t changed; he’s just not seeing the same results.  Daugavins continues to improve, but the only surprise is how much trust he has from the coaches (presumably in part because assistant Dave Cameron had him in the OHL).

-Binghamton assigned Maxime Gratchev and Brian Stewart back to Elmira and both participated in Elmira’s 3-1 win over Kalamazoo (Stewart earned the win, while Caporusso had an assist and Downing a goal).

November 20, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about last night’s game (link), where Paul MacLean praised his bottom-six group, “They’ve been very good on all three games on this road trip. Now, we’re getting some goals out of them and that takes an awful lot of weight off of Spezza’s line and (Daniel Alfredsson’s) line to score multiple goals. If we can continue to get that kind of contribution from our third and fourth lines it’s going to make us a way better team.”

-Garrioch picks up the Aaron Portzline story (link) that’s been buzzing around about Nikita Filatov (link). I don’t doubt that he was told the story, but I have two problems with the story: 1) why didn’t Portzline report it at the time (or at least when he was traded in the summer)?  2) I find it hard to believe that Filatov was dumb enough to say that (referring to himself in the third person and telling the coaches he wasn’t going to go for rebounds?).  If he lacked that much common sense this wouldn’t be the only story indicating it–he also would not be getting the kid-glove treatment from the Murray’s, MacLean, or Kleinendorst. In the same vein, Garrioch can’t help but quote Zenon Konopka who makes yet another irrelevant comparison (Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry (the former played 17 games and the latter 19 in 2005-06)).

-Yesterday Brian Stewart was recalled from Elmira; Louie Caporusso and Jack Downing were sent down

November 18, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

-the speculation about Nikita Filatov continues (this became public when his agent gave an interview to a Russian newspaper).  Both Bryan Murray and Daniel Alfredsson were asked about him yesterday (the former on Sportsnet the latter on The Team 1200) and were sympathetic (Bruce Garrioch has framed the situation as more hostile (link), but that framing is not connected to reality).  Murray has asked Filatov to wait a little longer, “Basically, what I told him, ‘We’re going on a road trip for two weeks. Go  down and play in Binghamton, and play hard. If we feel, at the end of our trip,  that we’d like to give an opportunity to you again, (coach) Paul (MacLean) has  said we’d be moving you up and down a few times — if you’re playing well, we  will give you an opportunity to again show your wares here. And then, by the end  of November, if you’re not in the NHL, I will sit down and talk with you  again.’ It may happen before then, one way or the other, but from what I understand,  and I believe it to be true, the KHL honours our contracts, and we honour  theirs. So the option is not Filatov’s, it’s the Ottawa Senators’” (link). In Garrioch’s article he quotes Murray saying, “Lots of young players, whether they’re named Filatov or not, get wrapped up in being an offensive player. We all recognize that guys get points. We don’t recognize the guys that hit the post in overtime with an empty net. They don’t get recognized and we know that.  So, he thinks that he has to be a point-getter, an offensive threat to be in the NHL. We’ve repeatedly told him since he has come here, and I don’t know what was said to him in Columbus and I really don’t care, all I know is we’ve asked him to be a little more grounded so that he’s a contributor.”  Paul  MacLean added, “We want him to be an NHL player. We want his skills and abilities here in Ottawa. The problem we have is when he comes here and plays, he doesn’t do the things that he does down there. If you come on the ice and actually do something, and play, the coach is probably going to give you the chance to do something again.”

–The Silver Seven‘s Darren M makes an unfortunate comparison (link) between Nikita Filatov and Kaspars Daugavins, apparently unaware that Daugavins has an “out” clause in his contract that would have allowed him to go to the KHL if he didn’t play 10 NHL games by (I believe) the end of December–hardly “toughing it out”.  Daugavins is also an older player and not a high draft pick, so their circumstances aren’t comparable.

–The Team 1200‘s Steve Lloyd is guilty of an even worse comparison (link), saying Bobby Butler and Filatov‘s situations are the same.  The 24-year old signed to a one-way contract for the next two seasons is the same as a 21-year old on the last year of his ELC?

–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan talks about the science of road trips (link)

-Joy Lindsay interviewed Tim Murray and Randy Lee (link), with Murray saying in part, “We don’t shoot the puck, at all — ever, and I think that shows, certainly on the shot clock. I just know that we don’t get many shots on goal, for the most part, and I think that was one of my complaints last year, with the good team, even.  Oh, yeah, I was expecting growing pains. I think we were probably a game over .500 or so when we were healthy … It was a huge turnover, and I thought we’d be young. My hope was that we’d just stay in the mix and be competitive, and then see what happened at the end. But when you have Corey Locke out and have a couple of guys out, especially with a young team, it’s a lot harder for young guys to step up than it is for veteran guys to step up, there’s no question. We’ll see where it goes from there. There are a couple reasons that they’re [veterans] hard to get. Sometimes it’s money, but we did put the money out for Sweatt, and for his reasons, he retired. It was just bad timing. It was August, and there wasn’t anybody that we felt that was out there that could replace that type of player. When you get that complete exodus out the door — and it was their choice, not ours; they all wanted to leave — you just can’t, in my opinion, replace that in one year. We knew that this would be a down year, I think, as far as experience goes and that.”  Randy Lee said, “I’ve seen lots of games. You can tell they’re young, and you can tell they’re struggling to score goals, but at least some of the guys are accepting the challenges. As an organization, we’re happy about that, but we also need to be competive every game. And we think some guys can definitely look at this as opportunity. If they do take on the opportunity, we’ll be in good shape. Then we also have to get through this time without Corey Locke, and Daugavins is up here, so that really hurts your lineup. Any time you have young players, you have inconsistencies. The highs are higher than they should be, and the lows are lower than they should be. Every game I’ve seen, Jimmy O’Brien‘s been one of the hardest-working guys out there every night. Of the first-year guys, I think Pat Cannone‘s played some really strong games. You see the competitiveness in guys like Wacey Hamilton and guys like that. Mike Hoffman‘s got so much skill that he’s just got to get it packaged right, and if he does that, he’s — to me — a real talented guy that could play at this (NHL) level when he figures it out. I know the pressure’s on Robin, because you have to be on top of your game every game when you’re getting outshot most games. That’s the pressure for him, so if he can handle that, that’s great.”

-Ottawa traded Binghamton Senators Shaun Heshka to Peoria for future considerations.  Heshka never fit in with the team, but his departure does put more pressure on ECHLers Josh Godfrey and Bobby Raymond

-Binghamton has recalled Maxime Gratchev and brought up Riley Armstrong (from Elmira)

November 17, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Ottawa won its second straight game on the strength of a great game from Craig Anderson.  The team had as many holes defensively as it has all year, but last night those mistakes were covered up.  For the box score go here link.  A look at the goals:
1. Alfredsson (Foligno)
Alfredsson creates the turnover and cashes in Foligno‘s pass in the slot
2. Calgary, Kostopoulos
Anderson turned the puck over and couldn’t recover
3. Butler (Gonchar, Phillips)
A great individual effort from Butler
4. Butler (Winchester, Karlsson)
A shot Kiprusoff probably should have stopped

Top-performers:
Craig Anderson – was fantastic, particularly in the first period
Bobby Butler – finally broke out and scored (with only 8:19 TOI)
Filip Kuba – lead the blueline in ice time and finished +2

There was no one who stood out because of their poor play.  It’s worth noting that Kaspars Daugavins has reached the 10 NHL games required by his contract to prevent him from going to the KHL and Dinamo Riga.

The Binghamton Senators lost their eighth game in a row and desperation has set in.  They were shutout 3-0 and with injuries piling up I have to wonder if the organisation will look to make a move to shake things up.  For the box score go here link, for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link.

November 16, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about trade speculation (link), saying “Columbus GM Scott Howson is the most active working the phones. The only Jacket not being shopped is LW Rick Nash. Pretty much everybody else is available … and the objective is to get rid of money.”  He speculates the Sens might be interested in Derrick Brassard and continue to have interest in Kyle Turris.  He says there isn’t much interest in Filip Kuba or Brian Lee.

-Both Garrioch (link) and The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri (link) write about Milan Michalek‘s hot start; there’s not much substance, with Michalek saying, “It would be great if I scored more than 30, but I’m not thinking about it. I’m just taking it day by day and trying to be better every game. Everything is going good and I just hope it keeps going like that.”

-ESPN, TSN and The Hockey News have their updated power rankings out (link and link and link), with Ottawa 23rd, 26th and 24th respectively (ESPN adds, “Goaltending and team defense are still a significant challenge for the young Sens“).

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Chris Stevenson writes about the decision not to suspend Milan Lucic for his hit on Ryan Miller (link) and points out an obvious flaw, “I’m guessing Lucic wasn’t going to say something like: “Oh, yeah, Shanny, I saw a chance to lay out that skinny ’keeper and I got him good. Oh, Shanny, you see his mask go flying? Ha, and not one of those Sabres even hit me with a pillow.'”  I have no idea what Shanahan thought he was going to accomplish asking Lucic his intentions.

-Joy Lindsay’s game story includes comments from Tim Murray and Randy Lee about Binghamton’s performance (link), “We don’t shoot the puck at all — ever. Penalties put us in trouble, and they had complete control of the period until late, when we started to play with some urgency and got a power play. It’s consistent with the way a young team plays.”  Lee adding, “You can tell they’re young, and you can tell they’re struggling to score goals. But at least some of the guys are accepting the challenges, and as an organization, we’re happy about that. But we also need to be competitive every game.”

-Joy Lindsay Tweets (link) that Francis Lessard and Andre Petersson are injured; given how short-handed they are, they’ve signed Mike Bartlett to a PTO (he is 6-2-4-6 in the ECHL)

November 15, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Chris Neil has not joined the team on their trip out west, which is no surprise given his ankle injury

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about a variety of things (link) including comments from Paul MacLean about David Rundblad, “(Rundblad’s) play with the puck has been good, his play without the puck has given us some concern. We’re back to that situation. It’s still a product of a young player learning how to play in the league, but eventually that has to go away.”

–The Silver Seven‘s Mark Parisi writes about the team’s ups and downs over the past week (link).  While I agree with a lot of what he says, he inexplicably picks Filip Kuba as having a bad week.  Kuba did not have a bad game and was a plus player in the two loses prior to the win over Toronto.  I also disagree with his minus to Erik Condra (whose play hasn’t slipped) and his plus to Kaspars Daugavins (a -3 against Buffalo; he’s the beneficiary of Condra and Zack Smith‘s play).

–Senators Extra‘s Darren Desaulniers rights about Binghamton (link), with Kurt Kleinendorst saying, “What we’ve got is a lot of young players, and when you’ve got a lot of young players it takes a while for those young players to really mature and develop and become good pros.  There’s a process to that, and that’s where we are. I think you could rattle off seven veteran players last year that were our core. This year, we really only kind of have two right now (Mark) Parrish and (Tim) Conboy, and Conboy tends to sit out a lot of games so I don’t even know if I can throw him in there right now.” And “Let’s see, (David) Dziurzynski I thought played well. (Mark) Borowiecki I think played well. You know what, after that I don’t know if I could give you a third guy. (Hamilton) bounced back and we knew they’d have a good effort, and they did. But I don’t think we’re going to win if we only have a couple of guys playing up to their potential. It’s not going to cut it.”

–The Ottawa Sun has an article on the same topic (link), which is mostly about Corey Cowick, but does include a good quote from Robin Lehner, “It seems we’re taking shortcuts and there’s no shortcuts. All in all this game was brutal … We all have to do some soul-searching here and find a way to win when we get home.”

-Prospect updates (their position in team scoring is noted in brackets, defence compared to defence; I’ve also indicated if the player’s scoring position has change (with a + for up, – for down, and = for unchanged):
CHL
Mark Stone (Brandon, WHL) 22-19-27-46 (1st=)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Gatineau, QMJHL) 16-17-13-30 (1st=) 
Shane Prince (Ottawa 67s, OHL) 15-9-15-24 (3rd=)
Matt Puempel (Peterborough, OHL) 20-13-10-23 (2nd-)
Stefan Noesen (Plymouth, OHL) 17-5-15-20 (t-3rd+)
Darren Kramer (Spokane, WHL) 15-9-6-15 (2nd=)
Jakub Culek (Rimouski, QMJHL) 20-4-9-13 (6th+)
Jordan Fransoo (Brandon, WHL) 22-0-4-4 (6th-)
SEL
Jakob Silfverberg (Brynas) 19-7-7-14 (4th=)
Fredrik Claesson (Djurgarden) 19-1-3-4 (4th=)
Marcus Sorensen (Boras) 5-1-2-3 (11th)
Mika Zibanejad (Djurgarden) 3-1-0-1 (=)
NCAA
Ryan Dzingel (CCHA-Ohio State) 11-3-6-9 (3rd=)
Bryce Aneloski (WCHA-Nebraska-Omaha) 12-1-8-9 (1st=)
Michael Sdao (ECAC-Princeton) 7-4-1-5 (t-1st=)
Max McCormick (CCHA-Ohio State) 4-1-3-4 (injured)
Chris Wideman (CCHA-Miami) 12-1-3-4 (2nd-)
Ben Blood (WCHA-North Dakota) 10-1-2-3 (t-2nd=)
Jeff Costello (CCHA-Notre Dame) 6-0-2-2 (13th)
Brad Peltz (ECAC-Yale) 1-0-0-0 (=)

November 14, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa’s projected lines for tonight: Colin Greening-Jason Spezza-Milan Michalek, Nick Foligno-Stephane Da Costa-Daniel Alfredsson, Kaspars Daugavins-Zack Smith-Erik Condra, Zenon Konopka-Jesse Winchester-Bobby Butler; Erik Karlsson-Filip Kuba, Chris Phillips-Brian Lee, Jared Cowen-Sergei Gonchar

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes about last night’s game (link), with Craig Anderson accepting some blame for the result, “What can I say, I left some garbage out front and they tapped it home.”

-Garrioch also writes about Anderson‘s performance this year in general (link), which he believes needs to improve drastically

-Rob Brodie wrote about Binghamton prior to their loss last night (link) and Kurt Kleinendorst reminds us how young the team is, “We’re a completely different team and it’s not even fair to draw comparisons (with last year). There really aren’t any comparisons to draw here. This is a really, really young group, whereas last year we had a pretty strong core. We probably had six or seven solid, older veteran guys who were great leaders.“

November 12, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

The Senators dropped their fifth game in a row with an uninspired effort against the Sabres.  I missed most of the game’s first period, but what I saw in the rest of the game was a team that was ineffective offensively and struggled with defensive coverage.  For the box score go here link.  Karlsson, Kuba, and Daugavins lead the minus brigade (each -3) with Alfredsson and Cowen the only players without.  A look at the goals:
1. Buffalo, Roy
Smith is unable to tie up Roy‘s stick after Anderson makes the initial save
2. Buffalo, Ellis
Konopka turns it over and neither Gonchar nor Winchester are able to tie-up Ellis in front of the net for the rebound
3. Gonchar (Karlsson, Spezza) (pp)
A great one-timer on the feed from Karlsson
4. Buffalo, Leopold
Spezza gives up on his check and Leopold cashes in unopposed
5. Buffalo, Adam
Phillips is unable to take away Adam‘s stick as he cashes in on a rebound
6. Buffalo, Leino
Karlsson blocks the shot which pops up and falls into the net

I didn’t think any of the Senators stood out tonight, so I’ll focus instead on players who struggled:
Zenon Konopka – was guilty of the turnover for the second goal and took a dumb penalty at the end of the second period
Jason Spezza – gave up on his check for the third goal and was murdered in the faceoff circle
Craig Anderson/Alex Auld – these guys have got to bail out their teammates once and awhile; the Sens out shot and out chanced the Sabres and lost by four

The Binghamton Senators lost their sixth game in a row and continued to struggle to score.  I did not see the game so I’m reliant on reports about it (for the box score go here link; Joy Lindsay’s game summary should be here link, but is as yet incomplete).  Petersson scored the lone goal for Binghamton, who actually out shot Rochester (Cannone and Petersson lead the way with 5 shots each).  Lehner took the loss.

The Elmira Jackals lost 5-4 to Reading tonight; Maxime Gratchev had an assist and Brian Stewart allowed no goals in 14 minutes of relief.

November 11, 2011
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment