-There will be no final game drama in the NHL to decide who does or doesn’t get into the playoffs–all sixteen teams were set as of last night.  Positioning jockeying remains, but there will be a large number of meaningless contests to close out the regular season.

–Daniel Alfredsson admits it has been difficult to get excited about the last two games, “We’ve really tried to stay upbeat after the four wins and clinching the playoff spot, keeping the emotion going. It’s been tough to regroup to get the game to where we want. That game was nowhere near playoff intensity or the intensity we’re going to see next week. It’s more mental than anything. We’ll regroup, try to play a good game on Saturday and then move on.”  The truth is that it’s irrelevant if the Sens finish 7th or 8th–they will be heavy underdogs regardless, although I think they match-up better against the Rangers.  Don Brennan thinks the Sens should have been sending messages in last night’s game, but I don’t see the benefit in brawling with the Bruins in a meaningless game (unless they want to go ala Pittsburgh and try to injure players).  Save the energy and gusto for the games that matter.

–Ian Mendes Tweets that Chris Neil took a nasty spill in practice and won’t join the team in New Jersey.

-I keep hearing commentators talk in hushed tones about how Erik Karlsson is going to have to be aware that he’ll be targeted in the playoffs.  The comments always imply he’ll struggle and that he has no idea what to expect.  It’s frankly ridiculous.  He’s been targeted all season long, he’s played playoff hockey (his rookie year), and for anyone who has watched him play they can see he’s very good at avoiding being hit.  It’s frankly much ado about nothing.

–Mika Zibanejad and Fredrik Claesson‘s seasons are over with Djurgarden, which means Zibanejad will be on his way to Binghamton shortly.  Marcus Sorensen‘s season with Boras is also over.

-Here are my profiles of Sens prospects Marcus Sorensen and Bryce Aneloski.

–Denis Boucher says mental toughness is a myth, “If you don’t learn to manage your thoughts and emotions and strictly focus on being mentally tough, you’re putting yourself in a perpetual state of denial. This is not at all helpful, because you’re just trying to hide the fact that you don’t know what to do with your negative thoughts and emotions. We can’t ignore the fact that stress and negative thoughts and emotions are part of being an athlete. Trying not to think about it by being mentally tough brings us back to the White Bear Syndrome. If I say to you, “don’t think about a white bear” what are you going to do? Think about a white bear. Since it is impossible to get rid of stress, negative thoughts and emotions, why not train athletes to deal with them and take control of their brain activity?“

April 6, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Ben Bishop will get the start as the Sens play a game that’s meaningless for the Bruins.  Matt Gilroy comes out of the lineup as Sergei Gonchar returns.

–Stu Hackel looks at the goaltending for playoff teams in the east, saying this about Ottawa, “One of the league’s biggest surprise teams benefitted from Craig Anderson’s strong play. He responded well to his recent adversity, when a finger injury kept him out of the lineup for nearly a month. After some shaky moments in his first two games, he’s returned to his usual form, and everyone in Ottawa is breathing a little easier, especially after his 44-save game in Winnipeg last week. The biggest downside here is that Anderson has limited playoff experience at any level, having never won more than two games or played in more than six at any level since junior hockey. Big rookie Ben Bishop, who was excellent as an injury fill-in for Anderson, has a groin problem and his fitness for the playoffs is uncertain.”

-Here’s my look at the Sens over their last ten games (link).

-As widely reported (here’s Joy Lindsay‘s report) Ben Blood has signed his ELC with Ottawa and is joining Binghamton in Norfolk.

-Binghamton got rolled by Syracuse last night, a game I was able to see most of.  Robin Lehner did not get much help from the team in front of him and despite the goal total played well (he made 37 saves).  Jack Downing scored the only goal, cleaning up Andre Petersson‘s garbage.  The team struggled in the defensive zone, with breakouts, and maintaining offensive pressure.  Here’s the box score and Joy Lindsay‘s game summary.

-Elmira lost last night and are now 0-2 in their first round series; Brian Stewart dressed as the backup.  Josh Godfrey and one of Binghamton’s forwards (probably Corey Cowick) have been sent down.

-The season isn’t quite over, but Scott Cullen goes through the rationale for his power rankings for TSN this year and how it all worked out.  I like the idea, although I think it would have made more sense to list the teams by his pre-season rankings rather than alphabetically.  Here’s how he did (the team’s current ranking is in brackets):
Boston 1st (5th)
Chicago 2nd (8th)
San Jose 3rd (12th)
Philadelphia 4th (9th)
Vancouver 5th (6th)
Washington 6th (18th)
Buffalo 7th (17th)
Detroit 8th (7th)
Pittsburgh 9th (1st)
Los Angeles 10th (13th)
New York Rangers 11th (3rd)
St. Louis 12th (2nd)
Nashville 13th (4th)
Tampa Bay 14th (26th)
Anaheim 15th (23rd)
Montreal 16th (25th)
Dallas 17th (14th)
Carolina 18th (22nd)
New Jersey 19th (11th)
Toronto 20th (29th)
Calgary 21st (21st)
New York Islanders 22nd (24th)
Columbus 23rd (30th)
Colorado 24th (19th)
Winnipeg 25th (20th)
Phoenix 26th (15th)
Minnesota 27th (28th)
Edmonton 28th (27th)
Florida 29th (16th)
Ottawa 30th (10th) (“After killing my preseason ranking by going in the tank last season, the Senators bounced back and ruined this year’s preseason ranking too. They were mediocre through Christmas, going 13-13-4 as of December 10th, but the season started to turn and, not entirely coincidentally, after they acquired Kyle Turris from Phoenix. It’s not so much that the Senators couldn’t find the 28 points in 47 games that Turris provided (though their second-line centres weren’t offering that much), it’s that Turris‘ presence allowed the Senators to balance their top two lines, keeping Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson on separate lines and both were productive. Getting bounceback seasons from 39-year-old Alfredsson and 37-year-old Sergei Gonchar certainly contributed to this season’s surprise result, as did the giant progression in the game of third-year Erik Karlsson, who went from dynamic offensive defenceman to Norris Trophy candidate (he’s still more O than D, but he does O like no one else). The Senators have also benefitted from good health and even when Craig Anderson suffered a freak finger injury at a time when it could have derailed their season, goaltenders Ben Bishop and Robin Lehner kept the Sens’ playoff hopes alive.“)

-I’m not sure explaining why Mike Milbury is behind the times is necessary, but Stu Hackel does so at length (comparing him to another dinosaur, Don Cherry).

April 5, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-The Sens loss last night means they can only face either Boston or the New York Rangers.  There’s no doubt that the team would be better off against the Rangers, but in either case they will be heavy underdogs.  As neither the Bruins, Rangers, nor the Sens have anything to play for in their final two games, no conclusions can be drawn by what happens over the next several days.  The key for Ottawa is to stay healthy.

–Daniel Alfredsson can’t understand how Chris Neil‘s goal was called off last night, “I cannot believe that wasn’t a goal. In Winnipeg (Evander Kane) scored the exact same way and he didn’t use his hand to bat it in. It should have been a good goal.”

–Sport Illustrated‘s rankings are out with Ottawa 11th.

-Here’s my profile of Sens prospect Jakub Culek.

-Elmira lost last night, with Brian Stewart taking the loss (Stewart, incidentally, was named the ECHL goaltender of the month for March).

-No one should care what Mike Milbury thinks, but his rant about Sidney Crosby is an opportunity to talk about the NHL’s marketing focus.  Crosby is a great player, arguably the best player of his era, but the idea that he should be immune to criticism (recall his elbow on Nick Foligno earlier this season) is absurd.  He’s a histrionic, chippy player (Craig Berube weighs in, although as one of the Flyers assistant coaches it’s in his interest to criticise) and even if he wasn’t no one is beyond reproach.  It does seem like criticising him is unacceptable around the league however (as Milbury‘s subsequent apology illustrates)–it reminds me of the approach to the league’s officiating–“best in the world” is the only acceptable narrative.

April 4, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Bryan Murray talked about the Sens being in the playoffs, “I think anything can happen. I think we can play with anybody. I’m not going to say that we want to start (the playoffs) tomorrow. But I think we can play with most teams. Craig Anderson in goal gives us a chance every night, and when you have that to start with, it gives a lot of confidence to the group. To be fair to the people, many of them, they didn’t know our group as well as we think we knew them. (The experts) looked at (Chris) Phillips, (Filip) Kuba, (Sergei) Gonchar, (Daniel Alfredsson) and even (Jason Spezza) to a degree and felt that they weren’t able to rebound to the level that they did (this year). The other thing people didn’t respect is that we had a group in the minors that won a championship. When you win … they grew a great deal in that two-month period. They weren’t the big scorers, but they came in and gave us role definition. They allowed us to play hard every night. I don’t know whether it was a rebuild or what it was, but we kept our core guys. It’s a great achievement for our group and important for our fan base. I believe things will only get better as we go forward.”

–Murray was on The Team 1200 and said he hopes Mika Zibanejad will play in Binghamton’s final two games after Djurgarden’s season is over on Friday.  He said it was very unlikely that Zibanejad would play for Ottawa in the playoffs.

–The Hockey News and TSN‘s power rankings are out with Ottawa 11th and 10th (“the most surprising success story for an NHL team this season“).

–Nichols has an interesting statistical breakdown of Erik Karlsson compared to the other Norris trophy candidates (he also compares him to the other Sens blueliners).  I think it’s unlikely Karlsson will win the trophy irrespective of his relative merits, but the numbers are worth checking out.

–Joy Lindsay Tweets Binghamton’s lines at practice: Schneider-Cannone-Grant, Hoffman-Da Costa-Downing, Dziurzynski-Hamilton-Petersson (Lessard), Puempel-Bartlett-Cowick; Borowiecki-Schira, Henningson-Conboy, Wiercioch-Gryba.

-Here’s my profile of Sens prospect Brad Peltz.

–Ken Campbell writes about how mis-management has hurt Canadian franchises (true), but makes the mistake of downplaying the value of the Canadian dollar in the ability of Canadian franchises competing (he brings up Winnipeg without making the connection that they wouldn’t have a franchise without the higher dollar).

-Prospect updates for those still playing (their position in team scoring is noted in brackets, defence compared to defence):
CHL
Stefan Noesen (C/RW, Plymouth, OHL) 6-7-7-14 (1st) (Plymouth defeated Guelph 4-2)
Shane Prince (C/LW, Ottawa 67s, OHL) 6-4-3-7 (t-1st) (67′s defeated Belleville 4-2)
Mark Stone (RW, Brandon, WHL) 5-2-3-5 (2nd) (Brandon defeated Calgary 4-1)
Jakub Culek (C/LW, Rimouski, QMJHL) 4-2-2-4 (t-5th) (Rimouski defeated Val-D’Or 4-0)
Darren Kramer (C/LW, Spokane, WHL) 5-2-2-4 (t-5th) (Spokane defeated Vancouver 4-2)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (RW, Chicoutimi, QMJHL) 4-0-4-4 (t-6th) (Chicoutimi defeated Acadia-Bathurst 4-2)
Jordan Fransoo (D, Victoria, WHL) 4-0-2-2 (t-1st) (Victoria was eliminated by Kamloops 0-4)
SEL
Jakob Silfverberg (C/RW, Brynas) 10-7-5-12 (1st) (Brynas lead Farjestad 3-1)
Mika Zibanejad (C/RW, Djurgarden) 8-3-2-5 (3rd) (Djurgarden is 2-2-4 in relegation with two games left to play)
Fredrik Claesson (D, Djurgarden) 8-1-1-2 (3rd) (Djurgarden is 2-2-4 in relegation with two games left to play)
Allsvenskan
Marcus Sorensen (RW, Boras) 6-2-0-2 (10th) (Boras is 5-2-1 in relegation with two games left to play)

April 3, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment