-Ottawa lost 3-1 last night in a game where all the scoring came in the second period.  Craig Anderson looked human in making 31 saves, while Milan Michalek scored the only goal.  Inexplicably Paul MacLean decided to dress Matt Kassian (who played more than Erik Condra), which is a rare poor decision by him.  The choice for Andre Benoit to play instead of Patrick Wiercioch is puzzling, but I’m far less critical of that.  The Sens played a mediocre first period (which was better than their awful first period in game one), then were punished for some sloppy defensive play in the second, before finishing with a listless third.  Among the forwards the best line was Zibanejad‘s.  Here’s the boxscore.

–Amelia L recaps the game and I have a pair of quibbles with her player comments: Benoit was okay, but he didn’t do enough in his limited minutes to enough to warrant special commendations; I also didn’t have a huge problem with Michalek‘s play.

–Jared Crozier has decided Sergei Gonchar is to blame for the Sens woes on the powerplay.  There’s no analysis offered other than since Karlsson is hurt the onus is on Gonchar.  It comes across as pretty simplistic and I don’t agree with it.

–Binghamton call-ups for black ace duties have been announced: Nathan Lawson, Mark Borowiecki, Cody Ceci, Stephane Da Costa, David Dziurzynski, Derek Grant, Stefan Noesen, Shane Prince, and Matt Puempel.  Absent from this list is Mark Stone, but he assuredly is included.  There are no real surprises here.

–Matt Weinstein wraps up Binghamton’s season and offers the following:

Every player that spoke to the media gave credit to their first-year coach, Luke Richardson, for keeping them together through roster upheaval and injuries.

Corey Cowick added:

Luke is everything. He is the reason why I’m probably going to get another contract with the Ottawa Senators. I can’t thank him enough for the opportunities he’s given me. He’s not far removed from playing and he can probably beat half these guys in fitness testing.

-I don’t think I mentioned Don Cherry’s ignorant comments about female sports journalists previously, but here’s a response to it from Monika Moravan.

-I have to give credit to the New York Islanders for refusing to roll over against the Penguins.  I don’t know how many more games they can win, but I was happy to see them battle back in game two.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

May 4, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa gave up a one-goal lead, but came from behind in the third period to beat Montreal 4-2.  The win, which included 48 saves from Craig Anderson, was overshadowed by a massive hit by Eric Gryba on Lars Eller that knocked the Danish center out.  I’ll get into that momentarily.  Erik Karlsson, Jakob Silfverberg, Marc Methot, and Guillaume Latendresse scored the goals for the Sens, who were out played for two periods before taking over in the third.  Here’s the boxscore.

-My thoughts on the Gryba hit are that it was clean, but had a terrible result (which seems the general consensus; here’s Kerry Fraser‘s take as an example).  Gryba isn’t a dirty player, he’s not even a consistently physical one.  The entire play went as badly as it could for Eller, who was hung out to dry by his teammate Diaz.  As for discipline, the NHL has no measure of consistency whatsoever in how it handles things, but injuries are punished much more commonly than anything else, so the two game suspension is no surprise.  I suspect Sens fans would be in an uproar if a clean Prust hit had the same result–it’s hard not to be outraged when your player gets hurt.  For me, I’m not that concerned with the discipline is, as the main focus should be Eller and his health.

-With Gryba out, Patrick Wiercioch will play tonight.

-A lot of the nonsense coming from the Montreal organisation today is, I think, meant to be a distraction from Carey Price‘s rough night and the Habs injury woes (besides Eller both Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta will miss tonight’s game.  Hopefully the Sens ignore the comments and focus on playing their game.

–The Raaymaker offers his view of the game and says that P. K. Subban outplayed Erik Karlsson:

I thought that on the whole, with all aspects of the game taken into consideration, P.K. outplayed EK65 in Game One. You can’t argue with results, and Karlsson had two points for a reason, and he definitely created much more offensively than Subban (especially considering Subban‘s 8:36 PP TOI), but Karlsson was highly questionable in the defensive zone. I’ll attribute that to the fact that it’s his fourth game back from a severe tendon injury, and his D-zone unreliability was mitigated by ample forward support, but it is what it is.

Raaymaker’s argument really boils down to Subban being better defensively, and Karlsson did make some uncharacteristic turnovers in his own zone and still seems to be a half-step slower than he was pre-injury.  That being said, I don’t think the distinction between the two is that clear cut.

–Worsteverything also offers a recap and among the many things he says mentions the Sens powerplay being awful.  I think one of the two was terrible, but the other created chances.

–Scott looks at the Sens scoring chances for the last quarter of the season and looks at the trends and all the Corsi and Fenwick goodness hardcore fans love.

-Binghamton’s season came to an end with a 3-2 loss to Wilkes-Barre.  Nathan Lawson made 25 saves in the loss, while Matt Puempel and Mark Borowiecki scored the goals.  Pat Cannone‘s terrible season ended appropriately, as he took the penalty that lead to the Penguins winning goal.  Here’s the boxscore.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

May 3, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-The Sens open up their playoff series with Montreal tonight, following lacklustre openers elsewhere in the NHL.  One note of interest is the officiating: Dan O’Rourke will be calling tonight’s game.  O’Rourke (for those who’ve forgotten) is infamous for claiming that Karlsson embellishes to draw penalties.  However upset fans are by his selection, I can assure you that whoever was calling the game there were going to be frustrations, so O’Rourke is simply the name making the mistakes tonight.

-Jason York (on The Team 1200) made an interesting point on the debate about dressing Eric Gryba and Patrick Wiercioch: the former is likely getting the nod in order to allow Chris Phillips to play the left side on the third pairing.  At least for tonight’s game, however, the point is moot as Phillips will play with Gonchar and Gryba with Cowen.

–Worsteverything offers his extended preview of the series.

–Stephan Cooper tries to break down the Sens forward lines by how they perform 5-on-5, but unfortunately it’s a bit lacking in places (Silfverberg-Zibanejad-Latendresse have rarely played together, but are assessed as if they have, while for some reason Conacher-Pageau-Condra isn’t given the same statistical breakdown that the other lines are; he also doesn’t look at who is trending in which direction).  That being said, his conclusion that the Sens will struggle to score is the same one we’ve all come too.

–Jonathan Bernier looks at the Sens and Habs grit and toughness.

–Nichols expresses his hopes for Eugene Melnyk now that he’s on Twitter.

-Binghamton must win tonight to keep their playoff hopes alive.  If Stefan Noesen is inserted into the lineup, someone like Wacey Hamilton will be scratched.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

May 2, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Travis Yost takes a look at the stats for the Sens and Habs in April and concludes both teams are in good shape heading into their series.

–Adnan expands on my look at Ottawa and Montreal’s games in the regular season.  Adnan concludes that, like most NHL coaches, Paul MacLean is more concerned with matching defence pairings against lines rather than forward groups.  He finds that Michel Therien doesn’t focus as much on the match-ups.  He suggests:

Based on games from earlier in the season, I would guess that MacLean will try to get Marc Methot and Erik Karlsson to shadow the Tomas Plekanec line and Sergei Gonchar/Jared Cowen against the Alex Galchenyuk line. Chris Phillips along with either Patrick Wiercioch or Eric Gryba will likely play against David Deshernais.

–Nichols breaks down Bryan Murray’s interview on The Team.

–Chris Lund addresses five burning questions about the Sens.

–Larry Brooks makes the bold prediction that the Sens will go all the way to the Cup final, with these thoughts on the Habs series:

Ottawa not only owns the skill and speed to match up with Montreal’s brigade, but has the toughness as evidenced in last year’s knock-down, drag-out, seven-game first round loss to the Rangers. Brandon Prust vs. Chris Neil; when first and how often? Carey Price has nothing on Craig Anderson. Should be a terrific series.

–Stan Fischler thinks the Sens will walk over Montreal:

I see the #Senators crushing #Montreal in a possible sweep

–Jared Crozier offers eleven thoughts on the Sens-Habs series because offering twelve would just be silly.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

May 1, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Varada compares Ottawa to Montreal and concludes:

It’s obviously going to be a close series, with perhaps a small edge given to the Habs when you consider that the gap between their ability to score and ability to defend is not quite as large as the gap between Ottawa’s ability to defend and ability to score. Add home ice advantage, and the Habs probably should take the series in six or seven… …on the other hand, Ottawa isn’t even supposed to be here. They’ve spent most of the season dealing with ridiculous injuries, and even crafted a team identity around it (#peskysens). Their goaltenders have a tendency to get hot and stay hot. Their defensive stats are legit, but their offensive stats reflect, in part, a season without their Norris Trophy winner–and he’s back now. Looking only at the stats, this might not be the same Ottawa team Montreal faced.

–Nichols offers a brief snapshot of the Sens-Habs match-up.

–Tim Wharnsby predicts the Sens will win in seven.

-Apparently Glen Healy felt inspired to inflame Sens fans as according to Senschirp he said:

Cute season for Ottawa. Lovely story lines. But this won’t be a series.

And:

[Erik Karlsson is] a one trick pony.

Healy isn’t an idiot so clearly he wants to put the fan base on tilt.  It’s the kind of thing that’s given Don Cherry and Mike Milbury their careers, so there’s some method to the madness, but fans shouldn’t allow themselves to be baited.  It’s one thing to get angry or exasperated by actual sports journalists, but that’s not what Healy is so he should just be ignored.

–Allen Panzeri writes about Paul MacLean’s success this year.

–Bobby Kelly takes a look at Binghamton’s first two playoff games without including comments about the officiating (something B-Sens fans have complained about); he gives Chris Wideman particular praise.

-Speaking of Binghamton, Stefan Noesen is on his way to join the team (no official transfer notice, just Noesen Tweeting out the fact).

–Hockey’s Future offers their organisational rankings for prospects and slots Ottawa in second, saying:

Strengths: The Ottawa Senators prospect pool is loaded with forward depth. They have players at all three forward positions with the potential to be top-six scoring forwards. Most of the Senators forward prospects feature a strong two-way game, as well. Mika Zibanejad and Jakob Silfverberg are fitting in nicely at the NHL level and are being counted on to provide offense and play responsibly in their own end. The Senators have also benefited from the strong play of netminder Robin Lehner and defenseman Patrick Wiercioch. In general, the organization has done an excellent job of making sure they have good depth at forward and defense.
Weaknesses: Although Lehner is one of the top goaltending prospects in the world, after him the Senators lack depth in net. They could use another top offensive center as well now that they are close to losing Zibanejad to graduation.
Top 5 Prospects: 1. Mika Zibanejad, C; 2. Jakob Silfverberg, LW/RW; 3. Robin Lehner, G; 4. Cory Conacher, LW; 5. Stefan Noesen, RW.

The top-five is virtually identical to the one composed before the season began (Conacher has simply been inserted).  One can debate whether Chris Driedger and Francois Brassard comprise adequate goaltending depth or not (Andrew Hammond is not considered, perhaps because of his age or because HF hasn’t had someone covering the Sens for months), but their prospect list reminds me of an irritation I have with their guidelines: four of the five “top” players are regular NHL players, so counting them as prospects seems pointless to me.  I understand they will disappear from the list next season as they hit the required games played, but I wish HF would apply a little common sense in order to create more meaningful lists of prospects.

–NHL.com‘s Adam Kimelman, Mike G. Morreale, and Steven Hoffner offer their mock drafts and have Ottawa selecting: Ryan Hartman, Zach Nastasiuk, and Max Domi.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

April 30, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Ottawa has finished the season and it’s time to take stock and see how the team has performed over their final eight game.  The Sens went 5-3-0 (here’s the previous ten games) which means they finish 6th in the conference and 4th in their division.  The team’s 116 goals is thirteenth in the conference while their 104 goals against is first (and second in the league, behind only Chicago).  Ottawa’s powerplay fell to 20th overall (15.9%); and their penalty killing finished first overall (88.0%).  The Sens dropped to the 10th most penalized team in the league; they also dropped to the 15th best team in terms of 5-on-5 goals for/against ratio (1.03).

Player’s stats (INJ=games missed due to injury, SCR= scratched, SUS=suspended, AHL=games in the AHL):

Kyle Turris 8-4-1-5 +4
Sergei Gonchar 8-1-4-5 +3
Erik Karlsson 3-0-4-4 +2 INJ 5
Milan Michalek 8-2-2-4 +3
Cory Conacher 8-1-3-4 +4
Daniel Alfredsson 8-0-4-4 +3
Jean-Gabriel Pageau 8-2-1-3 +2
Colin Greening 8-0-3-3 -1
Chris Phillips 8-0-3-3 -2
Patrick Wiercioch 6-1-1-2 +4 SCR 2
Jakob Silfverberg 8-2-0-2 +2
Erik Condra 8-1-1-2 +1
Guillaume Latendresse 6-0-1-1 -2 SCR 2
Jared Cowen 7-1-0-1 +1 INJ 1
Mika Zibanejad 8-1-0-1 Even
Marc Methot 8-0-1-1 Even
Chris Neil 8-1-0-1 -4
Zack Smith 8-0-0-0 -3
Eric Gryba 7-0-0-0 -3 SCR 1
Matt Kassian 2-0-0-0 Even SCR 6
Andre Benoit 1-0-0-0 +1 SCR 7
Jim O’Brien (scratched)
Peter Regin (scratched)
Mike Lundin (scratched)
Jason Spezza (injured)

Craig Anderson 4-3-0 1.69 .941
Robin Lehner 1-0-0 2.20 .936

Various thoughts: while Turris lead the team in points over this stretch the real offensive catalyst was Karlsson.  It was a rough stretch of games for Smith (-3), Gryba (-3), and Neil (a team worst -4), while Turris and Wiercioch lead things on the plus side of things (+4).  Zibanejad‘s offence production slipped, while Conacher‘s remained steady despite reduced ice time.  I thought Anderson started too much and his play hasn’t fully rounded into form, while Lehner ended his season on a strong note.  Life can’t be any worse for after thoughts O’Brien, Regin, and Lundin, two of whom are certainly on their way out of the organisation while something is clearly up with O’Brien.  I feel badly for Benoit who has been a solid citizen all year, but is scratched in favour of virtually anybody else.  We have seen the last (presumably) of Kassian in a Sens jersey.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)-

April 29, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

-Ottawa defeated Boston 4-2 last night to clinch seventh place and face Montreal; Robin Lehner made 34 saves for the win, while Erik Condra, Jared Cowen, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Kyle Turris (empty-net) scored the goals.  The Sens are a different team when they have the lead and although they gave up a 2-0 advantage they were able to pull out the victory.  Ottawa has secured the best possible match-up given the scenarios last night so they have to be happy.  Here’s the boxscore.

–The Hockey News offers its Eastern Conference preview and gives Ottawa the edge over the Habs (seeing the team has having better goaltending, defense, special teams, and coaching).

–Pierre LeBrun goes through the Ottawa-Montreal match-up and see’s the Habs winning in a long series.

–NHL.com previews the series without making predictions, but says for the Sens to win they need Craig Anderson at pre-injury form and Erik Karlsson to be all he can be.  One other note: amusingly they include future AHLer Mike Lundin as part of Ottawa’s blueline.

–Sylvain St-Laurent thinks the Sens will win in six, believing the pressure of being the favourite will get to the Habs.

-Here’s my preview of the series.

-Habs blogger Andrew Berkshire see’s Fenwick monster Montreal dominating the Habs (even suggesting Montreal is a worse match-up for Ottawa than Boston or Pittsburgh).

-Binghamton lost 3-2 to Wilkes-Barre again last night (minus the overtime of the first game); Nathan Lawson made 21 saves in the loss, while Matt Puempel and Chris Wideman scored the goals.  The B-Sens once again played from behind and have yet to lead in the series.  I wonder if Luke Richardson will make some tweaks to his lineup before game three.  Here’s the boxscore.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

April 29, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Ottawa finished the season with a 25-17-6 record, good for seventh in the conference.  They face the Montreal Canadiens (29-14-5) as their first round opponent, who they met four times in the regular season finishing with a 2-1-1 record.  Here’s a look at each game:

January 30th 5-1 Ottawa (boxscore)
The Sens gave up the first goal of the game, but then rolled over Montreal in the only lopsided match between the teams this season.  Jason Spezza and Jared Cowen were the only key members of the roster absent from the game; Anderson got the win, while Budaj took the loss.

February 3rd 2-1 Montreal (boxscore)
Ottawa took the early lead (Jakob Silfverberg), but could not come back after the Habs went up 2-1 in the first (the now departed Erik Cole with the winner).   Spezza and Cowen were the only key members of the roster absent from the game; Anderson took the loss, while Price earned the win.

February 25th 2-1 (SO) Ottawa (boxscore)
The Sens scored first (David Dziurzynski), but the game had to be settled by the shootout.  Spezza, Cowen, Milan Michalek, and Erik Karlsson were all absent from the game; Ben Bishop got the win, while Price took the loss.

March 13th 4-3 (SO) Montreal (boxscore)
The Habs gave up 1-0 and 3-1 leads to the Sens, but won the game in the shootout.  Spezza, Cowen, Michalek, Karlsson and Craig Anderson were all absent from the game; Robin Lehner suffered the loss, while Price got the win.

A few things stick out from the summary: no lead is safe (the team scoring first is 2-2 and one of those win’s required a shootout); Anderson has only played the Habs twice; Price has a winning record against the Sens; Ottawa has yet to play Montreal with a fully healthy roster (their playoff lineup is the healthiest they’ve been against Montreal missing only Spezza).  There’s no reason not to expect the series to be close and while the normal cliche would be that it all boils down to goaltending, I think goal scoring is the key factor here.  It won’t matter how well Anderson plays if Ottawa can’t score.  On the Montreal side of things there’s a lot of emphasis put on the absence of hardnosed defender Alexei Emelin and clearly he’s an important cog on the blueline for the Habs.

Who will win?  I see the match-up as a toss-up, but I’ll give the edge to Ottawa as I have to think the dam has to burst on their horrific shooting percentage at some point.  Sens in seven.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

April 29, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

-Ottawa lost 2-1 to the Flyers last night in a game they dominated (out shooting Philly 44-25), but they simply could not score enough.  Craig Anderson was good, but not great in net (the trend since he returned from injury).  Kyle Turris scored the only goal.  The curious addition of Matt Kassian into the lineup was a non-factor, but I have to wonder if the team’s scoring woes will finally see Eric Gryba (who only played 11:07) scratched in favour of Patrick Wiercioch.  I was at the game and the Sens had a multitude of opportunities to score–they hit at least 3 posts beyond many other quality chances.  If they continue to play this way I think eventually the goals are going to come.  Here’s the boxscore; Scott had the scoring chances 20/12.  I can’t agree with Mark Parisi when he writes:

This was a game where you never had a strong feeling like the Sens were going to win, and that’s concerning. Passes were off all night, and players constantly had to take that extra second to corral the puck. They’re supposed to be doing everything more quickly, but for the most part, teammates aren’t giving each other a chance to execute quickly.

Mark’s feelings don’t jive with what I’ve seen, nor is there a statistical backing to match his notion of bad passing etc (something that should result in a large number of turnovers and poor puck possession numbers).

-The Sens play Boston (28-13-6) tonight; the Bruins are lead by Brad Marchand (36 points) and backstopped by Tuukka Rask (19-9-5 1.97 .930).  The game is important to both teams, as the Bruins will get second place in the conference with a win.  These are the scenarios for Ottawa: if they lose in regulation they finish eighth and play Pittsburgh; if they lose in OT or a shootout they finish seventh and face Boston; if they win they finish seventh and face Montreal.  The best case scenario for the Sens is clearly the third option.

–Darren M writes an amusing post about fan-favourite Matt Kassian.

–Ken Campbell dismisses the idea of late season momentum being a factor in the playoffs:

Over the past 25 seasons, only twice has the team with the best record in the last 10 games of the season won the Stanley Cup – the New York Rangers in 1994 and the Calgary Flames in 1989. In fact, the team with the best record in the league in the last 10 games is more likely to lose in the first round of the playoffs than it is to win the Cup.  Over the past 20 years, the team with the best record in the final 10 games of the season has lost in the first round of the playoffs 11 times, including four times in the past five years. It has lost in the second round 10 times, in the conference final three times and in the Stanley Cup final twice. (Yes, that adds up to 26 teams, but there were several years where multiple teams were tied for the best record over the last 10 games.)  And while it’s not advisable to completely suck wind down the stretch, it certainly isn’t a requirement. Over the past 20 playoffs, the Stanley Cup winner has gained an average of only 12.2 of a possible 20 points in its final 10 games. In 2002, the Detroit Red Wings were a putrid 1-3-6 down the stretch, which was a worse record than that posted by all other playoff teams that season. When the Montreal Canadiens won it all in 1992-93, they posted just a 4-6-0 record in their last 10.  In fact, no Stanley Cup winner over the past 20 years has produced a record better than 7-2-1. Last season, the Los Angeles Kings were furious in the second half of the season, but were actually just 5-2-3 in their final 10. Seven teams that made the playoffs had better records than that, including the 8-1-1 Vancouver Canucks, who fell to the Kings in the first round.

It’s a counter intuitive thought, but if Campbell’s numbers are correct it’s interesting to see that momentum doesn’t actually to exist in the NHL when it comes to results at the end of the regular season.

-Binghamton lost 3-2 to Wilkes-Barre in overtime, despite rallying from an early 2-0 deficit.  Nathan Lawson made 30 saves in the loss, while Shane Prince and Mark Stone scored the goals.  Here’s the boxscore.  The B-Sens play the Penguins again this afternoon.

-Ken Campbell (link above) echoes my issue with the NHL’s Central Scouting rankings:

The major reason why I pay almost no attention to the NHL’s Central Scouting rankings is that in this day and age, they still separate their rankings among North American skaters, North American goalies, European skaters and European goalies. How does that help you figure out where players are ranked? Really, the NHL’s scouting bureau has to get with the 21st century on this one…

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

April 28, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Ottawa plays Philadelphia (22-22-3) tonight; the Flyers are lead by Claude Giroux (47 points) and backstopped by Steve Mason (6-8-1 2.68 .911).  Craig Anderson will get the start while Matt Kassian slides into the lineup, replacing Guillaume Latendresse.  The teams have split their season series thus far (1-1), but while the game means nothing to Philadelphia, a win would put Ottawa in sixth place in the conference.

–Travis Yost takes a look at the Sens lousy shooting percentage this season and offers up the following:

I think the ability of this team can kind of get lost in the fact that this club as a whole was mired in the shooting department like no other. When I say no other, I mean no other. The 2012-2013 Ottawa Senators have the worst even-strength shooting percentage of any club to reach the playoffs since at least 2007 [and almost certainly longer], converting at an abhorrent 5.94% rate. There’s some severe lack of puck luck in there, but I think a lack of individual scoring talent is probably contributory to some extent.

So, how does a team win hockey games when they can’t score goals? It would seem to me that potential common denominators here are (a) strong possession time; and (b) strong goaltending. With one or the other, you’re leaving things in doubt. The 12/13 New Jersey Devils are like a case study in this: elite possession metrics, but one that was victimized by poor shooting percentages and awful goaltending.

The Score-Adjusted Fenwick [stat] is most important of all, though. We know driving possession correlates strongly with winning long-term, and the best way to ascertain what teams are controlling the puck is by looking at even-strength shot attempt differentials. Vic Ferrari’s already shown the strength of the relationship.

It’s an interesting view and aligns well with the King’s Stanley Cup win (a low-scoring team with high possession numbers).

–Scott offers some praise for Jean-Gabriel Pageau:

He’s crushing the possession game, playing tough minutes, over 50% on faceoffs, and starts in the defensive zone more than anyone else on team.

-Binghamton opens their playoff series against Wilkes-Barre tonight (here’s my preview); Nathan Lawson is expected to start.  I haven’t seen lines posted for Binghamton, but if they remain the same as the last practice they are: Puempel–Da Costa–Stone; Schneider–Dziurzynski–Grant; Cowick–Hamilton–Robinson; Prince–Cannone–Jessiman.  The blueline was not settled, but will feature a combination of: Ceci, Borowiecki, New, Wideman, Claesson, Lebda, Eckford (my guess is that New will sit).

–Stefan Noesen‘s junior career ended last night and he’s expected to join the B-Sens for their playoff push.  If he plays I’d expect him to bump out someone like Wacey Hamilton or Buddy Robinson.

–Luke Richardson has an interesting opinion on taking penalties:

If you take a hard penalty, you hit a guy and get a roughing penalty or interference penalty, we will gladly kill those off but it’s those lazy stick penalties that you don’t want to take, the ones where you’re reaching, (or) the ones where your feet are not moving.

This approach gives players like Mark Borowiecki the green light to be physical.

–The Associated Press (AP) reports that the NHL has not suffered due to the lockout:

Teams are filling up their buildings to 97.4 percent of capacity, and television  ratings on a national level in the United States and Canada, as well as in local  markets, are up considerably.

As I mentioned during the lockout, there was never going to be a long term impact from the shortened season.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

April 27, 2013
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment