The Ottawa Senators will be looking for their fourth straight victory tonight when they host the defending champs at Scotiabank Place. The Senators are coming off victories over the Leafs, Islanders and Thrashers but face their toughest test of the season tonight in the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ryan Shannon will return to the line up tonight. Kuba and Winchester are still on the shelf and are now joined by Peter Regin. Here is a look at the forward combinations.
Kovalev-Fisher-Alfredsson
Michalek-Spezza-Cheechoo
Foligo-Shannon-Neil
Ruutu-Kelly-Donovan
Pascal Leclaire starts in goal.
I realize many of you come here for rumour updates but there hasn't been much going on in that regard as of late. With Alex Picard and Chris Kelly both playing well to start the season the Senators are a little more reluctant to make a deal than they were a few weeks ago.
There was a team that placed a call about Kelly but Murray wanted to give the veteran a chance to get his game going. He has played well on the fourth line thus far. Picard has been strong as well.
Thats all for now folks. Enjoy the game and the rest of your long weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving!
61 comments:
Cheechoo and Michalek better show their asses up tonight.
SC, is Regin a healthy scratch tonight or is there likely going to be another change from today's practice lines?
rob.
Havent heard. Regin did leave last game with some sort of upper body injury so perhaps he will be a scratch tonight.
UHM WHERES PETER REGIN?? Im sorry but we cant have a Rookie of the Year candidate as our Healthy Scratch... this guy has been one of our best players!
Anon @ 11:33 - Regin left the Thrashers game injured, I assume he's still hurt. He's one of our leading scorers, wouldn't make sense to scratch him.
Regin is out, upper body...Clouston says he should be back by Thurs:
senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/Audio/091012_Clouston.mp3
TRAIN TRAIN CHEECHOO TRAIN!! OUR TEAMS GONNA WIN THIS GAME, CHEECHOO!!!! OH YA, CHEECHOO!!
Picard sucks, he hasn't been playing strong at all.
Never understood the Picard hatred to be honest.
Hes been putting up points and has a positive plus minus. Thats all you can really ask of the guy I think.
well that's a first....WE FINALLY have a coach who is willing to put Spezza on the second line. I am a huge Spezza fan and he is absolutely a top line center, but sometimes a little kick in the ass like this is for the best.
Besides, I think it probably has something to do with the fact that he is seeing PK time this year - which shocked me the first time I saw that.
Really looking forward to seeing how these lines work out.
I'm a little surprised that Clouston is going to experiment with Spezza and Cheechoo going into a game vs a very strong opponent. Oh well though...it should be interesting.
Was at the game on Sat when Regin was injured. It's his shoulder.. if he plays on Thursday -- good at least it's not separated as I figured it was. That's a relief.
Going to the game tonight..hoping for a good performance to keep the game close. Tonight will be the test to see how good the Sens are against one of the elite teams in the league. Let's hope the Pens ate too much turkey and are slow out of the gate.
Hey Chirp,
We may come here for the rumours, but we also come here for your take on things and to hear others comments and lay down our opinions and hear what you or others think - nahh - we come here to be a part of an active Sens community.
And as an aside, even though the CBC dropped the ball on airing the Sens game - the HNIC live blog is a pretty cool feature for gametime.
So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone -enjoy the longweekend and the game and heres looking to Spezza's and Cheech's first goal of the season.
My prediction: 4-3 Sens in OT - I think we lit them up for 3 goals every game last year, so I am going to say that we continue....and hit the OT win.
Great work SensChirp!
What's the word on Regin's health? He's going to be key for us this year.
Whoops...please replace that nahh with "and" - My mistake for rewriting and not editing - SORRY!
___________________________________
We may come here for the rumours, but we also come here for your take on things and to hear others comments and lay down our opinions and hear what you or others think - nahh - we come here to be a part of an active Sens community.
And as an aside, even though the CBC dropped the ball on airing the Sens game - the HNIC live blog is a pretty cool feature for gametime.
So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone -enjoy the longweekend and the game and heres looking to Spezza's and Cheech's first goal of the season.
My prediction: 4-3 Sens in OT - I think we lit them up for 3 goals every game last year, so I am going to say that we continue....and hit the OT win.
Great work SensChirp!
Cheech is gonna have a big game tonite, he's got something to prove
11:58
Are you nuts?!? What has Spezza ever done to deserve being put on the 2nd line? Fisher can't play 2nd line centre let alone 1st. I don't care if they put Alfie and Kovie on his wings, he's not the first line. Whatever line Spezz is on is the first line.
Michalek has been playing great.. he just isn't the finisher we all thought he was. That's why he's only been consistently scoring 20-25 goals a year.
I'll take his 2-way game over heatley's 50 goals any day of the week. The guy makes everyone around him work just as hard as he is. It's incredible to watch.
Finally Cheechoo is getting a crack at the top six and hopefully shines with a playmaking centre.
Has anybody heard the latest on Forsberg? I've been searching for updates since his tryout with MODO ended successfully. If his foot is holding up I sure wouldnt mind seeing him as our 2nd line centre if the price is right.
Michalek Spezza Kovalev
Fisher Forsberg Alfredsson
Foligno Regin Cheechoo
Ruutu Kelly Neil
Maybe a pipe-dream, but if he thinks Ottawa has a shot, who knows....
I like the line combo for this game! It looks solide and has great potential for chemestry... Spezz's line should still be called the "first line" though... even though line 1, and 2 gets the same ice time.
I'm starting to change my pestimistic feelings for this season into a cautius optimisum... We won 3 straight, but I think most of those games could have gone either way. We just got a tiny bit lucky...
Looking foward to tonight's game...
Thanks SC, keep up the goo work. I'm excited about the game tonight, got a feeling Cheechoo, Spezza, and Michalek are going to have a big game. 5-3 Sens, we get the empty netter. GO SENS GO!
picard has been outplayed campoli for sure IMO.
I would bet that the last thing Murray is considering for the Sens right now is adding another forward...whether it's a big name or not.
hopefully the Sens can pull one out tonight it would cap a lame thanksgiving for me as my sister and her mega douche BF are pens bandwagoners.
Thanks SC for speaking the truth about Picard. I can't for the life of me understand the haters. My guess is they don't watch the games...
As I've posted many times before, he's got a ton of offensive upside, is fair defensively but is still young. Given a bit more time (i.e. more than 40 games) he will become a great asset at a very cheap price.
We have a 3 or 4 defensmen with similar styles and young careers. I think Picard has made a case for why he deserve the ice time before Campoli or Lee.
There will be more than one bird roasted tonight !
Go Sens
Now this is what I pictured our top two lines to look like. My prediction is 5-2 for the Sens! Go Sens Go!!
any word on Zubov?
Does anyone know wherer I can watch the game online? No cable way out in the sticks
CR ....I hope your wish comes true.
Sorry your sis's boyfriend is a deuchebag .... my little sister's bf is the same ....what's worse... he's a leaf fan ...lol
Who have we played? Toronto, NYI and Atlanta??? pfff...
All these teams are bottom 8 teams in the east.
Look, if there is a deal out there to better improve the team (on defence especially) as a GM you make that move.
Lets use tonight to see how well our D performs...big test to see if they can handle real skilled forwards that Pittsburgh have. Remember in game 1, Dubinsky+Gaborik, made our D look like Swiss cheese.
If our D holds up, I will be much more comfortable thinking BM is fine holding off on a trade.
my 2 cents
Something dawned on me today: The last time the Leafs won a regular season game, they had Martin Gerber in nets.
What's he doing these days? He should leave his cell phone on, Burke might be calling...
How long is Murray gonna stick with Cheechoo wouldn't we have been better off with Comrie?
As much as I want to see Michalek putting pucks in the back of the net, I think he has been awesome on the other end of the ice. A goal saved is just as good as a goal scored with this scoring depth we have. As for the comments on Picard, I do think Picard is a good player, but he looks like the odd dman out considering we have Kuba and Brian Lee to now fit on our roster. Say what you want about Kuba and his stats, but he is one of my least favorite Senators and I would love to see his 4 million dollar salary and his weak defense go. GO SENS GO!
I like the line combos for tonight except I'd like to see Donovan & Neil trade places. Yes, Neil has been playing well, but I just see him better suited for the 4th line pest role and Donovan better suited for the energy/speed line.
anyone have a link for tonight's game?
Before anyone makes a snide remark about me not attending the game live...i live in victoria
Sens Army West Coast Regiment
To Anon@12:31pm
Take a chill pill Mrs. Spezza. Coach C is just mixing things up a bit with different line combinations.
Don't assume that the Kovalev Fisher Alfredsson line will be the "number 1" line - your boy Jason will get plenty of ice time tonight.
I'm glad that everyone has made a case to stay in Ottawa with there on ice performance. Even Michalek and Cheechoo while pointless have looked good. Its only 4 games in, give it time. They continue to work like they have the points will come. For now BM is in a good situation, too many good forwards! Honestly if we continue to have a revolving door of injuries I wouldn't mind carrying the guys we have now all season. The only thing that would change my mind is a deal that saw a top 4 dman coming back to strenghten the D.
Gobble Gobble!
GO SENS GO!
Watch online at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tb4u22
No good bounces in the third... the michalek spezz cheechoo line is awesome... i really like it. hope they stay together... hopefully regin comes back soon he is missed.
Our D is a joke! Karlson back to Bingo! This team is lacking something, oh well i dont think we expected much of this team anyway.
sens played good but you can see they our no match for any of the better teams, if they don't have a big hit or a big fight they don't get going for some reason.
All in all, not a bad game. I can take losses like this one. If not for a few bounces, I think the Senators could have walked away tonight with the win.
Some positives:
1) Cheechoo and Michalek were both great. They looked very comfortable on a line with Spezza, as did Spezza himself. I thought they were a threat to score everytime they were on the ice.
2) The PK remains excellent, which is a huge plus.
3) With the exception of the 3rd goal, Leclaire had another solid game. I guess even good goalies will let a bit of a softie in now and then, he shrugged it right off and finished the game strong.
4) Also on the plus side of things tonight: Kovalev, Ruutu, Neil, Donovan, Spezza.
There were however a few negatives:
1) Alfredsson has to be better. He wasn't a factor through most of the game, and it looked like he just wasn't comfortable on that 5 on 3 late. That's an anomaly for him, I'm sure he'll bounce back.
2) Defensive mistakes directly caused 2 goals tonight. Karlsson is making exactly as many mistakes as I thought he would. Campoli has to be better. Picard, it doesn't even matter, since he'll be out of the lineup as soon as Kuba is healthy again.
I have to think that Campoli is probably the odd man out at the end of the season. If they think Cowen is NHL ready next year, and they've still got Lee down on the farm and Wiercioch in the system, I can't think there will be room for Campoli long term, unless he really comes out this year and makes a strong case for resigning.
Anyways, that's enough from me. I'm not devastated by that loss, there were enough good things to take away from that game. The score was rather flattering to the Penguins, and it bodes well for the level of competition that the Senators are going to bring this year. They might not win the President's Trophy, but it's going to be an entertaining ride getting through the games, that's for sure.
On the topic of Picard, he just played by far the worst game of our D-Corps tonight. I believe he was even benched in the last 6~ minutes.
It's the little things about his play that bug me - the one that stuck out the most was when he tried to hold the line on a PP in the 2nd, puck went by him, so he shot it back in giving Pitty possession & more time to kill off the clock. Cycle it back! Don't panic!!
My evaluation of the game? Score doesn't reflect the play. This was the first time I actually got to watch a sens game this year, and I have a few notes (none of which will bother talking about the three ridiculous breaks on the pitt goals because everyone else will bring those up):
1) The spezza-Michalek-Cheechoo line were dynamite and should stay together.
2) Karlsson makes WAY too many rookie mistakes despite being able to make great outlet passes and predict the play, and so should be sent down to bingo after 9 games for Lee, where he can learn to correct those mistakes without hurting the sens.
3)Kovalev is just as terrible a signing as i thought he would be. He barely skates, when he does decide to make a rush he dekes his way past two people only to turn it over anyways, and when he missed the open net with that bouncing puck, he stood there angrily looking up while the play turned back the other way! Not worth near 5 mill.
4)Leclaire had his first couple of bad moments of the season on the kennedy goal and a few errant rebounds that nearly got potted, he needs to get that under control but hopefully he's on top of things, still our best goalie ever.
Oh and a couple of points i forgot:
-Our powerplay was flat out embarassing, Clouston has to work on that.
-I really think we're missing the steady presence of Kuba on our back end. We managed to get by some weak level teams without him, but i think we'll need him for these elite level matches if we hope to come out on top.
Murray needs to blow this thing up asap! Lets get some players who care.
Overall this was a very positive game for Ott. Bad luck/bounces caused two goals against. Sens produced alot of scoring opportunities. Now we just need a bit more luck/finishing to beat even the top teams.
That said our weakness is definately at D. Am sure BM sees this and won't wait too long to fix it.
Great games for 9/41. Agree with above....keep them together...with Sezz for now but I would really like to see Fish in with those two. Man what a hard driving/scoring trio they could be.
Also mentions for 10 and 24.
I agree with most comments. A fair game played by the SENs. I'm beginning to not like Kovie - puck hog who doesn't do much. His 1st goal the other day was all work done by others - he had an open net.
Encouraged by the powerplay and the play of Volchie, Phillips, Spezza, Donovan, Carkner, Kelly, Fisher, Ruutu, Shannon, Foligno, Leclaire and Eliott. Can live with Karlsson's, rookie mistakes for another 10 games or so. Neil sometimes plays up to his contract value, but after his eye poke last nite, he wasn't a factor. I don't see long term value in either Picard, Campoli or Cheech.
And the other thing we all need to know is that the season is young and that anything can happen.
PS -- poop on Dany!
6:50
I didn't assume anything Special K. Read the thread before you run your mouth.
I was at the game last night. Spezza, Michalek and Cheechoo were flying. With a bit of luck they could have had 5 goals. Alfie had a tough game which is a rarity. The defence held Malkin and Crosby in check. A couple of fluke goals by Pittsburgh and a weak goal let in by Leclaire ( especially the save on Crosby. However he made some monster saves. It is great to have 4 lines that can cause a lot of trouble for the opposition.
Send Karlsson BACK to bingo? uuummm he's never even played in bingo.
Other than that, Picard was bad yet again. His stats don't reflect his play at all, he does the stupidest things when under pressure. It's really hard to watch because all i want to do is grab him by the collar and shake his god damn head. He reminds me of Meszaros.
Can't say that I am shocked that we lost that one...we played alright.
I am starting to think Karlsson needs to go down though, I expect him to make the mistakes, but they are becoming costly. He will be a star, but I really think keeping him up much longer is slowing down his progress.
Heatley Deal
This was what I was saying all alone losing heatley was not just loseing 50 goals, your losing a great set up man for Spezza and Alfredson, like I said from the start we should of keeped him until the end of the year, not only did we not get a draft pick we took on a 3,000,000 salary dump. that money could of been used to pick up a shooter. god i hate what BM did to this team.
BM made this team a balanced two way team. All you Heatley lovers failed to realize BM did what's best for the team, if Heatley had stayed, he'd just be a distraction in the locker room causing tension and the media would be all over it all year long. Stop blaming Murray, you guys know f**k all about running an NHL team so stop trying to act like you do.
Annon 10:57
Um, they got a draft pick (2nd round) in the deal.
And Heatley would have caused more bad than good for this team....it was a great deal considering the position BM was in.
Not only that but 7.5mil for a pure shooter and nothing else is more than i would want to spend....for that money i want me a Crosby/Ovechkin/Malkin/Datsyuk etc. I don't put Heatley up there with them boys.
Oh and give it some time,...you never know, cheechoo IS a shooter and may find his touch again. Stranger things have happened.
Anon @ 10:57 on Oct.13
Since when was Heatley a set-up man for Spezza and Alfie? he was the finisher. Also, when you use poor english like "keeped" and "could of" instead of "could've" you just sound even dumber.
@ Anon 10:57 AM,
Don't know what planet you lived on, but Heatley forced the team to trade him. Its not BM. BM wanted to keep him but the last meeting they had, he told BM firmly he wanted out. Even Alfie and Phillips couldn't convince him before training camp. Would you want this a$$ to kill morale of the team? Do some reading before you blame BM. Many stories were written about this...
Heatley wouldn't even return Alfie's calls all summer. He's the captain and you disrespect him like that? get the f**k out of town you little bitch.
Guys, don't get so upset at the anonymous leaf trolls that show up here after every crushing leaf loss to try and make themselves feel better. You know, too, because they always diss Bryan Murray, spell his name wrong, mention ME-atley, and call for a rebuild, none of which an actual sens fan would do, since we realise we have plenty of key pieces in place. Bryan Murrays strength, anyone? thats right, drafting. He's incredible at it. hopefully he'll draft a dynamite forward this year, then in two years or so Kovalev will be gone, and our second line will have that skilled center we always needed to go along with the youngest and brightest D corps in the league. remember, Spezza, michalek, Fisher,Foligno, Regin, Shannon, Karlsson, Campoli, volchenkov, leclaire...these guys are all relatively young, so Bryan Murray can easily accomplish a rebuild AS we stay competitive. Watch.
Ross, you can't assume that everyone calling for BM's head is a leaf fan, there are a ton of idiotic sens fans that think Muckler was the best GM this team ever had.
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