I'm going to my first Senators game in a long time tonight. I usually catch a few games during the regular season, and one or two in the playoffs if I'm lucky... of course that wasn't the case this past season.Watching most of the Sens game last night, I was very happy with what I saw (then I went to see The Informant! Yaaaaaawwwwn, chuckle, yawn). Pascal Leclaire made some great saves, including a left-pad breakaway stop on Gionta. The young defence appeared to be doing exactly what they were designed to do: move the puck quickly on the power-play and get the puck out of the Sens' zone quickly when defending.
Also got to see Jeremy Yablonski throw down against the Habs' Eric Neilson. Unfortunately, Yablonski got pwned, he was thrown to the ice and ended up with a cut above his right eye.
Tonight, I'll be looking for the same stuff: How's the puck moving between the defenders? Is Leclaire looking solid? And I'll be keeping an eye out for Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen. As of the time of this posting, the lineups and scratches for tonight are not yet available, so I'm just guessing. I hope Alex Kovalev opts into this game so I can see some of that much-heralded talent.
Hopefully, the wifi at SBP will be available and I can post some observations on Twitter (conveniently located on the left side of your screen as well as on its own page).
It's also fan fest all day today, so head down to SBP early for some family-friendly fun.
See you at the game!
Update: Of course, the Citizen posts their Sens stories minutes after I begin this blog. Here are some lineup notes.
Workload good for Leclaire
...and a positive review of Michalek's game.
"The former San Jose Shark made his Senators debut here on Friday night wearing the No. 9 his good buddy Martin Havlat used to wear in Ottawa, but you'd never mistake one for the other.Havlat was and still is a magical player, capable of sublime moments, but he'd never excite you by killing penalties or backchecking. One of the worker bees would have to do that.
That's what Michalek looks like, but with what they call in baseball "all the tools."
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